Norwegian polar research, High North research and research in Svalbard

High North research

In 2022, R&D efforts dedicated to the High North amounted to 1 205 FTEs (full-time equivalents). About half of the FTEs (49 percent), approximately 600 were conducted in the higher education sector, nearly 520 FTEs (43 percent) from the institute sector, and 95 FTEs (8 percent) were conducted by the business enterprise sector. This data highlights a significant decline in R&D activities compared to 2018, where the total FTEs dropped from almost 1 600, an overall reduction of almost 25 percent. Based on reported FTEs, estimated current expenditure on R&D amounted to approximately 1.8 billion NOK in 2022.

The largest institution in the higher education sector is UIT The Arctic University of Norway with a total of approximately 360 FTEs, representing about 30 percent of the national total for High North research. The distribution of High North research in 2022 shows that approximately 20 percent focused on coast areas outside Norway, research dedicated to Svalbard comprised about 14 percent of the total, while research related to Troms, Nordland, and Finnmark, collectively making up 45 percent of the total FTEs.

Polar research

In 2022, Norway conducted nearly 800 FTEs in polar research. The institute sector was the largest with almost 60 percent, followed by the higher education sector with approximately about 40 percent), while the business enterprise sector contributed a minimal (less than 1 percent). Looking at the trend since 2002, polar research experienced steady growth until 2014, plateauing in 2018, and subsequently declining by about 160 FTEs (17 percent) in 2022. Despite the overall decrease in polar R&D activity since 2018, some of the most significant R&D units in both institute and the higher education sector have maintained or even increased their polar R&D efforts during this period. However, some large units have also reduced their activity compared to the previous mapping. While the overall reduction in R&D is partly driven by a few key units, it is primarily due to those where polar R&D is not a core focus.

Based on the reported FTEs and cost to infrastructure, it is estimated that almost 1.7 billion NOK were spent on polar research in 2022. Of these approximately 420 million NOK were spent to operate infrastructure used to conduct polar research. The current expenditure to polar research, increased by approximately 125 million NOK from 2018, but adjusted for inflation, this represented a decrease of 4.2 per cent.

Research related to Svalbard

Approximately, 175 FTEs of R&D related to Svalbard were conducted in 2022. Slightly more than half (55 percent) of the R&D efforts were conducted in the higher education sector, 45 precent in the institute sector, and only 1 percent were conducted by companies in the business enterprise sector.  Compared to 2018, when approximately 290 FTEs were conducted, this represents a significant reduction of about 40 percent. The figures also indicate Svalbard’s share of total polar R&D FTEs, which has declined from around 30 percent to 22 percent in 2022.

Based on the reported FTEs, we have calculated current R&D expenditures to be 262 million NOK. Additionally, the R&D performing units reported 72 million NOK for current infrastructure costs and 8 million NOK for infrastructure investments. In total, 343 million NOK was spent on R&D expenditures related to Svalbard in 2022.