The Summer School started on Monday 17 June, with all participants and organisers meeting at the bus station in Courmayeur (Italy) at 1 pm. Leona and I arrived early, which gave us a chance to grab some focaccia and ice cream and walk around this charming mountain town. After all […]
Read MoreArticles by: jelena.ristic
Venturing into the heart of the Greenland Ice Sheet – Marcus Gastaldello
A vast wall of ice stretching across the horizon and engulfing all the mountains that lay before it: these were my first impressions of the Greenland Ice Sheet. I was no stranger to glaciers having lived for the last few years in the Swiss Alps, but I was taken aback […]
Read MoreSPI to support Swiss participation in Antarctica InSync
Antarctica InSync (International Science & Infrastructure for Synchronous Observation) is a new major programme led by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). The programme aims to better understand, protect and sustainably manage the Southern Ocean and Antarctica in the framework of the UN Decade […]
Read MoreAccess to the Canadian research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen
Following the agreement between Université Laval (ULaval), the Institut Nordique du Québec (INQ) and the Swiss Polar Institute (SPI), researchers based in Switzerland can have access as visiting scientists to the vessel’s annual Arctic missions as part of collaborative research projects between teams from the SPI network and researchers from […]
Read MoreSPI Exploratory Grants & SPI Technogrants 2024 – Calls for proposals are open
The calls for proposals for the SPI Exploratory Grants and SPI Technogrants are now open! The SPI Exploratory Grants support Swiss-based scientists active in polar regions (including remote high-altitude regions such as the Andes and the Himalayas) by allowing them to launch new short-term ideas such as pilot projects, fund additional fieldwork, or initiate […]
Read MoreMertz Fellowship 2024 – the call is now open
The 3rd call for proposals for the Mertz Fellowship is now open. Launched in 2022, the programme aims to promote collaboration and networking between Swiss and Australian polar and high-altitude science communities, with a focus on early-career researchers. The Mertz Fellowship is dedicated to PhD students and early-career researchers (max. […]
Read MoreThe SPI reviews its grants to address sustainability in Swiss polar and high-altitude research
Starting this summer with the SPI Exploratory Grants and the SPI Technogrants, the Swiss Polar Institute has reviewed its funding instruments to assess and lower the environmental footprint of Swiss scientific research in polar and high-altitude regions. Changes include cleantech and alternative data acquisition methods. Applicants will also be encouraged […]
Read MoreJourney Through Ice and Air: Mapping Microbial Life in the Arctic Skies – Lucie Malard
In the summer of 2023, we started our project ArcticAir, characterising microbial communities of the Arctic atmosphere. David and Becky were the sampling team. They flew to Reykjavik (Iceland) and boarded the Commandant Charcot, a tourist ship from the PONANT company, for a month-long cruise through the Northwest Passage. The […]
Read MoreFieldnotes from Dome C – Matthias Jaggi
Hi everyone! I’m Matthias Jaggi, a technical staff member of the Snow Physics group of the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, and I recently spent a second austral summer at the French-Italian research station Dome C in Antarctica. I set up an experiment with the aim of better […]
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