ECRs at Antarctica InSync Science Planning Meeting
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
Lucy Stephenson, UKPN Vice-President, attending the Antarctica In Sync Science Planning meeting held at the European Space Agency. 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
Funding success. UKPN and APECS Iceland were awarded funding from the NERC Arctic Office to help ECRs gain scientific cruise experience.
UKPN and APECS Iceland collaborated on a successful grant application to obtain funding from the NERC Arctic Office. This funding will be used to host a networking scheme tailored towards UK and Icelandic Early Career Researchers (ECRs) on board the RRS Sir David Attenborough for a week passage from the UK to Madeira. The aim of the scheme is to provide ECRs with limited fieldwork experience the opportunity to participate in a mock scientific cruise. Participants will receive training and familiarisation with ship instrumentation and learn about oceanic and atmospheric sampling from British Antarctic Survey scientists. An insight into the practical and theoretical logistics of cruise will be provided with hand-on experience and a guided session towards writing a cruise report.
Stay tuned for your chance to apply.
Photos: Sam Hunt (@samwise_adventure)
Survey to understand the impacts of COVID-19 on the Svalbard science community
To anyone with research interests in Svalbard, please find below information about a survey to understand the impacts of COVID-19 on the Svalbard science community.
This survey will be used to make a strategy for the upcoming (2021) field season in Svalbard. Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS) invites all those who are associated with Svalbard science community including researchers/scientists, research management staff, logistics operators, academicians including students (PhD/Masters/Bachelors), and research station/facility/infrastructure staff, to respond to this survey. You can find more information and survey link here: https://sios-svalbard.org/News_20201209.
It will take approximately 15 minutes to complete this survey. The survey will be closed on 7 January 2021.
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How will we use the data and disseminate results from this survey? How will you get benefitted from this survey?
(1) SIOS will host a dedicated online workshop ‘SIOS responses to COVID-19 and the new normal - adapting our strategy for the future’ on 13 January 2020 (09:30 Am to 12:00 Pm CET) as a part of its annual Polar Night Week (PNW) event (11-15 January 2020). More information is available here: https://sios-svalbard.org/PolarNightWeek. Registration to PNW is open: https://sios-svalbard.org/PNW2021_registration. Your inputs to this survey will help us to shape and formulate the programme of this workshop. Preliminary results of this survey will be discussed during the workshop. We encourage all the participants of this survey to attend this workshop.
(2) Since the pandemic is still ongoing, your response will be used to develop new services and strengthen existing services at SIOS-KC to support your fieldwork activities during 2021.
(3) Finally, responses from this survey and the PNW workshop will be analysed by SIOS-KC, RSWG and authors from the Svalbard science community. We may produce a manuscript based on the response from the community to be published in a peer-reviewed journal. If we do so, all the responses will be used anonymously without revealing the personal identity of anyone responding to this survey. If you are willing to analyse resulting data and provide inputs to the planned manuscript as an author, please respond to all questions of the survey and do not forget to mention your name and email id on the question 1 and 2.
ASSW / AOS Online - Registration open!
The online Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) launches tomorrow followed by the Arctic Observing Summit (AOS)!
The ASSW is an international assembly convened by the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), fostering communication and collaboration between international policymakers, scientists, indigenous people, businesses and NGOs in discussing and addressing key Arctic issues.
This year event will be held online on 27 March - 2 April, and registration is currently live and open to everybody.
Key links:
- Full programme available here: https://www.assw2020.is/program/science
- Arctic Observing Science agenda: https://aos2020agenda.org/march-31/
- Poster session: https://aos2020agenda.org/posters/
- Registration: https://www.assw2020.is/registration
Most of the events will be held in Zoom and you can find detailed guidelines on how to use this platform for ASSW/AOS here: https://aos2020agenda.org/how-to-join/
We in UKPN are glad to be involved in different parts of the event this year, invite you to join us and are looking forward to connecting with the world-wide Arctic community!
