Ukraine got access to polar ships of other countries

The National Antarctic Science Center (NASC) has joined the POLARIN project, which involves the unification of 64 research infrastructures in the Arctic and Antarctic.

Yesterday, March 1, the POLARIN project of the EU Horizon Europe program was officially launched. This was reported in the press service of the National Academy of Sciences.

50 organizations from all over the world are involved in the project: from the EU, Chile, Canada, the USA, Great Britain and other countries. The project is coordinated by the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany.

POLARIN envisages uniting 64 research infrastructures in the Arctic and Antarctic and providing them with free access to all participants. In particular, the network will include research stations, ships, observatories, repositories and databases.

In this way, they plan to support interdisciplinary research in both polar regions. It is noted that this will help to solve global problems, in particular, climate problems. After all, the poles of the planet are the first to react to changes.

Ukraine involved the icebreaker “Noosfera” and the Antarctic station “Akademik Vernadskyi” in the project. NASC will participate in POLARIN during 2024-2025. In general, the project is designed for 5 years. The budget of the initiative is 14.6 million euros, of which more than half a million euros are earmarked for Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the Russian icebreaker “Yermak” burned in the port of St. Petersburg during welding work.