Explore the Arctic and Antarctic with POLARIN’s Transnational Access Program

At the upcoming Arctic Six Annual Meeting in Umeå on 5–6 November 2025, Hannele Savela, University of Oulu, will give an overview of the EU-funded POLARIN project, focusing especially on its Transnational Access program.

Savela works at the Thule Institute in the University of Oulu, where she’s leading the access management work package of POLARIN, the Polar Research Infrastructure Network.

Her previous experience on The Arctic Six extends years back to around 2016, when she was helping to coordinate the initial stages of its predecessor, The Joint Arctic Agenda (before The Arctic Five).

“Since then, I have been following the development of the collaboration with great interest, and I am looking forward to joining the Arctic Six Annual Meeting 2025 in Umeå”, says Savela.

What is POLARIN Transnational Access?

POLARIN’s Transnational Access offers unique possibilities for researchers to conduct fully supported research at 64 world-class research infrastructures. The wide portfolio of research infrastructures offered for access in POLARIN ranges from terrestrial stations to vessels, observatories, core repositories and data infrastructure, located in the Arctic, Antarctic and surrounding marine regions.

There are 27 Arctic terrestrial research stations in POLARIN, and within the project they actively collaborate with each other and with the rest of the polar RIs in offering Transnational Access to scientists from all over the world. The collaboration also includes knowledge sharing through the Infrastructure Operators’ Forum activities, as well as training for new generations of researchers. Three of the Arctic Six partners –University of Oulu, UiT The Arctic University of Norway and Umeå University –are partners in POLARIN.

University of Oulu offers Transnational Access through Oulanka Research Station. UiT The Arctic University of Norway offers access to its core repository and geological laboratories and Umeå University is in charge of the development of the POLARIN GIS .

The 2nd POLARIN Transnational Access Call for Proposals is open until the end of October

This unique opportunity invites the global scientific community to submit proposals for free of charge access to a wide array of world-class Research Infrastructures (RIs) across both the Arctic and Antarctic. Whether your research demands in-person fieldwork, remote operations, or a combination of both, POLARIN provides crucial resources to help you address key polar research priorities.

Apply for the opportunity to access Arctic and Antarctic research infrastructures, including:

• Research stations
• Polar vessels and icebreakers
• Ice and sediment core repositories
• Observatories and data infrastructures

Read the full application instructions from the TA Call 2025 pages.
Explore the full list of available research infrastructures here: eu-polarin.eu/infrastructure/

• More information about POLARIN and it’s Transnational Access.