wp.arcticportal.org

Category: News & Press Releases

Rowing to the Pole

Arctic adventurist Jock Wishart is trying to make history by rowing to the magnetic North Pole. A crew of six started their journey in the beginning of August and anticipates rowing around 450 miles in a race against time – their route will freeze in September.

They are on board a specifically designed boat seen on the picture. They will sail through Canadian waters to the Pole.

The CNN reports the crew will row for around 18 hours a day.

“This is probably one of the most difficult exercises ever done in the polar region since (Edmund) Hillary took tractors across Antarctica. It’s no light feat and it’s no job for the faint-hearted,” Wishart told CNN.

August 10, 2011
Major oil well in the North Sea

High quality oil reserve has been found in the North Sea. Statoil and its partners are responsible for the found, described as a “reservoir of excellent quality.”

The North Sea is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean located between Great Britain, Scandinavia, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Statoil expects the well to deliver between 200 and 400 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) from the 65 metre deep oil column. The company also expects additional upside in the licence both north and south of the discovery.

Exploration and drilling in the area has already taken place with the Aldous Major North Well being one of the favourites for high volumes of oil potential. Statoil is the major stakeholder in the area but Petro, Det norske oljeselskap and Lundin also have stakes in the area.

August 9, 2011
Polar bear attack in Svalbard

One person has deceased and four injured severely in a polar bear attack in Svalbard this morning. The incident happened at Von Postbreen, about 40 km from Longyearbyen.

The injured were brought by helicopter to the hospital in Longyearbyen. They were then moved to Tromsö in Norway before transferred back home to Britain.

A 17 year old male from Britain deceased and four others were seriously injured. They were travelling with a group of 80 with the British Schools Exploring Society, a youth development charity based in London.

The bear was shot and killed after the attack. Although polar bears are common in Svalbard, they rarely attack people. From 1971, a total of five have been killed by polar bears on the archipelago.

August 5, 2011
INTERACT Transnational Access: Call for Proposals open for Winter Season 2011/2012 and for Summer Season 2012 in Russian sites
The INTERACT program under EU FP7 has Transnational Access program that offers access to 18 research stations in Northernmost Europe and Russian Federation including:
- Free access for user groups/users to research facilities and field sites, including support for travel and logistic support
- Free access to information and data in the public domain held at the infrastructures
The call for Transnational Access proposals is open until 31^st August 2011 at 16:00 (+3GMT) at the INTERACT website http://www.eu-interact.org/

The Winter Season refers to the period Oct 2011–April 2012, with some variation depending on research station. The list of available field sites can be found from the INTERACT website.

The call also includes Summer Season 2012 (May – Sept) to field stations located in the Russian Federation. Assistance and support with visa applications and other required documents is available for the accepted user groups conducting field work in these stations.

Eligibility

The user group (= the research group that applies for access to one or more research stations) must satisfy the following three conditions:
1. the user group leader and the majority of the users must work in an institution established in a Member State or Associated State*
2. the user group leader and the majority of the users must work in a country other than the country(ies) where the legal entity(ies) operating the infrastructure is(are) established. In other words the users must come from outside the countries were the INTERACT stations are located
3. there should not be a corresponding infrastructure in the country hosting the institution employing the user group’s leader. If such an infrastructure exists, the applicant should show how the specific conditions of the requested visit cannot be met by this national infrastructure.
(*Associate states: Switzerland, Israel, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Turkey, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia, Albania and Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina and the Faeroe Islands)

Priority is given to
- Researchers who have not previously used the infrastructure
- Researchers who want to conduct research at more than one location for generating comparative studies
- Early career scientists**
**Applicants must hold a position at an institution of advanced research and/or education. Applicants without a PhD degree or equivalent research experience must provide letters of support from a supervisor.

Travel arrangements

Users are required to make their own travel arrangements and keep all original tickets and receipts. The travel costs will be reimbursed after the visit to the station(s) where the visit(s) was/were made. Advice on travel options can be obtained on request.

On completion of their visit(s), successful applicants will be required to
- Provide a Project Summary Report on results obtained during the visit(s)
- Complete the User Group Questionnaire at http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/capacities/questionnaire_en.html
- Publish the results within a reasonable time in open literature, specifying in Acknowledgements that the research has received support from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement N^o262693
- Note that the European Commission has the right to publish the list of users, containing their names, home institutions and description of the work.
More information about the TA call and INTERACT can be found from http://www.eu-interact.org/ or by contacting WP4 coordinator Hannele Savela, PhD, hannele.savela(at)oulu.fi, or WP4 leader Kirsi Latola, PhD, kirsi.latola(at)oulu.fi.
August 1, 2011
New name for the future EU funding programme for research and innovation

The European Commission is pleased to inform that Mrs. Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for Research and Innovation, has announced on 21 June 2011 the new name for the future EU funding programme for research and innovation: “Horizon 2020 – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation”. It will enter into force on 1st January 2014, after the end of FP7 on 31 Dec 2013.

“Horizon 2020 – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation” is not just a new name for the same Framework Programme. It is the name for the new, integrated funding system that will cover all research and innovation funding currently provided through the Framework Programme for Research and Technical Development, the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). These different types of funding will be brought together in a coherent and flexible manner. Research and innovation funding will focus clearly on addressing global challenges. Needless red tape will be cut out and access to programs and participation will be made easier and simpler.

More details can be found in the press release as well as the website of the European Commission.

