By Morten Andersen for In The Field.
Situated in Greenland’s capital Nuuk, the institute conducts research into Arctic ecosystems, monitors the living resources and the environment in Greenland and advices the Government of Greenland and other authorities.
Eduroam is a global secure mobility service developed for the academic and research community. The service allows students, researchers and staff of the participating institutions to have Internet in their own campus and when they visit other partner universities and institutions.
“Basically, you are able to log-on via Wi-Fi to any eduroam service in the World just like if you where at your own home institution,” explains head consultant Morten Kjeldgaard, from the Danish national research and education network DeiC.
Greenland is an autonomous overseas territory in the commonwealth of the Kingdom of Denmark. Thus, the eduroam service at The Greenland Institute of Natural Resources has been set up with assistance from DeiC. While the geography and the general conditions around telecommunications are very different in Greenland and Denmark, setting up the service in Nuuk has not been too challenging, according to Morten Kjeldgaard:
“Eduroam has various levels of built-in security, which can be a bit demanding to get up and running. It will always take some effort to make our systems here at DeiC able to connect with the local systems – in this case the systems of The Greenland Institute of Natural Resources. Still, what we have seen in Nuuk is not much different from what we see when we set up eduroam at a typical institute in Denmark. Actually, we have been able to manage the onboarding over phone and mail, not needing to travel.”
Speaking of travelling, the eduroam service has come available at an unusual time – in the shadow of the corona pandemic. Presently, the number of international researchers visiting Greenland is very small. However, this is highly atypical. Normally, scientists from all over the world come here to study a range of Arctic phenomena. The Greenland Institute of Natural Resources monitors animal populations, vegetation, physical and chemical parameters in order to follow trends associate with environmental and climatic changes. The monitoring is carried out in collaboration with international institutions.
“Once the COVID-19 pandemic is over, surely will this influx of scientists resume, and they will be pleased to find the new eduroam service being operational,” says Morten Kjeldgaard.