It's an all-expenses-paid trip to the Arctic for 40 lucky winners!

Come up with a winning idea and you will travel to the fragile environment of Svalbard, a group of Norwegian islands (known as an archipelago) located at the edge of the Polar Ocean. Only 2,500 people live in Svalbard – around 2,000 Norwegians live in the settlement of Longyear, while 500 Russians live in Barentsburg.

Ice fields and glaciers cover 60% of the terrain, but there are plenty of animals and plants – despite being so close to the Pole.

The itinerary for the trip will be as follows*:

July 4th Wednesday
Depart from London Airport pm and arrive Longyearbyen late pm

July 5th Thursday
Morning visit to Svalbard Museum

Environmental project around Longyearbyen and training on blogging for schools

July 6th Friday
Safety programme with UNIS including firearms safety and what to do if encountering a polar bear.

July 7th Saturday
Morning: Environmental project on glaciers around Longyearabyen.

Afternoon 'Crisis on Ice' with local guides and board boat for night sail to Ny Alesund.

July 8th Sunday
Arrive Ny-Alesund for briefing, tour of research park and briefings with scientists to set environmental projects for teams.  Dinner with international scientist teams and presentations on Long Acre Polar Project and Kronenberg Glacier.

July 9th Monday
Breakfast on board and visit to Krossfjord Glacier and Virgehamber, a 17th Century Whaling Station.

Far Haren view where Nelson encountered polar bear 1773.

Sail further north overnight.

July 10th Tuesday
Breakfast on board and arrive at pack ice at 81° latitude.

Morning: explore pack ice with smaller boats.

Afternoon; sail to Moffen Island to see walrus colony and on to Liefdefjord to see reindeer breeding grounds and (with any luck) polar bears a at the Moarchbreen glacier view.

Sail back to Ny Aysen.

July 11th Wednesday
Morning: arrive in Ny-Alysen to report on findings of the trip.

Sail back to Longyearbyen.

July 12th Thursday
Breakfast on board and disembark Longyearbyen for glacier study with UNIS.

July 13th Friday
Dog sledding and sight seeing tour of Longyearbyen.

July 14th Saturday
Early morning flight to Oslo for visit to the  Fram Museum and early evening flight back to London, Heathrow.

*itinerary subject to change

Read more about Svalbard here:
www.sysselmannen.svalbard.no/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard

Edge is working closely with three principal partners to ensure that Ice Edge provides the experience of a lifetime to the winning students:

ISSET – a charitable trust that has many years’ experience organising fantastic life-enhancing visits for students and schools.

UNIS – the world’s most northerly University, which is based in Svalbard.

Ben Saunders – the UK’s record breaking Polar explorer.