Svalbard Science Forum

Transcription

1 Svalbard Science Forum Date: 28 April, 2016 (10:00-16:00) Place: Lysaker Present: Secretariat: Absent: Kirsten Broch Mathisen (The Research Council of Norway, RCN), Chair Oleg Folomeev (AARI, Barentsburg) Piotr Glowacki (IGPAS, Hornsund) Kim Holmén (Norwegian Polar Institute) Frode Koppang (NySMAC) Frank Nilsen (UNIS) Ole Øiseth (Kings Bay AS) Marzena Kaczmarska (Kings Bay AS) Thorbjørn Gilberg (SSF/RCN) Carina Leander (SSF, minute taker) Torbjørn Pedersen (SSF) Craig Heinselman (LySEF) Ms. Broch Mathisen welcomed all to the meeting, especially the two newcomers Nilsen and Folomeev and Koppang, who stepped in for Nick Cox on a very short notice. 1/16 Information from research institutions and stakeholders: Presentation from the Ministry of Education and Research Nereng (Ministry of Education and Research) presented some of the overall aims of Norwegian Svalbard policies, currently under revision. Nereng assured that the overall goals from earlier White Papers would be maintained and that there would be no great surprises when the next White Paper is presented in May. According to Nereng, research and higher education will be expanded and remain a key element in Norwegian activities in Svalbard also in the years to come. Norway will seek to establish SIOS by the end of the year, based on nonbinding MoUs. SSF will still play an important role and should be developed further. Nereng stated that the SSF mandate may need to be updated. Glowacki suggested that in order to increase the research activity on Svalbard and increase the cooperation in Svalbard, polar research should be prioritised under the the EEA/Norway Grants Research Cooperation Programmes. This suggestion was welcomed by other members. Broch Mathisen thanked Nereng for her presentation and valuable contribution. 2/16 Approval of the agenda Decision: The agenda was approved. 3/16 Approval of minutes of last meeting Decision: The minutes of the SSF meeting were approved. Page 1 (7)

2 4/16 Information from the SSF Secretariat (work report) a. SSF secretariat staff update: Pedersen informed about SSF secretariat turnover. Margrete Keyser replaces Gilberg this summer/fall, whereas Leander substitutes for Karoline Bælum, who is on maternity leave. Pedersen will be on a six-month leave starting in August. b. SSF secretariat launches legislation overview: Pedersen informed about a new SSF webpage (December 2015) that provides an overview of government bodies and legislation that may be relevant to researchers and research institutions in Svalbard. The secretariat identified 17 different government bodies that could be highly relevant, including the Civil Aviation Authority, the Directorate for Cultural Heritage, the Governor of Svalbard, the Longyearbyen Local Council, the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority, the Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries, the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Nkom, the Norwegian Coastal Administration, the Norwegian Data Protection Agency, the Norwegian Environmental Agency, the Norwegian National Security Authority, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, and the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority. c. Update on SSF and AFG funding 2016: Johansen informed about the call for SSG The call received 15 applications and 8 were funded, 2 workshops and 6 projects/other activities priorities: Establish and develop research networks, follow up on previous SSF-funded workshops, increase mobility between research communities in Svalbard and make information more accessible. Holmén advised that the call for proposal should encourage further development, for instance funding the preparations of larger applications, eg to Horizon Nilsen noted that he welcomed longer project periods. Leander informed about the call for AFG The call received 77 applications, of which 43 applications were funded at an allocation of NOK 2.5 million. Almost half of the funded projects will take place in Kongsfjorden. 58 percent of the project leaders are female. 44 percent are Master students, 42 percent PhD students and 14 percent researchers. Only 72 percent of the AFG recipients are affiliated with Norwegian institutions. d. Workshops, meetings, presentations: Pedersen informed about the wide range of local, national and international meetings and presentations that the SSF Secretariat had taken part in since the last Forum meeting. These include SSG-funded workshops and representation in LySEF and NySMAC. e. Management plans, planning areas: Pedersen informed that new management plans had been announced. Northeast and Southeast Svalbard management areas include more than half of Svalbard and will be open to research, only if the research cannot be carried out elsewhere. Further, Pedersen informed about revisions of the Barentsburg, Longyearbyen and Sveagruva planning areas, which will include changes for research activities. f. SSF Svalbard Workshop 2017: Leander informed about the planned SSF Svalbard Workshop. Holmén noted that the landscape has shifted since the forum asked the secretariat to start organizing the event, not least because a similar event has been established as a permanent event at Arctic Frontiers. Holmén also noted that the workshop should be better coordinated with NySMAC and their established biannual Ny-Ålesund focused seminars. It was noted that the need for and profile of the SSF Svalbard Workshop will require further discussion. The ASSW will be held in the spring 2017, therefore the forum agreed that the workshop should be postponed Page 2 (7)

