Aurora Borealis is a proposed European research icebreaker, comparable to the world's strongest icebreakers,[2] planned jointly by a consortium of fifteen participant organizations and companies[3] from ten European nations.

[4] In March 2007 the BMBF (the German Federal Ministry for Science and Education) funded the preparations for Aurora Borealis, the Helmholtz Association center Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research hosted this project.

In 2010, the German Council of Science and Humanities stopped to support the planning which made the future of the 800-million-euro ship, designed by Schiffko[2] (nowadays Wärtsilä Ship Design[5]), uncertain.

The project has been delayed, and a slightly smaller and cheaper (less than 500-million-euro) version, Aurora Slim, has been suggested by the Finnish engineering company Aker Arctic.

[6] Like the original concept, the vessel is designed to break level ice up to 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) in thickness.