July 26, 2011
IASC Progress Summer edition
The summer edition of the IASC is available. This Progress edition covers:
- Indian Research in the Arctic: Collaborative Research on Ny-Ålesund
- From Carl Weyprecht to the Future Polar Research Institute – A Long History of Austrian Activities in the Arctic
- Czech Contributions to Polar Science
- The Snow, Water, Ice and Permafrost in the Arctic (SWIPA) project, and
- …much, much more
The next edition of the newsletter will be produced jointly with our sister organization, the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). This bipolar issue will include a report on the outcomes of the Symposium on Research Urgencies in the Polar Regions and the ICSU General Assembly, the latter which includes a dedicated polar session.

Download IASC Progress Summer 2011
July 25, 2011
Territorial Competition in the North Pole – Chinese Radio Talk Show
A Radio show about the Arctic was on the China Radio International (CRI) called “Beyond Bejing”. The CRI is the only overseas broadcaster in the People’s Republic of China and is owned and operated by the state. The CRI is one of the “three central media organizations in China” along with China National Radio (CNR) and China Central Television (CCTV).

The discussion of the radio show was “Territorial Competition in the North Pole”. Further description of the show is that The North Pole, a region covered by floating ice has long been an area of interest. It’s been discovered the region is not just home to ice and the occasional polar bear but its sea bed may hold significant oil and gas reserves. Further as the ice caps melt new highly lucrative shipping and strategic lanes may open.And after years of diplomatic discussions between competing nations, Russia and Canada are both moving troops into the Arctic Cricle for the summer months. This change in posture as well as the worlds depleting energy resources raises concerns over the possibility of an open conflict over our most uninhabited section of the world.

Participants in the discussion are:
- Jia Xiudong, Senior Research Fellow with the China Institute of International Studies.
- Wenran Jiang, Professor at the University of Alberta, Senior Fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, and Special Advisor on China for The Energy Council.
- Lassi Heininem, Professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Lapland in Finland and the Chair of the Northern Research Forum Steering Committee.
The interview is one hour long. To listen to the show see below

Territorial Competition in the North Pole discussion on CRI

For further information, see the CRI webpage
July 22, 2011
The Arctic in Transition: Regional Issues and Geopolitics
A conference about the “Arctic in Transition” will be held 3^rd and 4^th of October 2011. The conference is a collaboration between the Centre Jacques Cartier (France), ArcticNet (University Laval) and the Northern Research Forum (University of the Arctic and University of Lapland).

The conference will take place in Montréal and is organized by the Center for Geopolitical Studies of the Raoul Dandurand Chair as part of the 24th annual Centre Jacques Cartier of France Conferences. It is also a meeting point for the Thematic Network on Geopolitics and Security of the Northern Research Forum. This high-level international meeting reunites political scientists, lawyers, geographers, historians, policy-makers and practitioners to discuss, first, the socio-economic, political and security issues of Arctic developed or developing regions, and, second, to look at the evolving relationships between these spaces, their peoples, and global affairs. The main focus of the meeting seeks to adress security issue(s) of the various region(s) that make up the circumpolar world.

Three Arctic regions will be highlighted:
1. the North-American Arctic (United States (Alaska); Canada (Northwest Territories, Yukon, Nunavut, Nunavik) and Greenland;
2. the North Pacific Rim (Alaska, Russian Far East, Beaufort Sea/Chukchi);
3. the Barents Euro-Arctic Region (Nordic countries – Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland – and Russia).
Download program

For information contact the program co-director, Joël Plouffe : plouffe.joel@uqam.ca.

The Raoul Dandurand Center is at the University of Québec at Montréal, Canada.
July 21, 2011
New Publication – The Ashgate Research Companion to Border Studies
A new publication about Border Studies is now available, “The Ashgate Research Companion to Border Studies“.

This comprehensive volume brings together a multidisciplinary team of leading scholars to provide an authoritative, state-of-the-art review of all aspects of borders and border research. It is truly global in scope and, besides embracing the more traditional strands of the field including geopolitics, migration and territorial identities, it also takes in recently emerging topics such as the role of borders in a seemingly borderless world; creating neighbourhoods, and border enforcement in the post-9/11 era.

Throughout history, the functions and roles of borders have been continuously changing. They can only be understood in their context, shaped as they are by history, politics and power, as well as cultural and social issues. Borders are therefore complex spatial and social phenomena which are not static or invariable, but which are instead highly dynamic.

Among contents of the publication is:
- Post-Soviet boundaries: territoriality, identity, security, circulation, Vladimir Kolossov
- Polar regions – comparing Arctic and Antarctic border debates, Lassi Heininen and Michele Zebich-Knos
- The Mechanisms of Exclusion and Inclusion: National minorities in European border regions, Jan D. Markusse
- Different neighbours: interaction and cooperation at Finland’s Western and Eastern borders, Heikki Eskelinen
Further information at the Ashgate Publishing Group
July 20, 2011
IPY 2012 From Knowledge to Action – Call for Abstracts

The IPY 2012 Conference From Knowledge to Action is taking place in Montreal, Canada April 22-27, 2012 and will be one of the largest and most important scientific conferences for polar science and climate change, impacts and adaptation. The Call for Abstracts for oral and poster presentations is now open.

Conference organizers invites to submit abstracts on the latest polar science, as well as the application of polar research findings, policy implications and how to take polar knowledge to action.

The Conference program is available at www.ipy2012montreal.ca

The Call for Abstracts closes September 30, 2011.

Conference Website Launched

The IPY 2012 conference website is up and running and features the latest information on the development of the Conference program, as well as indepth articles and highlights of polar science news from around the world on our Conference Twitter page (IPY2012).

Further Information

July 19, 2011