3 until the fall of All members volunteered to participate in an advisory committee planning and organizing the Conference. g. Research in Svalbard: Gilberg informed about the latest adjustments in RiS, forthcoming plans and a decision among the partners on RiS. There are substantially less bugs and they are almost all related to booking issues. One of the improvements caters for marine projects, by enabling lat/long coordinates in addition to UTM. A majority of the development resource for the spring are being used to enable reporting to the Governor directly from RiS and by identifying similar projects based on keywords and location of field work. The partners of RiS have agreed to the suggestion from Kings Bay that Kings Bay represents RiS in Ny-Ålesund. 5/16 New information from SSF partners Barentsburg Folomeev informed that on 4 April 2016 the Russian government decided to establish a permanent Russian Research Arctic Expedition to Spitsbergen (RRAES) to operate the Russian Scientific Center in Spitsbergen (RSCS) in Barentsburg. The coordination led by Mr. Yuri Ugriumov from the AARI now. The Permanent Expedition is now under establishment. In addition to AARI, approx. 10 other Russian institutes are active in Svalbard Staff at RSCS will be approx. 20, or 40 during peak season, when completed The chemical lab alone will have a permanent staff of three All existing research infrastructure in Barentsburg will be united Creation of the RSCS to be completed in a few years Satellite ground station in Barentsburg used extensively, in the future also by hydrologists, glaciologists, oceanologists, and for logistics operations either. Governor Fossum informed that new management plans for the Northeast- and Southeast-Svalbard nature reserves have been announced. The plans establish an important basis for evaluating applications from researchers. A new management plan will be made to cover the national parks northwestern Spitsbergen, Forlandet and souht-spitsbergen. Stakeholders will be invited to comment during a public hearing that will go on through the summer and autumn The Isfjorden area is also under consideration. The Ministry of Climate and Environment has asked the Governor to make a management plan for Area 10, including the protected areas. The work is scheduled to start in By 2020, the Governor expects to have updated management plans for all protected areas in Svalbard. Other planning processes include: The revision of the Longyearbyen land-use plan. Revised plan is expected to be announced late autumn The revision of the Sveagruva land-use plan, where research may become a new element. The planning process starts this spring. The revision of the Barentsburg land-use plan. Public hearing expected later this year or next year. Further, the use of drones (UAVs) is being debated. An ongoing process will clarify to what extent the Svalbard Environmental Act applies to drone operations and need for alterations. Association of Arctic Expetition Cruise Operators (AECO has banned drone use from all their member vessels. Page 3 (7)

