Founded in 2015 with the aim of supporting the research community, the Swiss Polar Institute (SPI) has now been selected as a “Research institution of national importance” for the period 2021-2024. This new status and additional funding by the Swiss Confederation will raise SPI to a new level to support […]

The Swiss Polar Institute, in collaboration with the French Polar Institute (IPEV), is circulating a questionnaire to help foster Franco-Swiss polar collaborations. We invite Swiss polar researchers to fill out this questionnaire and let us know how SPI-IPEV could support such collaborations or access by Swiss groups to French infrastructure/locations […]

The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) and the Swiss Polar Institute (SPI) have signed a Statement of Commitment to advance scientific research on and around the icy continent. The Commitment will enable and promote greater cooperation on a broad range of high altitude and extreme environments research, including Antarctic ecology, climate […]

The Swiss Polar Institute (SPI) is delighted to announce that the University of Zurich (UZH) will become a new member and funder of SPI from 1 January 2021. This development in the governance of the institute shows the increasing interest in polar and remote high-altitude research. Counting this new active […]

In view of supporting students and early-career scientists, SPI contributes to the cost related to the participation in field schools and training programmes for master’s and doctoral students. The topics or disciplines must be relevant for, or associated to, high-altitude or polar science. It is an opportunity to gain specialised […]

Within the EU Horizon 2020 programme, a new “Green Deal” call for proposals has just been issued. The latter is a €1 billion call for research and innovation projects that respond to the climate crisis and help protect Europe’s unique ecosystems and biodiversity. Topics related to polar and extreme environments […]

On 16 October, the SPI organises the Swiss Polar Day 2.0, a networking event for the Swiss polar science community. Researchers from all fields of polar studies, from humanities to glaciology, are welcome to join this event on 16 October 2020 from 15:00 to 17:00. The session will be held […]

The SPI launches its calls for proposals 2020 for two funding instruments: the SPI Exploratory Grants and the SPI Technogrants in polar and remote high-altitude regions: The SPI Exploratory Grants scheme focuses on funding logistics and field work for Swiss polar researchers as well as the launch of new ideas […]

On 8 August 2020, our Scientific Director Konrad Steffen passed away in an accident while on field work in Greenland at Swiss Camp. The SPI lost a generous leader who understood how to get the Swiss polar science community together and work towards the vision and implementation of the Swiss […]