page_title: Ny-Ålesund
section_title: Research
hierarchical_section_title: Ny-Ålesund / Research
caption_attribution_description: The Mt Zeppelin cable-car in Ny-Ålesund, Norway
context_page_description: Ny-Ålesund is a small city in Oscar II Land on the island of Spitsbergen in Svalbard, Norway. It is situated on the Brøgger peninsula and on the shore of the bay of Kongsfjorden. The company town is owned and operated by Kings Bay, which provides facilities for permanent research institutes from ten countries. The town is ultimately owned by the Ministry of Climate and Environment and is not incorporated. Ny-Ålesund has an all-year permanent population of 30 to 35, with the summer population reaching 120. Its facilities include Ny-Ålesund Airport, Hamnerabben, Svalbard Rocket Range, a port and Ny-Ålesund Town and Mine Museum, as well as fifteen permanent research stations. It is the northernmost functional civilian settlement in the world.
  The town was founded in 1917 by Peter Brandal and his mining company, Kings Bay Kull Comp. Initially mining was carried out until 1929, but it was unprofitable for most of the 1920s. There were a series of air expeditions launched from Ny-Ålesund towards the North Pole. The company was nationalized in 1933 and the town was used for tourism and as a fishing port. Mining resumed for some months in 1941 and then from 1945.
context_section_description: Ny-Ålesund is host to sixteen permanent research stations run by agencies from ten countries. In addition there are several institutions which carry out permanent research without having established their own stations. Most research is centered around environmental and earth sciences, taking advantage of the town's latitude, close access to pristine nature and relatively mild climate. Compared to other locations at such a latitude, Ny-Ålesund provides a well-developed infrastructural in terms of facilities, laboratories, access and communication.
  The entire town remains owned and operated by Kings Bay, which provides services to visiting scientists.
  Representatives for the participating institutes meet in the Ny-Ålesund Science Managers Committee (NySMAC) twice per year. NySMAC's main goals are to distribute information on existing research and plan future research. The Svalbard Science Forum (SSF) is an agency which acts as an information and coordination facilitator for research throughout Svalbard. Based in Longyearbyen, it is chaired by the Research Council of Norway. Among SSF's tasks is the management of the Research in Svalbard (RiS) database, which contains information on all previous and ongoing research on the archipelago. Kings Bay participates in SSF and requires all researchers to register their projects with RiS. The Americans do have a presence in the form of a National Science Foundation funded group known as Svalbard REU which conducts research on the surrounding glaciers annually.
  The following is a list of all currently running, permanent research stations in Ny-Ålesund. It states the station's name, the institute operating it, the nationality, the year the station was established, and the nature of the research carried out.
caption: The gondola which runs up Zeppelinfjellet to Zeppelin
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