World leading research group on the productive Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ)

The Norwegian government provided financial support for one research group at UiT to become word-leading. The ARCTOS members Jørgen Berge, Marit Reigstad, Bodil Bluhm and Paul Wassmann applied to get their application “world leading research group on the productive Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ)” evaluated. And the group was successful! As a consequence the world-known icebiota specialist Rolf Gradinger will become the fifth member of the group. “We have to ensure that we make rapid progress in MIZ research and strengthen our progress. We should become international forerunners and our research should influence what research is carried out indicate what pan-arctic groups should do”, says Paul Wassmann. On behalf of the group he will lead this new project in an attempt to become word leading in MIZ research.

“No other place on earth is subjected to so strong global change than the marginal ice zone of the Arctic Ocean. There fore we work where the changes are greatest. The MIZ is also close to Tromsø and Longyearbyen, the starting point for our expedition”, says Wassmann.

An international committee evaluated the UiT applications and selected the group of Wassmann as a clear number one candidate. The group has excellent scorings on scientific merits and project manager/group. The boldness/innovation aspect is also in the range of very good to excellent. The committee fully agreed that the field of the productive marginal ice zone is a strategic field that UiT should give the highest priority to. The importance and impact of marine research in the northern areas is tremendous for Norway, and probably the rest of the world.

You can also read the related article (in Norwegian) in iTromsø from Nov 18.