During the APECS International Polar Week, 19-25 March 2018, we invite all APECS members to submit an image that represents “My #PolarPride.” The idea is to share photos and images from your research or your fieldwork that makes you proud to be a researcher at, or of, the poles. Whether you get to physically travel to the polar regions or if your work keeps you largely indoors, we welcome your #PolarPride images. For the image competition we will have two categories: My Polar Pride - Working Environment, and My Polar Pride - Research and Laboratory.

For the “Working Environment” category, we want you to submit a photo of your research or fieldwork that represents whatever you are proud of about your work. This includes photos of fieldwork, landscapes, wildlife, people and places.

For the “Research and Laboratory” category, we want you to get creative and think indoors! You can submit an image (photo, figure, map) that shows your #PolarPride even if you don’t work outdoors in the field. For example, you might like to show off a figure of your research results, a map of your study area, artwork depicting your research questions, or photos of yourself or colleagues indoors in the lab.

VOTE NOW on our favourite photos!! Thank you for the amazing photos that were submitted for our contest. Click through them and note their number and photographer name. And then fill out the two voting polls below. You can only vote once in each category!

• Voting poll for "Working Enviornment" category: http://pollmaker.vote/p/C5GWL74Q
• Voting poll for "Research and Laboratory" category: http://pollmaker.vote/p/7Y66XICS

Voting will close on 27 March at 23:00 GMT. The winners will be announced afterwards as soon as the voting results have been varified. 

• How to participate?

  To participate, you have to be an APECS member; each member can submit one image to each category (i.e. one to Working Environment, and one to Research and Laboratory, or just one for one of the categories).

  How to submit an image:

  • Pick your best image (photo, figure, map, sketch, etc.) that fits into the category(ies), and best represents your pride for the polar regions.
  • Write an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the subject “Image_competition [Your first and last name]”. In the email please include:
    • Name, affiliation, and email of the person entering the contest.
    • A short description of your image(s) (150-characters maximum).
    • Let us know if you are interested in your image being featured on our APECS Instagram (@apecs.polar) or Twitter (@Polar_Research) account . If so, include your handle.
  • Spread the word about the APECS International Polar Week and hope that your photo gets the most votes!

  The deadline for submission will be the 20th of March, 2018, 23:59 GMT. The vote will take place during Polar Week and the photo getting the most votes in each category will be the winner! Before submitting please read the rules and regulations.

  Please submit anything that you are proud of about your polar research!

• Rules and Regulations for the Contest - Please read before submitting a photo!!

  1. Eligibility

  1.1. The competition is open only to APECS members, if you’re still not a member please join before submitting you images. Joining APECS is free, and you’ll get the benefits of being part of an organization made up of passionate polar early career scientists and professionals! Click here to join.

  1.2. Images that have won prizes in prior APECS competitions, or have been used for commercial purposes will not be eligible.

  1.3. If you have won a prize in an APECS photo competition in the last 2 years, you are not eligible to submit a photo.

  1.4. Members of the Polar Week organizing committee are not eligible to submit a photo.

  2. Submission of Entries

  2.1. Images must be submitted by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the subject “Image_competition your name” (e.g. Image_competition Jean Holloway). This should also be the filename of your attached submission (if there is more than one image attached please add a number to the end of the file name ex. Image_competition Jean Holloway 2).

  2.2. The submission email has to include: Name, affiliation and email address of the person entering the contest, and a short description about the image(s) (150-characters maximum).

  2.3. Indicate if you are interested in your image being featured on our APECS Instagram account (@apecs.polar) or Twitter account (@Polar_Resaerch). If so, include your Instagram or Twitter handle.

  2.4. Each participant can submit up to two (2) images, but only one (1) per category (see below for details about the categories). Please indicate in the image description which category you would like the image submitted to.

  2.5. Images have to be in JPEG format (preferably with resolution of more than 300 dpi) and without any watermarks.

  2.6. The submission deadline is 20th of March 2018, 23:59 GMT.

  2.7. The organization reserves the right to reject images with incomplete details or that don’t respect the theme of the competition. For example, a photo of fieldwork or landscape (e.g. mountains or you hiking across a glacier) that is submitted to the “My Polar Pride - General” category may be rejected.

  3. Categories

  3.1. My Polar Pride - Working Environment

  3.1.1 For the “My Polar Pride - Working Environment” category we want you to submit a photo of your research or fieldwork that represents whatever you are proud of about your work. This includes photos of fieldwork, landscapes, wildlife, people and places.

  3.2. My Polar Pride - Research and Laboratory

  3.2.1. For the Research and Laboratory category, we want you to submit an image (photo, figure, map) that is not field or outdoors related. For example, you might like to show off a figure of your research results, a map of your study area, or photos of yourself or colleagues in the indoor lab, an abstract depiction of your research results. Any image of fieldwork, landscape, or any flora and fauna that is submitted to this category will be disqualified.

  3.3. If you have questions about which category to submit your photo for this competition, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

  4. Copyrights / Intellectual Property

  4.1. Each image submitted must be original and unpublished for commercial purposes.

  4.2. The participant shall retain the copyright to the picture entered for the competition.

  4.3. By submitting an image for the competition, the participant will be regarded as having accepted and agreed to be bound by the rules and regulations of the competition and granted the organiser, APECS, royalty-free permissions to use the picture(s) for promotional or educational purposes (e.g. website, flyers, postcards). APECS will credit the author for any use of the pictures.

  4.4. People featured in the image must accept and agree with the rules and regulations of this competition. It is the entire responsibility of the participants in the competition to inform and to get the permissions of all the people featured in the submitted images. Specifically, if you are featuring photos of minors (persons under the age of 18) that are identifiable in the photo you need permission from the child’s parent/caregiver.

  5. Judging and Results

  5.1. The pictures will be uploaded, by the organiser, to the APECS website, where a public online voting poll will be held, during the Polar Week (19th to 25th of March 2018).

  5.2. The image with most votes in each category will be the winners.

  5.3. Each participant can only win one prize. In the case that a participant has images with the most votes in both categories, the second participant with most votes will be the winner of the prize in one of the categories (chosen based on the category where the first place prize had the more overall votes).

  5.4. Results of the competition will be posted on the APECS website and social media, and the winners will also be notified via email at the end of the Polar Week (after 25th March 2018).

  6. Prizes

  6.1. APECS will award a prize to the first place winner in each category.

  6.2. The winners will receive a prize of €100 (One hundred Euros). These funds can be only used towards travel costs to a polar or cryosphere related conference of your choice within 1 year of the date of the award.

  6.3. After the release of results the winners will be contacted by the APECS International Directorate Office with instructions for claiming the prize.

Click on the folders for the two categories below to view the pictures: