Norwegian Polar Institute

• Name — Norwegian Polar Institute • Native Name — Norsk Polarinstitutt • Abbreviation — NPI • Parent Organization — Ministry of Climate and Environment • Num Staff — 165

The institute's activities are focused on environmental research and management in the polar regions. The NPI's researchers investigate biodiversity, climate and environmental toxins in the Arctic and Antarctic, and in this context the institute equips and organizes large-scale expeditions to both polar regions. The institute contributes to national and international climate work, and is an active contact point for the international scientific community. The institute collects and analyses data on the environment and cultural heritage sites on the islands of Svalbard and Jan Mayen through the project Environmental Monitoring of Svalbard and Jan Mayen (MOSJ). Topographic mapping is also an important task: the NPI is the national surveying and mapping authority for Norway's polar areas, including non-commercial geological surveys. In Antarctica, the institute is responsible for the management of all Norwegian activities. This means that all Norwegian subjects planning activities in Antarctica must first contact the NPI. The NPI maintains a database of reported sightings of whales, walruses, seals, and polar bears in the Svalbard area to which the public is encouraged to contribute. The reported sightings are used in research and monitoring. The NPI is the official agency responsible for place names in the Norwegian polar regions. These areas include Svalbard and Jan Mayen and their adjacent waters, Queen Maud Land, Bouvet Island, and Peter I Island. Place names are officially adopted by the responsible committee at the NPI, which maintains a database of place names that is publicly searchable.

The NPI was established in 1948 under the Norwegian Ministry of Industry, but must be seen as an extension of Norwegian Svalbard and Arctic Ocean Survey, Norges Svalbard og Ishavsundersøkelser (NSIU), which was founded on 1 March 1928. Previously, Norway's Svalbard research had been organized as the Norwegian state-supported Spitsbergen Expeditions, with roots dating back to 1906. With the establishment of the NSIU, Norwegian research activity in eastern Greenland increased. • Illustration — Harald Sverdrup, the first director of the NPI With Harald Sverdrup as the first director, the NPI's mandate included Antarctica and was considerably broader than that of its forerunner, the NSIU. From 1949 to 1952, the NPI led the multinational Maudheim Expedition to Antarctica and had a base in Queen Maud Land from 1956 to 1960 (Norway Station), during the International Geophysical Year, also known as the third International Polar Year. The NPI established the permanent research station Troll in Antarctica in 1989–90; Troll has been operated as a year-round research station since 2005. The NPI carried out annual summer expeditions to Svalbard and, starting in 1968, has had a year-round research station in Ny-Ålesund. In 1979, the NPI became a directorate under the Ministry of the Environment (currently the Ministry of Climate and Environment). In 1993, the decision was made in the Norwegian Parliament to move the headquarters of the NPI from Oslo, Norway's capital, to Tromsø, a coastal city north of the Arctic Circle. The process was completed in 1998. This relocation led to changes in the institute's profile and areas of interest as departments were reorganized, new personnel recruited, new positions established and research priorities shifted.

• Illustration — Sverdrup Station in Svalbard The NPI runs the Sverdrup Station and the Zeppelin Observatory in Svalbard, the Troll and Tor research stations in Antarctica, and Norvegia Station on Bouvet Island. • Illustration — Research vessel Kronprins Haakon co-owned by the institute in the port of Longyearbyen at the start of GoNorth expedition The NPI owns the research vessel Kronprins Haakon, with the University of Tromsø and the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research being the other users of the vessel.

• No. — Portrait — Name — Term of office • 1 — — Harald Sverdrup — 1948 — 1957 • 2 — Anders K. Orvin — 1957 — 1960 • 3 — Tore Gjelsvik — 1960 — 1983 • 4 — Odd Rogne — 1983 — 1991 • 5 — Nils Are Øritsland — 1991 — 1993 • 6 — Olav Orheim — 1993 — 2005 • 7 — — Jan-Gunnar Winther — 2005 — 2017 • 8 — Ole Arve Misund — 2017 — 2023 • 8 — Camilla Brekke — 2023 — Incumbent