The 2025 season of busy activity at the BERA Centre in Svalbard is now behind us. Over the summer, BERA welcomed more than 150 visitors. This year, we have already exceeded 270 people who have visited our facility! In June, we unloaded equipment and supplies for research teams bravely exploring Svalbard, occasionally visiting us to pick up supplies.
In June, we unloaded equipment and supplies for scientific groups who were bravely conducting research in Svalbard, visiting us from time to time to collect their belongings from the warehouses and move on to different regions of Spitsbergen Island to work in Polish field research stations or sail yachts visiting various locations on the island, studying changes in its environment. And so the months of June, July and August passed, where there was much work for Wojtek Moskal, who was stationed there at the time, every day from morning to evening. Supporting scientific groups, organising and keeping order in the facility, performing minor repairs and modernising the building filled his time in Svalbard.
General Zaruski sailing ship team4Science Foundation and the Univeristy of Silesia duo Start of the teams’ journey to HornsundThe University of Maria Curie Skłodowska in Lublin teamUMCS at the beginning of the expedition, on the way to CalypsobyenThe University of Silesia in Katowice teamCargo logistics from BERA to the boatAdam Mickiewicz University in Poznań teamThe pontoon arrived at BERA for storage (UAM team)Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań team reaches BERANicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń team
At the beginning of September, we prepared to load all kinds of equipment/cargo from expedition groups to Poland for the next cruise of the Horizon II ship, verifying the inventory of our warehouses, preparing cargo for sea transport, and taking inventory of those that would remain for another year of scientific activities.
In the meantime, we hosted ING Hubs employees, whose task was to modernise the BERA facility by installing previously developed and purchased equipment, i.e. a new server, emergency power supply, Wi-Fi access points, smoke, temperature and carbon monoxide detectors, as well as smart home system components such as internal monitoring and remote management of the facility’s heating. more about cooperation with ING Hubs Poland in LINK.
Welcome at BERA – a duo of IT staff from ING Hubs Poland, Paweł and Daniel, and the BERA team: Wojtek, Darek, Kasia
From this year, the BERA facility has access to satellite internet and a developed security and monitoring system, controlled remotely from Poland, informing us especially about unwanted events directly on the phone. In this way, the world connected to the BERA facility has become much closer to the BERA Head and Manager, who sometimes watch polar foxes hanging around the facility’s door in the morning or evening.
The ‘little white house’ – a workshop and warehouse on the city’s border in the coal port, with a comfortable area for individual and group work – seems to be attracting more and more of our scientific colleagues. It is probably the view from the windows and the charming fireplace that are so magnetic 🙂
