Over the years the global neutron monitor network was successfully used to study cosmic ray variations and fluxes of accelerated solar ions, known as energetic solar particles. Recently, it has been used also for space weather purposes, specifically alerts and as a proxy to the related assessment of exposure to radiation (dose). Here, we overview the current status and applications of the global neutron monitor network and discuss its capability to study solar energetic particles, namely assessment of their spectral and angular distribution, during ground-level enhancements, focusing specifically on polar neutron monitors. Here we propose to build several new polar neutron monitor (NM) stations in order to optimize the capability of spaceship Earth to register and provide reliable data for analysis of strong solar energetic particle (SEP) events. We propose to rebuild or open new stations in both North and South hemispheres, e.g. Alert ALRT, Heis Island HEIS, Vostok VSTK, Livingston island LVGI, Barrow BARW, Grise Fiord GSFD, Eureka EUKA, Kotelny island KTLN, Severnaya Zemlya island SEVZ, Summit station SUMT, Wrangel island WRNG.