Barentsportal is a Norwegian Polar Insitute project with a main goal to establish a joint Norwegian - Russian Environmental Data Portal (JNREDP).   The main goal is to compile existing and new environmental data from the Barents Sea and adjacent areas, and to publish these data in a joint environmental data portal. To achieve this goal, three major targets are essential to prove a success:

• To establish a joint Norwegian – Russian Environmental Data Network consisting of the main data handling institutions in the two countries

• To develop a joint comprehensive base of environmental knowledge from the Barents Sea areas by identifying relevant existing environmental data and point out major gaps in the environmental mapping

• To launch a Joint Norwegian – Russian Environmental Data Portal (JNREDP) with the aims to make these data accessible for the authorities, industries and the public, and as a communication portal for distribution of scientific data

The JNREDP will be based on state of the art information technology and founded on collection and integration of relevant environmental data sets from the most relevant data handling institutions in Norway and Russia brought into one common information infrastructure. The major elements in JNREDP will be the establishing of a portal architecture and virtual distributed database with geospatial data. Technically, JNREDP will implement techniques for search, retrieval, presentation and integration of environmental data and provide fast access to relevant spatial information as thematic maps and other environmental observations and knowledge.