 An early scientific agent was the Norwegian Institute for Air Research, which has conducted air research in Ny-Ålesund since the mid-1970s.The most prominent project was the Man and the Biosphere Project, which later also saw participation from the University of Tromsø and the University of Bergen and lasted until 1985.Additional international universities started sending expeditions in the latter half of the 1970s, such as the Max Planck Institute, Louisiana State University and the Danish Space Research Institute.