A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Spain and Turkey on scientific and logistic cooperation in polar regions on 17 November 2021. The signing took place in the extent of the 7th Turkey-Spain Intergovernmental Summit where Mr. Mustafa Varank (Turkish Minister of Industry and Technology) and Mr. Jose Manuel Albares Bueno (Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation) signed the Memorandum between The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) and Ministry of Science, Innovation of Spain.

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The Alfred Wegener Institute is one of the very few scientific institutions in the world that are equally active in the Arctic and Antarctic. It coordinates German polar research efforts, while also conducting research in the North Sea and adjacent coastal regions in Germany. Combining innovative approaches, outstanding research infrastructure and years of expertise, the Alfred Wegener Institute explores nearly all aspects of the Earth system – from the atmosphere to the ocean floor.

The AWI’s researchers operate various observatories that gather measurement data over longer timeframes. They research the atmosphere, ice, oceans and coasts. They explore the deep seas, the glaciers and the permafrost soils of the polar regions first-hand. And they analyse data from climate archives like sediment and ice core samples.

The institute has a staff of more than 1000 people and is financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and 10% from provincial sources. AWI is the national manager and implementation agency of the National German Arctic and Antarctic Programme. It has the following tasks at the national level, mandated by the German Federal Government to:

• Conduct outstanding Polar, ocean and coastal research mainly in the area of multidisciplinary environmental research and improve the observation and simulation of past, present and future Earth System dynamics from a Polar perspective.
• Provide access to world-leading research and information infrastructure for all German Polar researchers.
• Manage and coordinate all German Polar research activities.
• Advise the German government in all matters concerning the Polar Regions.

The AWI was founded in 1980 in the course of Germany’s accession to the Antarctic Treaty. The initiator and founding director was Gotthilf Hempel. The institute is named after Alfred Lothar Wegener, a German climatologist, geologist, geophysicist, meteorologist, and polar researcher. Alfred Wegener is most remembered as the originator of the continental drift hypothesis by suggesting in 1912 that the continents are slowly drifting around the Earth.

AWI’s main building is situated in Bremerhaven. Additionally, the research institute includes the Biological Institute Helgoland and the Wadden Sea Station in List on Sylt. A branch office is located in the Albert Einstein Science Park on the Telegrafenberg in Potsdam.

The Institute’s work is characterised by a high degree of international and interdisciplinary collaboration: experts from the bio-, geo- and climate sciences work closely together at the AWI. Field research under extreme conditions is just as much a part of the Institute’s day-to-day work as are analyses using cutting-edge laboratory equipment and high-performance supercomputers. Having recognised that polar and marine research often poses serious logistical challenges, the AWI also maintains an excellent infrastructure, allowing it to make resources available for the national and international research communities. Research stations are Neumayer Station III in Antarctica (predecessor stations: Georg von Neumayer Station and Neumayer Station II), the German-French AWIPEV research base (Koldewey Station) on Spitsbergen and the Russian-German research base Samoilov in the Siberian Lena Delta.

Research vessels are the Polarstern, the Heincke and the Mya II. The AWI also operates two aircrafts (Polar 5 and Polar 6).

EU-PolarNet 2 is coordinated by the AWI, which also leads two work packages and chairs the project’s Executive Board. In its role as coordinator, AWI takes care of the day-to-day management of the project and all its activities, coordination of work package and task leaders, consortium internal communication and liaising with the EC project officer on behalf of the consortium. AWI also leads the work package on policy advice, dissemination and communication. Tasks include managing the internal project website, informing on policy-relevant project results and providing evidence-based advice and interaction with the EC. AWI also plays an important role in setting up and promoting the EU-PolarNet 2 calls for services and manages the administrative process related to the award of service contracts. AWI co-leads several tasks in EU-PolarNet 2 and actively participates in proposals for efficient use of resources through jointly operated logistics, infrastructure and programmes, as well as preparations for the implementation of the European Polar Coordination Office, which will be the legacy of EU-PolarNet 2.

German polar research is carried out by a network of research institutions, universities, governmental and non-governmental institutions distributed across whole Germany. The largest polar research institute in Germany is the AWI. It is the national manager and implementation agency of the National German Arctic and Antarctic Programme. It provides access to most of the German research and information infrastructure for all German Polar researchers and manages and coordinates all German Polar research activities. The German polar research is funded by the Federal Ministries for Education and Research (BMBF) and for Economy and Energy (BMWi), Project funding is mainly derived from different federal ministries and the German Research Foundation (DFG) as well as through EU programmes.

