Official Announcement

A joint French – German polar research base on Spitsbergen

In order to extend the usability of their stations, AWI and IPEV, the operators of the German and French stations in the Ny-Ålesund area join their highly complementary investments and form a Joint French – German Polar Research Base. This was announced at a conference in Brest on May 26, 2003, commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Elysée-contract about French - German co-operation and friendship. In Ny-Ålesund the stations “Charles Rabot”, “Jean Corbel”, “Blue House”, and the atmospheric “NDACC-Observatory” will merge into one common administered Arctic research base.

This will include:

Common announcements of opportunities for research at the base
Common evaluation of research proposals
Conducting of joint research projects
Sharing of personnel, logistics, and instrumentation

A common base leader will be equally responsible for both the German and the French installations and for the station personnel. The new base allows research in the areas (among others) of atmospheric chemistry, climate change, marine and terrestrial biology, geophysics. It builds upon infrastructures and equipment, which have been permanently installed by France and Germany in Ny-Ålesund, including accommodation, storage, office, and computer facilities, wet and dry laboratories, a balloon launching facility, remote and in situ sensing instrumentation within an atmospheric observatory, a new clean air station, and field and laboratory equipment for eco-physiology studies.

Future Projects :

AWI and IPEV will continue to provide state of the art technical solutions to the scientific community. In this aim, the French Polar Institute intends to develop at the Corbel Station a “clean power” system (hydrogen fuel cells), to allow high sensitivity measurements for atmospheric chemistry. On the same way, “clean” logistics are planned to be developed too, to minimize the impact of gas exhausts on atmospheric measurements. Both institutes actively support the establishment of a modern marine laboratory in NyÅlesund. Within the VIth framework programme of the European Commission, AWI and IPEV contribute to the new Ny-Ålesund Research Infrastructure proposal co-ordinated by Norsk Polar Institute.