POLAND

ARCTIC COUNCIL: OBSERVER

ARCTIC POLICY

Statement of Minister M. Szpunar to Swedish Presidency of the Arctic Council , (2012) Ministry of Foreign Affairs

CONTRIBUTION TO THE ARCTIC

The Committee on Polar Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences provides the organizational infrastructure for Polish polar research. The members of PRC represent all scientific disciplines and come from more than 24 scientific institutions in Poland. It is also responsible for the scientific patronage and development of Polish Polar research infrastructures. This includes five research stations on Spitsbergen, Svalbard, namely the Stanisław Siedlecki Polish Polar Station in Hornsund, theStanisław Baranowsk Polar Station of Wroclaw University, theNicolaus Copernicuc University Polar Station, Kaffioyra, the Calypsobyen Polar Station of Maria Curie Skłodowska University and the “Skottehytta”- expedition base of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. The Polish Polar Station, Hornsund is an observer to INTERACT. The Polish Academy of Sciences also owns the tall ship, RV Oceania. The training and research vessel Horyzont II, which is also used for Arctic research, is owned by the Gdynia Maritime University.

SELECTED EU-FINANCED PROJECTS

Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences is partner to Arctic Tipping Points, a project aimed at identifying the elements of the Arctic marine ecosystem likely to show abrupt changes in response to climate change, and establish the levels of the corresponding climate drivers inducing regime shift in those tipping elements. In addition, determine the effect of crossing those thresholds for the Arctic marine ecosystems, and the associated risks and opportunities for economic activities dependent on the marine ecosystem of the European Arctic. Arctic Tipping Points is partially financed by the EU by the 7th Framework Programme.

Institute of Geophysics -­‐ Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Oceanology -­‐ Polish Academy of Sciences, are partners to SIOS, (Svalbard Integrated Earth Observing System) a project for the creation of an optimized observational infrastructure which can match advanced Earth System Models with observational evidence and provide near--‐real--‐time information on Arctic Change to relevant stakeholders. SIOS is partially financed by the EU by the 7th Framework Programme...

The Polish Academy of Sciences is partner to BOREAS, a coordinated programme of research on the North to enable the humanities to collaborate more effectively and to offer synergies between social, natural and medical sciences through innovative collaboration between Europe, the US, Canada And Russia. BOREAS is partially financed by the EU by the 7th Framework Programme.