4 Hornsund Glowacki informed that over the last few years, the number of international publications from Polish research in Svalbard has risen, from 48 in 2008 to 83 in More publications are now in English. The researchers received 41 different grants in 2015, of which nine from Norwegian institutions. Plans for 2016: RV Horyzont II will make two trips, a 23-day and a 26-day tour respectively. RV Oceania will be a part of the AREX 2016 expedition, 22 June 14 August Hornsund: 80 scientists from Poland, Czech, Norway, France, UK, US, total 6500 mandays/year (1,500 scientists, 4,000 winter crew, 1,000 technician). Petunia: 465 man-days (5 July 5 Sept) Kaffiøyra: 438 man-days (5 July 8 Sept) Bellsund: 589 man-days (27 May 9 Sep) Werenskiold: 130 man-days (4 July 6 Sept) Gnalberget: 100 man-days (7 July 2 Aug) Treskelen: 28 man-days (19 July 1 Aug) Hamberbukta: 111 man-days (26 July 28 Aug) SV Operon will spend summer in Svalbard (1 June 16 Sept) The Norwegian Coastal Administration will establish a new ice station in Hornsund in The research station will offer support, including electricity. The investment plan for Hornsund includes a bigger vessel for monitoring activities in Hornsund, also during winter, as well as new buoys and automatic weather stations. Kings Bay Kaczmarska informed that Ny-Ålesund will continue to facilitate international cooperation and noted that more common research infrastructure has been established in recent years. Kings Bay would like partners to fully support the concept of common infrastructure. Sharing resources and building common facilities should be the preferred way forward. Examples of common structures include the Zeppelin Research Station, the Climate Change Tower, the Clean Air Lab Gruvebadet, ASUF, Deep Permafrost Obs and the new Light Sensitive Observatory. A total of 14,437 research days were spent in Ny-Ålesund in 2015, compared with 14,501 in Kings Bay expects similar numbers in The Sverdrup station has the most activity, with 29 percent of the research days (shared between several Norwegian and foreign institutions), and the German-French station, AWIPEW is a number two, with 24 percent of the activity. The Kings Bay Marine Laboratory had a dip in activity in The interest in operating RPAS in Ny-Ålesund is rising, with more activity in Kings Bay believes there will be more drone activity in the years to come. LySEF Holmén, who is also the chair of LySEF, informed that LySEF is a mixed forum, with membership from many sectors outside research. For instance LySEF has decided to prioritize the education of tourists in order to turn visitors into ambassadors for Longyearbyen in a collaboration between research and education and the tourist businesses. Last week LySEF organized an open-day at the Kjell Henriksen Observatory and EISCAT Svalbard, which attracted some 80 visitors. The event was very successful, and LySEF will continue to increase outreach. The next open day will most likely take place in the mines of Store Norske. LySEF is in a very creative and positive mode, and there is a strong will to work together and create new initiatives in Longyearbyen. The Norwegian Polar Institute Holmén informed that the NPI is active in Ny-Ålesund, Longyearbyen and at different field locations in Svalbard. The Sverdrup station logged 2,729 research days in 2015, a 47 pct increase from The Sverdrup station is an umbrella station, only 22 pct were NPI research days. RV Lance had its longest sailing season ever with 3,100 research-days onboard the vessel in Lance will be decommissioned and sold at end of It will be replaced Page 4 (7)

