Last week, the Antarctica InSync Science Planning Meeting was hosted at the ESA-ESRIN (European Space Agency) in Frascati, Rome.

Antarctica InSync is an exciting, ambitious new global programme which seeks to ‘synchronise research across Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, connecting ice, ocean, climate, and life to protect this vital region’. This will be done through synchronised, multi-platform observations between 2027-2030. (Read more about Antarctica InSync here). The science planning meeting had over 100 attendees collaborating to align scientific priorities around the 7 scientific Themes. Each theme did this through development of white papers which will be open for the community to comment on shortly, and then published sometimes in the new year.

UK Polar Network were lucky enough to have representation at the meeting. We were invited since we represent early career researchers (ECRs) on the UK InSync national committee. (Find out about other ways that UKPN represents ECRs here.) This was a fantastic opportunity to ensure that ECR perspectives were being heard during this planning phase, and to engage with the coordination team, attendees and key stakeholders.

Overall, it felt like the meeting was very inclusive to ECRs. There were several ECRs in attendance from various nations (although it is worth noting that they were mostly from Western countries). Their voices were actively included in discussions during Theme white paper developments. Impressively 2 ECRs had proposed and lead a scientific working group. At both the first and last plenary sessions we were pleased that senior scientists initiated discussions about ECR involvement. Discussions included possibilities of fieldwork training, hackathons and berth sharing.

We are so excited about some of the opportunities InSync presents for ECRs and will work hard to advocate for them to come to fruition. It’s so important that as a community we try and make the most of the opportunities Antarctica InSync presents. Here are some ways to get involved in Antarctica InSync as an ECR:

• Sign up to the Antarctica InSync mailing list and the mailing list for the scientific themes you are most

  

  interested in

• Watch this space for an Antarctica InSync ECR mailing list coming soon
• Join the working groups that align with your interests – these will be advertised soon
• Set up a working group around your scientific area of expertise!
• Contribute in the new year when theme white papers are opened up for feedback/input from the wider community
• Engage with your national committee. Look up who your ECR/APECS representative is on your national committee. If there isn’t one should there be?
• Talk to your supervisors/collaborators about ways to get involved scientifically in Antarctica InSync
• Attend the InSync ECR workshop at SCAR Open Science Conference 2026 organised by APECS Germany

Written by Lucy Stephenson, UKPN Vice-President