“We carefully considered all the details- related to the construction of the Snowflake for education and science, and decided to build two stations in Yamal and Murmansk region”, said Yury Trutnev.
Both stations will follow the previously outlined objectives and fulfill the tasks of developing science, supporting research projects, and attracting Russian and international scientists and specialists. The IAS “Snowflake” in Murmansk region will be built with a mixed power supply system and for the implementation of scientific and educational programs. In Yamal, the Snowflake station will be a “Living laboratory” for testing breakthrough Arctic developments and technologies on the basis of renewable energy sources and hydrogen energy.
“The project is developing as a part of the Russian chairmanship of the Arctic Council and it will be of interest to specialists from all over the world. The station’s location will enable scientists to conduct sociocultural research and study climate change in the Arctic. In the next few days, we will sign a contract for the design of the station”, said Dmitry Artyukhov, Yamal-Nenets Governor.
According to Murmansk governor Andrei Chibis, construction of the station will become an additional opportunity for new educational programs, scientific research, as well as for attraction of scientific specialists to the region.
“We worked with our colleagues from Salekhard and Murmansk on a preliminary designation of scientific and educational interdisciplinary work at both stations, in order to do not overlap the work, but rather complement it. Both "Snowflakes" fit perfectly into the development agenda of the federal research and education Center that have just been created. The West Siberian Research Center was created in cooperation of the Tyumen region, Khanty-Mansi and Yamal-Nenets regions. The Research and Education Center “Russian Arctic” unites scientists from the Arkhangelsk, Murmansk and Nenets regions.
Thus, Russia will build two platforms for Russian engineers and developers of breakthrough technologies, as well as for foreign partners, the list of which is constantly growing.
We all have a lot of work not only to design both stations, but also to build a significant part of them within the short period of Russia's chairmanship of the Arctic Council. This will demonstrate to everybody our priority to invest in environmentally friendly technologies for a human in the Arctic”, said Yury Vasiliev, Executive Director of the Institute of Arctic Technologies, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.