The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) grew out of the 4th International Polar Year (IPY-4) 2007-08.  IPY-4 occurred at a time of increasing scientific and public interest in the polar regions, centered on global climate change, and through enhanced scientific understanding, media attention, primary and secondary school (K-12) educational programs, and public literacy campaigns connected with climate change. Research and Educational Outreach activities of IPY-4 sought to improve both our understanding and our communication of all aspects of the Polar Regions and their broader global connections. An important objective of IPY was to ensure a legacy of continued polar research and literacy by encouraging the development of the next generation of polar researchers and educators.

Present-day environmental, ecological, social and geopolitical changes in the Polar Regions are expected to continue and become even more pressing. Fully understanding them and their global connections and impacts, will require innovative, transformative, international and interdisciplinary polar research. The need to stimulate and nurture the next generation of researchers is crucial to achieving these goals. An important objective of IPY is to ensure a legacy of continued polar research and literacy by encouraging the development of the next generation of researchers and educators with interests in the Polar Regions and the broader Cryosphere. APECS was founded as a response to these needs and as a legacy of the IPY -4 Project 168, the International Youth Steering Committee. 

Many talented young scientists are drawn to polar research by a combination of the increasingly innovative, intellectually stimulating and socially-relevant nature of polar research and strong connections with polar environments. However, these and future young researchers face a number of challenges, including: 1) the need for increased international/multinational cooperation; 2) the need for integrated and interdisciplinary research; 3) staying abreast of technological advances, especially in the context of interdisciplinary research and synthesis of natural and social science and experimental and numerical research; 4) communicating scientific results to policy-makers and the public, and 5) unique and challenging research sites in geopolitically uncertain regions.

The need for innovative, international and interdisciplinary polar researchers is increasing. Most research projects involve graduate student training, but few provide professional development for a career in international and interdisciplinary polar science. The excitement and activity of education and outreach, especially during IPY, will undoubtedly stimulate younger people to pursue science careers. A sustained effort will be necessary to retain the current generation of young scientists and provide career resources for them and aspiring researchers.

APECS has grown out of concerted efforts from current young researchers to meet these needs for themselves and future polar researchers.

Organizational development of APECS: 2005 - 2008

A crucial event in the formation of APECS was a meeting in Sanga Saby, Sweden, in September 2007. This meeting saw founders and members representatives of two key initiatives combine together under the name of APECS: the International Polar Year Youth Steering Committee (YSC) formed in 2005 and including several national YSC’s, and a formative APECS, formed in 2006.

Despite its short existence, APECS is developing into a successful and healthy organization. This success has been achieved through the involvement and support of many people and organizations. APECS’ history is therefore short but nonetheless rich of diverse and plural trajectories, which we summarize below:

The International Polar Year (IPY) Youth Steering Committee (YSC), was founded in 2005 by Amber Church and Tyler Kuhn (co-chairs, Canada), Melianie Raymond (New Zealand), Jenny Baeseman (USA), Hugues Lantuit (Germany), Elie Verleyen (Belgium) and Stef Bokhorst (The Netherlands). Its aims were to ensure that IPY’s goals to include the next generation of polar researchers and the world’s youth were met. The YSC was designed as a decentralized institution relying on national committees, which rapidly came to life in several countries, including Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Portugal, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, among others. Those committees rapidly gained independence and developed their own networks as exemplified by the creation of the UK Polar Network in 2007.

The YSC focus was the creation, fostering and promotion of activities geared towards youth by young researchers. It largely focused on the involvement of school children and young adults in polar literacy projects and strengthening the communication between students and young researchers. A contributing factor to the success of the YSC’s during the IPY was strong support from the IPY International Program Office (IPO), based in Cambridge, UK, who ensured that the goals of the YSC would be heard in the community of senior researchers. The roles of Dave Carlson and Rhian Salmon, in particular, were crucial.

Progressively, a need for a broader, more encompassing organization specifically geared towards young researchers and early career scientists arose. Discussions on IPY education and outreach forums, similar initiatives in other scientific realms and the encounter of like-minded people created an awareness of the need for an organization driven by and serving early career researchers, focused on science and career development, unlike the YSC.

