NySMAC members gathered in the snow in front of a blue wooden house in Ny-Ålesund

One station, many nations

Ny-Ålesund is one of the best places to coordinate science, meet other projects and start new collaborations.

Photo: Kings Bay AS

Ny-Ålesund Science Managers Committee

NySMAC was set up in 1994 to strengthen cooperation and coordination in Ny-Ålesund. It advises on research projects, planning, infrastructure and environmental protection, and it helped create the four flagship programmes.

Meets: Twice a year
Chair: Iain Rudkin (BAS)
Vice-chair: Susana G. Espada (NMA)
Secretariat: Hosted by the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromsø. Email

18 member institutions

Plus four observer institutions.

Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI)Germany
Andøya Space (AS)Norway
Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration (CAA)China
GFZ Helmholtz Centre for GeosciencesGermany
Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI)Republic of Korea
National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR)India
National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR)Japan
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)UK
Norwegian Mapping Authority (NMA)Norway
Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI)Norway
Norwegian Research Centre (NORCE)Norway
Stockholm University (SU)Sweden
NILU, climate and environmental research instituteNorway
French Polar Institute (IPEV)France
National Research Council (CNR)Italy
The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS)Norway
UiT The Arctic University of NorwayNorway
University of Groningen (UG)The Netherlands

Working groups

Two permanent groups keep long-term issues on the table and report at every NySMAC meeting.

Radio Silence Working Group

Set up in 2010 to recommend procedures for keeping Ny-Ålesund radio quiet, and to follow them up.

Chair: Carsten Falck (GFZ)

Field Safety Working Group

Looks at safety training and a changing environment, with more polar bear sightings and melting, moving glaciers.

Chair: Rune Jensen (NPI)

Documents

Meeting documents are in the password-protected NySMAC archive. Ask the secretariat for access.

Coordination on site

EveryWed

The weekly meeting

Local leaders from the institutions, NPI and Kings Bay meet every Wednesday morning, with NPI in the chair. They share news on research, coordinate shared facilities and follow up any issues.

Researchers lowering a sampling net from a red boat in Kongsfjorden — Photo: Dagmara Wojtanowicz

Give a popular science talk

Visiting researchers are encouraged to present their work while they are here, in a short talk of 20 to 30 minutes plus questions. Write to Research.Nya@npolar.no to sign up.

Other actors on Svalbard

The Governor of Svalbard

Chief of police with the authority of a county governor, and the main environmental authority. Handles nature supervision, protected areas, cultural heritage and pollution control.

sysselmesteren.no

SIOS

The Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System, an international observing system for Earth system science on and around Svalbard, with data access, open calls and e-learning.

sios-svalbard.org

Svalbard Research Office

Run jointly by the Research Council of Norway and the Norwegian Polar Institute, in the Svalbard Research Park in Longyearbyen.

svalbardresearchoffice.no