The main topic of German polar research is to better understand the ongoing changes in the polar regions and their underlying processes to evaluate their local, regional and global consequences. An essential aspect is the improvement of the polar components of climate and earth system models to arrive at more precise projections up to the end of the 21st century and beyond.

German Polar researchers are active in the Arctic and Antarctic. The German Polar Community usually works in the following areas:

Antarctica: Dronning Maud Land, Ekström Ice Shelf, Weddell Sea and Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean, Antarctic Peninsula, Terra Nova Bay and Dome C in east Antarctica

Arctic: Svalbard, Lena Delta and Siberian Arctic, Arctic Ocean and Fram Strait; East Greenland and Herschel Island, Canada.

Germany is a member of the Antarctic Treaty System and an observer to the Arctic Council. German polar research is internationally networked, which is also reflected in the numerous German delegates to the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), to the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) as well as to committees of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) with a polar focus. German polar scientists are cooperating with most if not all countries performing polar research. In addition, Germany operates infrastructures and facilities with international partners. In Ny-Ålesund on Spitsbergen (Svalbard), AWI maintains the permanently staffed station AWIPEV jointly together with the French Polar Institute Paul Emile Victor (IPEV). The Russian Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI), AWI and GEOMAR jointly operate the Otto-Schmidt Laboratory (OSL) in St. Petersburg which is funded by the German BMBF and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation. The OSL is an analytical laboratory and provides a basis for Russian-German research projects. It offers logistical support for scientific projects, expeditions and working meetings. The universities of Hamburg and Sankt Petersburg jointly provide a German-Russian Master Programme for Polar- and Marine Science called POMOR.

The AWI coordinated the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition from autumn 2019 to autumn 2020. During this expedition, the German research icebreaker Polarstern drifted frozen in the ice through the Arctic Ocean and allowed experts from 20 nations to explore the Arctic for an entire year. In order to make this unique project a success and to obtain the most valuable data possible, more than 80 institutes had pooled their resources in a research consortium. The total cost of the expedition was about 150 million euros, mostly funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Hundreds of international researchers are currently analysing observations from this one-year MOSAiC expedition, during which hundreds of environmental parameters were recorded with unprecedented accuracy and frequency over a full annual cycle in the Central Arctic Ocean. They have now published three overview articles on the MOSAiC atmosphere, snow and sea ice, and ocean programs in the journal Elementa, highlighting the importance of examining all components of the climate system together. These results present the first complete picture of the climate processes in the central Arctic which is warming more than two times as fast as the rest of the planet – processes which affect weather and climate worldwide.

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Located at the border to the Arctic, the Faroe Islands are ideally located for monitoring exchanges of key parameters between the North Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic, e.g. oceanic heat, salt, nutrients, carbon and passively drifting plankton. Huge biomasses of pelagic fish, whales and seabirds perform seasonal migrations between the Atlantic and Arctic and Subarctic regions. Most of this physical, biogeochemical and biological monitoring activity takes place at the Faroe Marine Research Institute (FAMRI).

FAMRI is a governmental institution, placed under the Ministry of Fisheries, and physically located in Tórshavn – the capital of the Faroe Islands. Its main commission is to monitor the Faroese marine environment and its living resources, and to inform and advise the Faroese authorities and public about these conditions. This primarily involves information on the state of fish stocks in Faroese and surrounding waters, and to provide scientific advice and assessments according to the law on commercial fishing. Increasing effort is presently being allocated to monitoring the oceanographic conditions in the area, which regulate the rich marine resource, and which play a fundamental role in the world climate system.

FAMRI’s activity can roughly be divided into three main topics: The Faroe shelf, the open ocean pelagic complex and the exchanges between the North Atlantic and the Arctic. The spatially confined Faroe shelf hosts rich and variable Atlantic/subarctic ecosystems, from where comprehensive long-term physical and biological records are available. FAMRI participates in large international surveys on the main pelagic fish stocks (mackerel, blue whiting, herring and capelin), which spawn in relatively warm Atlantic waters and feed in cold and food-rich (sub)arctic waters. The entire arctic and subarctic marine environment is fundamentally influenced by the northward flow of warm and saline Atlantic waters, which cool and sink in the north, and return equatorward in deep cold current jets – the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). FAMRI plays a key role in the monitoring the AMOC.

To meet these challenging tasks, FAMRI utilises the brand new, state of the art, research vessel R/S Jákup Sverri, runs long-term programs with moorings on the seafloor at key locations, collaborates with the fishing industry and with ships of opportunity (e.g. the passenger ferry M/S Norrøna which makes comprehensive oceanic sampling across the entire gap from Denmark to Iceland, on a weekly basis).