International collaboration

To improve the conditions and impact for the Swiss science community, SPI actively participates in relevant organisations at the international level.

SPI represents Switzerland in the Forum of Arctic Research Operators (FARO) and acts as observer in the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP). SPI is a partner in the EU-PolarNet 2, a network of European polar research institutions, to foster joint collaborations and initiatives. In coordination with the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and other Swiss actors, SPI also participates in relevant international conferences and fora with a specific focus on polar research.

SPI also engages at the bilateral level with European and global counterparts in order to increase opportunities for and support collaboration by Swiss scientists. Current active examples of such bilateral collaboration notably include:

• Australia: Statement of Commitment between SPI and the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD)
• Canada: Memorandum of Understanding between SPI, Institut nordique du Québec (INQ) and Université Laval (ULaval)
• France:
  • Memorandum of Understanding between SPI and the French Polar Institute (IPEV)
  • Memorandum of Understanding between SPI and Tara Ocean Foundation
• Germany: Memorandum of Understanding between SPI and Alfred-Wegener-Institut (AWI)
• Greenland: Memorandum of Understanding between SPI and Greenland Research Council (NIS)
• Japan: Memorandum of Understanding between SPI and the National Institute of Polar Research in Japan (NIPR)
• Tajikistan: Memorandum of Understanding between SPI and the National Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan (NAST)

To provide the Swiss polar scientific community with information and access to good data management practice, SPI represents Switzerland on the Standing Committee of Antarctic Data Management (SCADM) and on the Arctic Data Committee (ADC). Furthermore, SPI engages in the wider polar and global data communities through the working group on Polar Data Discovery Enhancement Research (POLDER) as well as international conferences.

SPI provides data curation and support for data publication, encouraging open access data from SPI-led expeditions and projects. Thanks to an ongoing collaboration with EMODnet Physics, these data are easily findable by a wide audience.