The Nansen Centers
- Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center (established in 1986), Bergen, Norway
- TerraOrbit A/S (established in 1987), Bergen, Norway
- Nansen International Environmental and Remote Sensing Center (NIERSC), (established in 1992) St.Petersburg, Russia
- Nansen Environmental Research Centre India (NERCI) (established in 1998), Kochi, Kerala, India
- Nansen Scientific Society (established in 2006), Bergen, Norway
- Nansen-Zhu International Research Center (NZC) (established in 2003), at Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- Nansen-Tutu Research Centre for Marine Environmental Research (NTC) (established in 2010) at University of Cape Town, South Africa
- Nansen-Bangladesh International Centre for Coastal, Ocean and Climate Studies (NABIC) (established in 2012) at Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, Dhaka, Bangladesh
The Nansen Centers long-term strategy includes the establishment of similar centres also in other parts of the world to provide an impetus for globally-oriented research in support of sustainable development of the earths resources and to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change.
The group is inspired by the life of Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930),
renowned Norwegian biologist, oceanographer, polar explorer, diplomat and humanist. The FRAM expedition,conceived and led by Nansen to chart Arctic waters by freezing a ship into the pack ice and allowing it to drift for 3 years was completed in 1896.
This laid the foundation for research in the Arctic Ocean, which is today known to be a key component of the global climate system. Nansen was empowered by 52 nations to issue the Nansen Passport to millions of war prisoners and refugees in the aftermath of
the First World War and the Russian Revolution and organised their feeding and repatriation. In 1922, Nansen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for hishumanitarian work. He played a key role in Norways separation from Sweden in 1905 and also served as Norways representative to Great Britain and to the League of Nations.
