[{"command":"add_css","data":[{"rel":"stylesheet","media":"all","href":"\/sites\/default\/files\/css\/css_-kTcRwkqPhQLsqEvdSSyU2XZ3CV5VEleXoE3_xZi2cg.css?delta=0\u0026language=cs\u0026theme=hm_theme\u0026include=eJxLzi9K1U8pKi1IzNErSa0oSSxKTdQtSi3OrEoFAJQ3Cqw"}]},{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/cs\/article\/modal\/12897\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n      1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n      2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n      3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n        \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n  \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea resize-vertical ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EBraving the cold: Europe\u2019s polar research strides forward with new polar hub\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGerman scientist Dr Nicole Biebow is keenly aware of how important it is to research and protect the Earth\u2019s increasingly fragile polar regions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe two poles are warming faster than any other area on the planet and are losing ice through increased melting. The Arctic, for example, is warming three times as fast as the global average, according to polar scientists. This affects local communities and wildlife, but also has broad socio-economic and climate impacts that extend across the globe, like rising sea levels.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe always say that the poles are the canary in the coal mine,\u201d said Biebow, the project coordinator of an EU-funded project named EU-PolarNet 2, which concluded in December 2024.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBiebow is the head of the international cooperation unit at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany and also a former chair of the European Polar Board (EPB). The EPB is an independent group of research institutes, funding agencies and ministries set up to advance the coordination of European polar research both in the Arctic and Antarctic.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe EPB and another key polar research body, the European Polar Coordination Office (EPCO), will be operating out of Sweden\u2019s far north from 2025. This reflects Europe\u2019s determination to be the leading voice in studying these high-latitude regions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEU-PolarNet 2 carried out much of the work to establish the EPCO, which will start work in January 2025, hosted by the Arctic Centre at Ume\u00e5 University, Sweden.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EA sense of urgency\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs global temperatures increase and the polar ice melts ever faster, unlocking the secrets of the polar regions is becoming increasingly urgent.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022text-center text-blue font-bold text-2xl w-full lg:w-1\/2 border-2 border-blue p-12 my-8 lg:m-12 lg:-ml-16 float-left\u0022\u003E\n  \u003Cspan class=\u0022text-5xl rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n  \u003Cp class=\u0022font-serif italic\u0022\u003EThe poles, like the deep ocean, are still very, very sparsely investigated.\u003C\/p\u003E\n  \u003Cfooter\u003E\n    \u003Ccite class=\u0022not-italic font-normal text-sm text-black\u0022\u003EDr Nicole Biebow, EU-PolarNet 2\u003C\/cite\u003E\n  \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cA lot of work being done nowadays is about understanding, mitigating or adapting to future changes,\u201d Biebow said, noting that \u201cwe have EU Member States that have an Arctic coastline and people living in these areas\u201d.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs the EU-PolarNet 2 team prepares to launch EPCO, the researchers have put together a list of priorities for future research, including projects on sea ice, melting glaciers and thawing permafrost.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBiebow voiced hope that EPCO will considerably help research efforts in the polar regions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe poles, like the deep ocean, are still very, very sparsely investigated,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s an area which defines how our future weather and climate will be, and that\u2019s why it is so important.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EWorking with indigenous communities\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Annette Scheepstra, a researcher and member of the EU-PolarNet 2 executive board, is putting the focus on working with experts from local indigenous communities who have deep knowledge of the polar regions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIndigenous communities make up around 10% of the 4 million or so people living in the Arctic region. Until now, they have often been sidelined in polar research efforts.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe work with rights holders \u2013 indigenous communities or organisations \u2013 as well as with indigenous scholars, indigenous people who are researchers themselves at universities or institutes,\u201d said Scheepstra, a doctor of Arctic and Antarctic studies at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022text-center text-blue font-bold text-2xl w-full lg:w-1\/2 border-2 border-blue p-12 my-8 lg:m-12 lg:-ml-16 float-left\u0022\u003E\n  \u003Cspan class=\u0022text-5xl rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n  \u003Cp class=\u0022font-serif italic\u0022\u003EIt is really nice working with indigenous knowledge holders because they often have quite a holistic perspective on things.\u003C\/p\u003E\n  \u003Cfooter\u003E\n    \u003Ccite class=\u0022not-italic font-normal text-sm text-black\u0022\u003EAnnette Scheepstra, EU PolarNet 2\u003C\/cite\u003E\n  \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cFor many years, people have said it\u2019s important to include indigenous knowledge holders or to work with them. But how? Often, that has not been addressed, and that\u2019s my interest,\u201d she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECooperation with indigenous people is now based on the principles of upholding their rights, respecting their culture and society, avoiding any harmful impact on their communities, and embracing their knowledge in shaping scientific ideas about the Arctic.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EScheepstra\u2019s work has included working with the Saami Council, an NGO representing the rights of the Saami people living in Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden to set out a roadmap for research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt is really nice working with indigenous knowledge holders because they often have quite a holistic perspective on things,\u201d she said. It is also a good way to ensure that the projects in the region can really succeed.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EBreaking the ice in the Antarctic\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOut in the field, many researchers are focusing both on melting ice and threatened species. This is the case with a seven-year EU-funded project named Beyond EPICA. It builds on a previous EU-funded research project named EPICA, which used polar ice samples to reconstruct the Earth\u2019s climate going back 800 000 years.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis time, researchers coordinated by Carlo Barbante, a professor of environmental sciences at Ca\u2019 Foscari University in Venice, Italy, aim to extract ice in the Antarctic that is well over 1 million years old.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThat is a period of time in which the way the climate of our planet operates completely changed,\u201d said Barbante, who is also a member of the EPB. The project he coordinates runs until June 2026 and involves teams from 10 European countries.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHis team\u2019s working conditions are extremely challenging.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAt a sparse camp in eastern Antarctica, 16 members of the Beyond EPICA research project team have settled in for several weeks of living and working in a harsh environment.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETheir temporary home is just a few tents and containers set in the dazzling-white deserted landscape.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEven though it is almost summer in Antarctica in early December, at 3 200 metres above sea level, temperatures at the Little Dome C Camp average around -52\u00b0C and can drop to -60.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe team is there to drill down thousands of metres to extract and analyse samples of the Earth\u2019s oldest ice and, with them, the vital information they contain about how our planet\u2019s climate has evolved over time.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe climatologists\u2019 giant drill steadily makes progress down through the ice, passing the 1.8-kilometre mark already. The drilling process is electronically monitored every step of the way, and the hole has a diameter of only 10 centimetres, so environmental impact is minimal.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut why the drilling?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe ice can give us information about the composition of the air and the temperature of the planet in the past, and help us better understand how the climate works,\u201d Barbante said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EResearch in this article was funded by the EU\u2019s Horizon Programme. The views of the interviewees don\u2019t necessarily reflect those of the European Commission. 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