The BERA Logistics and Research Centre on Svalbard has been added to the Polish Roadmap for Research Infrastructure, a list of strategic research infrastructure. It is one of eight strategic research infrastructures recognised in the field of Earth and environmental sciences.
The updated Roadmap includes 165 infrastructures, each recognised for its exceptional research potential.
As the Ministry of Science and Higher Education states: ‘Two elements are critical for research excellence: human capital and modern research infrastructure. The latter is of twofold importance, as training future scientific and technical personnel to the required standard is simply impossible without it. Large, strategic research infrastructures serve as hubs for elite researchers and innovative enterprises, enabling the country’s economic growth and the development of social capital. Possessing outstanding laboratories that adhere to the highest standards of research and education is therefore a developmental necessity.’
Having recently secured its place on the Roadmap and SPUB funding for maintaining unique research equipment, The BERA Centre represents Poland, the University of Silesia in Katowice, and the Centre for Polar Studies in Arctic research. It operates in close collaboration with the Institute of Geophysics and the Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, alongside Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, and the University of Wrocław
Geophysical measurements in the foreland of Hans Glacier | Photo by Marta Kondracka