Introduces fixed application deadlines for research activity on Svalbard

The Governor of Svalbard is the environmental protection authority pursuant to the Svalbard Environmental Protection Act and assesses applications for research activity in accordance with the Act and the regulations.

Research activity is constantly increasing in Svalbard, and in 2022 the Governor’s office assessed over 200 applications from researchers. To fulfill the Svalbard Environment Act's requirement in Section 8 to assess the overall impact on the natural environment and cultural heritage, four fixed application deadlines per year are now being introduced.

The deadlines have been set after dialogue with the research communities. Most of the fieldwork takes place during the summer, and to ensure time to be able to properly process cases at the Governor’s office, an application deadline of three months has been set for the period from June to August. Other periods have a two-month application deadline.

The Governor of Svalbard is aware that some research projects continue over several years and that the application may therefore include field periods over several years. The application will then be processed as a whole, and it is therefore important that the application deadline for the first field period is met.

Applications are assessed as quickly as possible. In periods with many incoming applications, the processing time can be more than four weeks and the applicants to whom this applies will then be notified.

Applications that have already been submitted will be processed and responded to on an ongoing basis. It is therefore not necessary to submit a new application for the specific periods mentioned below.

The Governor of Svalbard points out that before we consider an application, the research activity must be registered in the Research in Svalbard (RiS) portal.

Deadlines:

1 March for fieldwork in June, July, and August.

1 July for fieldwork in September, October, and November.

1 October for fieldwork December, January, and February.

1 January for fieldwork in March, April, and May.