Organising Svalbard Symposium during the Arctic Frontiers week in January

Svalbard is today an easily accessible research hub in the Arctic and can be regarded as a natural observatory and laboratory to study the physical environment and changes in ecosystems on land and in the ocean, as well as being a unique platform for atmospheric and meteorological observations and location for satellite observation and communication. Further, the archipelago may serve as hub for logistic operations in the Arctic and into the Polar Ocean. UNIS, The University Centre in Svalbard with Kjell Henriksen Observatory and The Birkeland Centre for Space Science are situated in Longyearbyen. In Ny-Ålesund more than 10 institutions have established research facilities, and Russian institutions are conducting research out of Barentsburg, and the Polish institutes out of Hornsund. In all, more than 1000 scientists representing at least 200 scientific institutions and more than 30 countries work on and out of Svalbard every year. SIOS, Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System has been established as a project and aims to coordinate research infrastructure organization and promote more openness, better access, data sharing and knowledge management for the international research community. It is suggested to organize the Svalbard Symposium as a breakout session during the Policy part of Arctic Frontiers on Tuesday afternoon (approx. 14.00 to 16.30). This will optimize the contact between scientists and representatives from policy, management and business. And further, avoiding overlap in time with the ordinaries science sessions of Arctic Frontiers