The icebreaker “Noosfera” will join the international network of polar research

The Ukrainian icebreaker “Noosfera” and the station “Akademik Vernadskyi” will be involved in the international network of infrastructures for polar research.

The National Antarctic Science Center (NASC) won the competition in the EU Horizon Europe program. Now Ukrainian scientists will be able to use scientific vessels and polar bases of other countries and participate in important scientific initiatives. Also, Ukraine can attract additional funds to the Antarctic program. This was reported in the press service of the National Academy of Sciences.

In addition to joint use of infrastructures, the project provides for data exchange and training for young scientists.

“Polar regions respond the fastest to changes on our planet. We can already see how rapidly the Arctic and Antarctic are losing their ice cover due to global warming and human economic intervention, – explains the director of the National Center for Scientific Research Evhen Dykyi, – in order for scientists to comprehensively study and forecast such processes, they need wider access to polar infrastructures. That is, the researcher should not be limited to the data of only the location where the station of his country is located, but should have access to different observation points to obtain more information and compare it.

Ukraine’s partnership with other countries is carried out within the framework of the POLARIN project. The initiative is designed for 2 years and has a total budget of almost 14.6 million euros. Of these, more than half a million euros are earmarked for Ukraine. The official signing of the agreement with the EU regarding the implementation of “POLARIN” is scheduled for November.