5 by the icebreaker Kongprins Håkon, which will be launched in Italy in December 2016 and then fitted in Norway. The vessel will be delivered in the fall of Environmental monitoring of Svalbard and Jan Mayen (MOSJ) is now open-access, and the Topo Svalbard maps have become available for free download. A polar bear census was carried out in Svalbard in 2015, but the results are uncertain, partly due to the fact that a simultaneous count in Frans Josefs Land was not carried out. Climate-ecological Observatory for Arctic Tundra (COAT) will have a Svalbard part, and NPI has accepted the role of running the Svalbard part, which will involve long-time monitoring of terrestrial ecosystems. NySMAC Koppang informed about the outcome of the latest NySMAC meeting, which had ended in Stockholm only the day before. The agenda had included status reports from the member institutions, a SSF work report, the revision of the Ny-Ålesund Charter, a discussion on how to manage visiting film teams to Ny-Ålesund, and an item on the NySMAC Project Information and Discussion Forum (PID Forum). It also included information from Kings Bay, a SIOS update, information on the Radio Silence Working Group and information about the next NySMAC meeting, which will be held in Xiamen, China. Koppang elaborated on Radio Quiet Area issues and the revising of the Radio Silence Working Group. Ny-Ålesund is supposed to be radio quiet, but there are some active systems in use in the area. The community must figure out how to get around possible conflicts between active systems and passive sensors. Traditionally, passive systems have been located to Ny-Ålesund, whereas active systems have been placed in Longyearbyen. The research community now needs an updated list of passive systems that can become available to everyone. The aim should be to keep Ny-Ålesund as clean as possible. Koppang also informed that a new geodetic observatory is taking shape, and that the antennas now are being assembled. The observatory will be ready for start-up in Research Council of Norway Broch Mathisen informed about 2015 NIFU surveys on polar research, including research in Svalbard, as well as on Norwegian climate and environmental research. The Polar Research programme (POLARPROG) of RCN allocated 50 million NOK to 7 projects, related to Arctic and the Antarctic. In 2016, the RCN will call for projects on i.e. environmental toxins and pollutions in the coastal zone, the ocean and the polar region. A seminar on research in Antarctica is scheduled in May. The Research Council together with Innovation Norway is organizing a Japan Norway arctic science and innovation week, in June in Tokyo. UNIS Nilsen presented UNIS' results for 2015 and gave an overview of activities at the university center. In 2015, UNIS produced 96 courses within Arctic biology, geology, geophysics and technology to 690 students from 44 nations, of which 44 students are Russian. 55 pct are international students, and all instructions are given in English. A total of 840 students have applied for the fall 2016 courses, approx. 200 more than the previous year. UNIS is working hard to increase the share of Norwegian students. UNIS is prepared to take on a larger role in maintaining a stabile situation in Longyearbyen and is ready to develop and expand the education program and the research activity. The UNIS board has established that UNIS should keep focus on high-quality, research-based education with an Arctic relevance. The establishment of an Arctic Safety Center will combine natural sciences, risk and safety sciences, and HSE best practices. Kaczmarska encouraged UNIS to include diving in this safety initiative and noted that Ny-Ålesund has a decompression chamber. Nilsen noted that Kings Bay should be included in the reference group. Page 5 (7)

6 6/16 SSF Annual Report Decision: The Annual Report was approved. 7/16 Svalbard statistics and the RiS database Broch Mathisen informed about the latest NIFU report on research in the Arctic, including Svalbard, which e.g. concludes that citations of Svalbard papers citations are lower impact than average polar research papers. The Forum discussed the report and the extent of international cooperation in Svalbard research. It was noted by many that international cooperation and many citations do not automatically account for good-quality research. It was also argued that region mattered. It was suggested that the Forum could address why the citation numbers are low. It was also noted that the statistics could be wrong, in which case it should be ignored. The Forum agreed that there may be different hypothesis as to why the citation numbers are low, and that the Forum would be happy to see an analysis that explains the numbers. Gilberg presented some of the statistics that can be retrieved from the Research in Svalbard (RiS) database. The Forum discussed whether annual RiS statistics could complement and/or substitute for the overviews provided by NIFU. Holmén noted that RiS is project-based, whereas NIFU counts man- or research-days as well as citations. Folomeev welcomed a discussion on how to improve project entries in order to enable better statistics. The Forum agreed that the next Forum meeting should discuss what kind of statistics would be helpful for the research communities and should be produced on a regular basis. Decision: The Svalbard Science Forum strongly encourages all researchers and research institutions in Svalbard to register their projects in the Research in Svalbard (RiS) database faithfully, also when this is not mandatory. The Forum further encourages all researchers to keep their data up to date and complete. Holmén and Nilsen will assist the SSF Secretariat in preparing a discussion paper for the SSF meeting on what kind of statistics the SSF will find most helpful and that could be reported by the SSF Secretariat on a regular basis. The Forum would welcome a deeper analysis to explain the citation numbers of Svalbard publications. 8/16 SIOS and relevance to SSF Holmén, who also is the chairman of the steering board of SIOS, informed that SIOS has "started to move very much" and encouraged the SSF Forum to be in the forefront of discussions that were bound to arise. Holmén argued that SIOS should be on the agenda on future SSF meetings and that the SIOS Knowledge Center and the SSF should collaborate on a strategic level. Decision: At the next SSF meeting will be presented and discuss a background paper on strategic issues relevant to the two forums. 9/16 Other business No issues were raised. 10/16 Next meetings The 2016 fall meeting will tentatively take place on board the MS Polarsyssel and include a field trip to Petuniabukta. The most likely dates are 14 and 15 September Page 6 (7)

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