From September to November 2023, the Swiss Polar Institute carried out a survey to gather the views of the Swiss polar and high-altitude science community on the environmental footprint of their research and on existing best practices and measures. The results indicate that the categories with the highest footprint also […]
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Notes from the field, Ferpècle and Mont Miné Glacier, Valais, Switzerland, 2022-2023 2022When I discovered the field on 12 July 2022, I was amazed by the proximity of the Mont Miné Glacier and by the beautiful alluvial zone of Ferpècle. One of our first activities was to hike to the […]
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In the summer of 2023, the Ecology research group of the University of Basel embarked on a six-week field campaign to re-survey historical vegetation data in Svalbard with the core question of how Arctic and alpine plant distributions respond to environmental change. Scientific background: Arctic and alpine plant responses to […]
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On 2 December in Sion, about 600 visitors braved the first snow to explore the complex beauty of the cryosphere and the polar regions through various engaging activities including an exhibition of circumpolar art, an interactive science area, a polar explorer treasure hunt and live conferences from Antarctica. The festival […]
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The Polar Access Fund should enable young researchers to undertake a (first) field trip to a polar region or a remote high-altitude area. The research conducted during the field trip must be inserted into an existing overarching project (e.g. to enlarge its scope or for comparisons) and be related to the issue […]
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When the airplane dipped through the white fluff of the clouds and I could see the first icebergs sparkling from the sun in the Fjord of Narsarsuaq, I knew this was going to be a great Greenland field season. The plan was to spend the next four weeks in the […]
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Where the world becomes small, your mind becomes larger. For me, this is the effect of camping for two and a half weeks, five kilometres away from the Greenland ice sheet margin. Just two decades ago, this area was buried beneath a blanket of ice; now, it’s a rugged landscape […]
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PRESS RELEASE – On 9 November 2023 in Paris, the Swiss Polar Institute (SPI) and the French Polar Institute (IPEV) formalised their collaboration in polar and high-altitude science. The MoU opens a new chapter in this long-term partnership between France and Switzerland, two neighbouring countries that share not only a […]
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From 23 to 25 October 2023, Swiss Polar Institute’s Executive Director Danièle Rod met with various actors of the Czech polar research programmes. The official visit was organised by the Embassy of Switzerland in the Czech Republic and initiated fruitful exchanges on polar and high-altitude science between the two countries. […]
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