In the Autumn of 2006 to address these needs, Jenny Baeseman (USA), Hugues Lantuit (Germany) and Rhian Salmon (UK) laid the grounds for the rationale, structure, connections and future activities of APECS. The acronym was coined at the time and a nascent APECS was launched massively in early 2007, at the start of the IPY with Jenny Baseman and Hugues Lantuit as co-directors. In March of 2007, discussions were initiated by the directors with the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) to offer APECS’ services as representative of early career researchers in polar science. This early version of APECS then started evolving to serve better the needs of early career researchers interested in the polar regions and the wider cryosphere.

The YSC’s activities developed concurrently with many (if not most) of the early career researchers involved in both organizations. The YSC's scope, however, was limited in time, since it mainly focused on creating activities during the IPY. The need to ensure the continuation of successful initiatives and activities after the IPY led to brainstorming on post-IPY legacy. At the same time, the increase in young researcher initiatives in polar science started to create some confusion in the scientific community, questioning the structure, coordination and even the relevance of such organizations.

To address these issues, a meeting was organized at Sanga Saby outside Stockholm, Sweden in September 2007 to bring together all these groups and prepare some long-term sustainable plans. The meeting was sponsored by the Swedish company Serla, the IPY IPO, and other international polar science entities The key outcomes of this meeting were the decisions to merge these groups, including the YSC, into one organization, retaining the name of APECS, and that APECS should adapt its structure to reflect better the multifaceted nature of its membership. This established APECS as a legacy of the YSC and other IPY projects. A new structure was launched at the end of the meeting including working groups, an advisory committee, an interim Council of the 24 attending participants (see below), a an interim Executive Committee elected by the council (Kriss Rokkan Iversen (Norway), Narelle Baker (UK), Hugues Lantuit (Germany), Dan Pringle (USA), and José Xavier (Portugal), and Jen Baeseman (USA) was appointed as the interim director. Kriss Rokkan Iversen received unanimous support of all voters and was appointed by the Executive Committee as the interim President of APECS.

The Executive Committee and Director were charged with establishing APECS as an organization over the next 6-12 months. A report of activities in this period was made at the online APECS Council Meeting, 21 May 2008. Key progress included forming an international Advisory Committee of senior researchers and science administrators to provide guidance and support. A website was developed by in kind support from Iceland-based Arctic Portal through the generous support of director Halldór Jóhannsson: http://arcticportal.org/apecs. The website was established as a virtual home of APECS and amongst other features, includes study and job opportunities, meetings, news updates, and a discussion forum.

The executive committee met in March of 2008 in Akureyri, Iceland to address strategic planning for APECS and draft the documents that will help sustain this organization for year to come; The Terms of Reference and the Rules of Procedure. This meeting was coordinated by Halldór Jóhannsson and supported by the University of Akureyri, Northern Research Forum and the Arctic Portal.

The ROP and TOR included a revision from the interim APECS structure to an open Council who elect an Executive Committee. The Council controls issues related to APECS governance and structure, and is expected to act on time scales of months – years. The Executive Committee is mandated by the Council with shorter time-scale decision making and running APECS on a day to day basis. (See the founding ROP and TOR for details.)

Interim Council members, Sanga Saby, 2007:

Amber Church, Canada
Dan Pringle, Alaska
Hugues Lantuit, Germany
Jenny Baeseman, USA
Melianie Raymond, New Zealand
Tyler Kuhn, Canada
Bettina Kaiser, Germany
Rhian Salmon (IPO), UK
Jose Xavier, Portugal
Alexandre Trindade, Portugal
Camilla Hansen, Sweden
Narelle Baker, UK
Liz Thomas, UK
Claudia Halsband-Lenk, UK and Norway
James Cheshire, UK
Arthur Mason, USA
Stina Bäckstrand, Sweden
Arvid Bring, Sweden
Armelle Decaulne, France
Peter DiFiore, USA
Caroline Souffreau, Belgium
Kriss Rokkan Iversen, Norway
Jill Zamzow, USA
Nicola Munro, UK
Jason Davies, USA