Polar and Alpine Community News

Applications are now open for the Greenland Ice Sheet Ocean Science (GRISO) Network Summer School in Nuuk, Greenland, to be held May 18-29, 2026. The theme is A Collaborative Future: Strengthening Science & Connections in Greenland.

The GRISO Summer School emphasizes both Greenland science and building collaboration, communication, and complex problem-solving skills across disciplines. The primary audience for the summer school is advanced PhD students and early postdocs. This year’s instructors are Twila Moon (NSIDC/University of Colorado), Till Wagner (University of Wisconsin), Kirstin Schulz (University of Texas), and Aleah Sommers (Dartmouth College). The summer school will also include interactions with the scientific community in Nuuk.

Applications are open now and will close on January 21, 2026. Participants will be notified of acceptance via email by the end of February 2026.

More details and the application link are available online at: https://griso.ucsd.edu/griso-summer-school-2026/

Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with any questions, and please forward this notice to anyone you think might be interested. We look forward to seeing your application!

Toolik Field Station invites students and early career researchers to apply for the Tundra Award for the 2026 field season. This competitive award sponsors independent and original Arctic research projects with up to 10 days at Toolik Field Station in Arctic Alaska. Toolik will provide award recipients with housing, meals, access to facilities and common-use equipment, science support and transportation between Fairbanks and the field station.

The ADVANCEing FieldSafety program consists of three main components:

A 7-module online course that focuses on creating a safe field environment, fostering a safe field culture, and building teams from varied backgrounds.

Two 90-minute, interactive online workshops—one that provides practice in bystander intervention strategies and another that models how to compose norms agreements.

A toolkit of resources such as checklists, fillable documents, and implementation guides that can be customized for a wide range of field contexts.

ScaliFar is a PhD- and Master’s course about systematics, morphology and ecology of the scalidophoran taxa, Kinorhyncha, Loricifera and Priapulida. The course is organised within the UArctic Network, and in collaboration with the University of the Faroe Islands, Faroe Island’s National Museum, BioFar, the Natural History Museum of Denmark and four additional universities and research institutions.
The course is a one-week’s field course and takes place in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands on July 15 to 22, 2026.

The Science Day at Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) 2026 on 29 March 2026 will bring together researchers, Indigenous knowledge holders, and Arctic stakeholders to share recent advances in Arctic science. This one-day event will feature parallel thematic sessions reflecting the five IASC Working Group themes: Atmosphere, Cryosphere, Marine, Social & Human, and Terrestrial, along with a dedicated Indigenous-led Research and Knowledge Co-production session and one session showcasing Cross-disciplinary research.

Reflecting on conditions, practices and institutional structures for sustainable polar research

Within both the ICARP IV process and the first IPY-5 document, ambitions are high, for instance regarding co-creation of (working with different) knowledge (systems), international cooperation, more holistic research approaches, contribution of science to address climate, environmental and societal problems and more communication and outreach activities. Furthermore, there is an increasing awareness that research should be conducted in an environmentally sustainable as well as healthy way. At the same time, rapid action and complex research requirements put scientists under pressure in terms of the existing mismatch of the conventional environment in academia with high-speed production and precarious working conditions for many.