Launched in 2024, the project promotes interdisciplinary research aimed at addressing the shared and region-specific challenges facing both polar regions.
The project's lead coordinator is the
A network of 50 partner institutes will provide access to polar research infrastructures. Over the five years, the European Union will provide 14.6 million euros on funding for the POLARIN project (Polar Research Infrastructure Network). The project will promote interdisciplinary research that addresses the scientific challenges in both polar regions.
The polar regions play a pivotal role in the Earth system and are critically important for the global climate. To understand and predict the complex processes shaping these regions, and to provide robust, data-driven knowledge, the polar research community requires access to world-class research infrastructures capable of operating in extreme and remote environments. The EU-funded POLARIN project will deliver fully funded cross-border, virtual, and remote access to 64 polar research infrastructures, while promoting interdisciplinary research that responds to the major scientific challenges of both the Arctic and Antarctic.
To achieve this, POLARIN brings together partner institutions from across Europe and beyond, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, and Chile. POLARIN is currently the largest project coordinated by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research.
The Arctic and Antarctic are not only central to regulating the global climate system but are also considered early warning systems for climate change and focal areas for expanding human activity and resource exploration. Both regions are experiencing rapid transformations, including accelerating ice loss, changing oceans, and shifting terrestrial environments. These changes have far-reaching consequences that extend well beyond the polar regions, affecting ecosystems and societies worldwide.
As a result, policymakers increasingly require science-based recommendations to guide decisions related to the future use of polar regions. However, only a limited number of research infrastructures are capable of operating in these extreme environments. Improving access to and integration of these infrastructures is essential for strengthening European research capacity. It also enhances observational and modelling capabilities needed to address the major challenges facing the polar regions and, through global linkages, the entire Earth system.
- What sets POLARIN apart is that, for the first time, we’ll be offering access to research infrastructures in the Arctic and Antarctic alike through a single project, explains Dr Nicole Biebow, the project’s coordinator at the Alfred Wegener Institute. We’ve created a network of dovetailing and interdisciplinary research infrastructures that encompasses all related research areas – from marine and terrestrial research to the atmosphere. The approach is innovative and unique. It’s the only project of its kind.
POLARIN provides international access to 64 leading polar research infrastructures, including their Arctic and Antarctic research stations, research vessels and icebreakers at both poles, observatories (on land and at sea), data infrastructures, and repositories for ice and sediment cores. On the one hand, this will be done by allotting slots within the respective infrastructures; on the other, virtual access will be granted to e.g. data infrastructures. Moreover, POLARIN will offer remote access to the infrastructures – which means, researchers will be able to request samples, datasets and other resources, which will then be gathered / prepared at the respective infrastructure without any need for the requester to be on site.
Challenge-driven calls for proposals will be used to ensure that POLARIN-financed projects address the specific challenges identified by international organisations and programmes, contribute to larger-scale European and international initiatives, and facilitate policy formulation. In addition, POLARIN will improve online services, data access, and interoperability between systems, while also ensuring that future generations receive training on using cutting-edge research infrastructures. The training will include seminars on topics like planning for field work, how to sustainably use research infrastructures and technological equipment, and gathering and handling data, as well as special safety training for the polar regions.