ÍSOR continues in unchanged form

Over the past year, an examination has been carried out into whether, and if so in what manner, certain agencies under the Ministry of the Environment, Energy and Climate could be merged.

Over the past year, an examination has been carried out into whether, and if so in what manner, certain agencies under the Ministry of the Environment, Energy and Climate could be merged.

The background is that with the formation of the last government, the aforementioned ministry was created, and under it fall numerous agencies; the staff number well over six hundred and are spread widely across the country. It was therefore obvious that it was sensible to examine whether, and if so in what manner, the impact could be increased, especially with regard to the numerous projects relating to climate matters.

After quite a lot of work on the part of the ministry, a hypothesis was put forward that envisaged the merging of a number of agencies into three. One of them was called "Náttúruvísindastofnun" (Natural Sciences Agency), in which the merging of the Meteorological Office, the Icelandic Institute of Natural History, the Research Station at Mývatn, the National Land Survey, and possibly ÍSOR was considered. In fact, from the very outset of putting forward this hypothesis, a clear reservation was made on the part of the ministry that, because of ÍSOR's special position in this context, with regard to operating form and the nature of its projects, it would be examined separately how best to ensure that ÍSOR could continue to serve its main clients, such as the country's energy and utility companies as well as the authorities.

Now the ministry has reached a conclusion that ÍSOR will not be merged with others into a larger A-part agency. This is in accordance with the opinion of ÍSOR's board, the majority of staff, and management.

With that decision, uncertainty about ÍSOR's position is eliminated and the operation continues unchanged.