The German National Committee (GNC) SCAR / IASC (www.scar-iasc.de) serves as a national correspondent for the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC). Further, the GNC SCAR / IASC plans and coordinates the activities of German university research in the field of polar sciences together with the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and relevant federal institutions, which additionally provide the necessary logistics for university research.
This year’s annual meeting of the GNC SCAR / IASC was hosted by the the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg from the 28-29 May 2015. Both the location itself (Schloss Erlangen) as well as its surroundings provided perfect circumstances for this event.
More than 30 established researchers and attended the meeting, all occupying leading roles in the German polar research community. Representatives from the German Research Foundation (“Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft – DFG”), the Federal Environment Agency (“Umweltbundesamt – UBA”) and two Federal Ministries (“Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung - BMBF” and “Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz, Bau und Reaktorsicherheit - BMU”) complemented the group of participants. The meeting was led by GNC SCAR/IASC’s chair, Prof. Dr. Günther Heinemann (Environmental Meteorology, University of Trier). Prof. Dr. Matthias Braun (GNC SCAR/IASC Secretary, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg) and Dr. Sascha Willmes (GNC SCAR/IASC Executive Assistant) carried out all organizational matters.
It was the first time in the history of the GNC SCAR/IASC that a representative of APECS was invited to attend the annual meeting. Therefore, I had the opportunity to give a brief overview on past, current and planned (international) APECS activities and projects as well as possibilities to promote and establish APECS on a national level in Germany. Many attendees were quite open towards that topic and provided me with helpful comments and suggestions. A huge step forward will be the organization of an APECS events at the “International Polartagung 2015” in Munich (www.glaziologie.de/Polartagung/) which will take place in September 2015. Further future improvements to connect and inform young polar researchers in Germany include an enhanced cooperation with the German Society for Polar Research (“Deutsche Gesellschaft für Polarfoschung e.V. – DGP”) and the priority program for Antarctic Research (“SPP-1158 Antarktisforschung”).
Extensive reports on SCAR and IASC activities over the past year (including the SCAR delegates meeting in Auckland, meetings of the IASC working groups at the ASSW 2015 in Toyama and the ICARP III process) and reports on the German polar research infrastructure (RV Polarstern; POLAR 5 and 6 research aircrafts; Neumayer-, AWIPEV-, Gondwana- and Gars O’Higgins stations) were other main topics at the meeting.
Overall, the opportunity to attend this annual meeting gave me a good insight into planning and coordinating national science activities and the translation of international science-agreements and guidelines to a national level. At the same time, it also proved to be an excellent networking opportunity with senior scientists and staff from the German funding agencies. I am very grateful for the travel support provided by the German Research Foundation and I would also like to thank Gerlis Fugmann and Hueges Lantuit for the fantastic support to prepare for the meeting.
