Polish and Norwegian project partners, experts, policy makers and representatives from ministries and agencies are gathered in Sopot in Poland 19 and 20 November to discuss current developments in climate change, environment and polar research.
“Poland and Norway have many researchers of high international reputation within their field. It is - in my view - highly beneficial that they can come together through the Norway Grants,” said Norway’s ambassador to Poland, Karsten Klepsvik, at the opening of the conference.
The conference is organised by the programme operator of the Polish-Norwegian Research Programme and the Research Council of Norway who is also a donor programme partner in the programme.
“The Polish-Norwegian Research Programme is possibly the biggest bilateral research fund in the world. This programme is financing many interesting Polish-Norwegian research projects targeting the environment, energy and climate change, including high quality polar research at Svalbard”, said Klepsvik.
From polar research to climate change impact on the potato
42 of the 75 joint Polish-Norwegian research projects funded under the programme focus on environment, climate change and polar research.
What the supported projects do research on ranges from from impact of climate change on ecosystems in the Artic, through studies on carbon capture and storage, and purification effects of air using plants, to innovative solutions for waste water management or modelling on biomass energy production.
Several of the Polish- Norwegian projects were presented at the conference.
Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway fund research programmes in eight countries. Environment and climate change research is in addition to in Poland also taking place in cooperation projects under the research programmes in Estonia (3 joint projects), the Czech Republic (6 joint projects) and Romania (6 joint projects). This means that more than one third of the research projects funded under the EEA and Norway Grants support research on climate change and the environment.
Representatives from these countries were also invited to the conference in Sopot this week.
Environment and climate change education
The conference in Sopot was not the only conference this week dedicated to the topic of environment and climate. Environment and climate change education was the topic in Warsaw 18 November when the programme operator of the Polish scholarship programme organised the conference Green universities. The conference included thematic lectures and project presentations. 38 education and training projects focusing on environment and climate change is funded under the programme.
More information
Visit the website of the research conference: http://www.climateconference.pl/
Read more about the Polish-Norwegian Research Programme
Read more about the EEA and Norway Grants research programmes