Polar and Alpine Community News

Every year, the European Union awards around 1,700 MSCA postdoctoral fellowships. These fund researchers to focus on the scientific puzzles they are most passionate about, full-time for up to three years.

MSCA funding is highly competitive. During the 2023-24 round, less than 16% of applications were successful. In contrast, all three applicants who applied through iC3 received funding – a perfect 100% success rate.

Building on this success, the iC3 Polar Research Hub is launching its own, in-house support programme for strong MSCA candidates.

We will actively support each selected applicant on a 1:1 basis, from the moment we take them on board until the day they submit their proposal.

This is an opportunity for you to help to shape the science and structure of a new SCAR biological research programme.

The aim of the new SCAR scientific programme concentrating on all areas of biology and ecology, Changes in Circumpolar Antarctic Gradients in Ecosystems (C-CAGE), is to use the natural environmental gradients in temperature, ice cover, and other physical drivers that exist in different parts of Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic (with latitude, longitude, altitude, and depth) to better predict the likely outcomes for life as the region’s habitats change.

C-CAGE is at the programme planning group stage and looking for input from the scientific community and they need your help to establish who is interested in being part of C-CAGE and what it should be focusing on. They ask you to fill out a short survey (less than 10 minutes of your time) to help them narrow down these big themes and questions to those that are relevant to current and future work by the SCAR biological research community: https://forms.office.com/e/345VHHwT0Z

They would greatly value as many responses as possible before the end of March 2025 and would appreciate it if you would share this message with any relevant colleagues who might be interested. They encourage researchers of all career stages, backgrounds, nationalities, and areas of interest to contribute and ensure that their science is represented. 

SCARFISH is a newly formed action group from the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) under the Life Sciences Group that aims to identify research gaps in fish biology and foster broader international collaboration and coordination to fill those gaps; synthesize fish research needs from the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) and work to integrate more comprehensive Southern Ocean fish research into CCAMLR; while increasing diversity in the Southern Ocean fish research community, including increasing the engagement of Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in this research topic. 

SCARFISH is launching its Working groups and aims to engage ECRs in its activities, from co-leadership positions to working group members, that will be working alongside other ECRs and established scientists to achieve SCARFISH goals. If you are involved in Antarctic fish research and would like to participate in SCARFISH Working groups, please fill out this form.

This e-Journal is being curated by a volunteer team of Arctic scholars as a supplement to the fourth International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP IV) process and as a complement to the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC)’s annual report on Arctic research. As a Research Priority Team 5 (RPT 5) for IASC, we seek to address areas in Arctic research of Indigenous-led methodologies and co-production of knowledge. We intend to fill the research gaps and prioritize these topics across the global Arctic and publish a new e-Journal each year leading up to the next International Polar Year IPY (2032-2033). Leading up to the IPY, we envision this as the first Indigenous Polar Year that uplifts and carries the voices of the Arctic through effective and respectful community engagement and research. We aim to present this first e-Journal during the ICARP IV Summit / ASSW 2025 in Boulder, Colorado, USA (21 – 28 March 2025) as part of the supporting materials for the ICARP IV process for RPT 5.

The Swedish Polar Research Secretariat invites Early Career Scientists to take part in a research program on a joint expedition with the Swedish Icebreaker Oden and the Canadian Icebreaker CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent 9 August – 19 September 2025.

EU-PolarNet 2, a H2020 - Coordination and Support Action funded project, has launched an open access Stakeholder Engagement Portal.

The portal supports researchers in deciding which stakeholders and/or rights holders they should involve in the planning and implementation of research in the polar regions and in conducting a two-way dialogue. It is designed to be used for either Arctic or Antarctic. It provides guidelines by linking to existing resources for identifying, determining the role of stake- and rights holders, dialogue, resources and opportunities, support and continuing cooperation.

The portal aims to share information and support the decisions of projects and researchers themselves.

Why not test it today? It’s freely available at https://polarcatalyst.eu/.

The Karthaus Summerschool on Ice Sheets and Glaciers in the Climate System will (hopefully) take place from 20 May - 29 May 2025 in the South Tirolian town Karthaus, Italy. The Karthaus Summerschool is a 10-day international course intended for early stage PhD candidates that work in glaciology-related climate projects from all over the world.

The course provides the students with a thorough introduction into the dynamics of glaciers and ice sheets with a focus on ice-climate interaction. Although the course is anchored in continuum-mechanics and numerical modelling, it also provides lectures on ice-atmosphere interaction, climate of ice sheets and glaciers, glacier hydrology, ice-ocean interactions, geomorphology, and geodynamics. An important part of the course is networking and community building, for participants and teachers.

The course has place for 36 students.

Application deadline: 10 January 2025

See for more information: https://www.projects.science.uu.nl/iceclimate/karthaus/

SCAR is recruiting a Secretary to join the SCAR Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Action Group (AG).

This role will be an opportunity for early-career researchers, particularly students and those new to SCAR, to gain experience in project management, expand their network, familiarize themselves with SCAR and SCAR groups, as well as contribute to the activities of the EDI AG.

Toolik Field Station welcomes all to join them at the 2025 Toolik All Scientists Meeting, celebrating 50 years of Toolik research. The meeting will take place January 16-18, 2025 in Santa Barbara, CA. Register on our website by Dec. 6 (https://www.uaf.edu/toolik/news/all-scientists-meetings/index.php).

The All Scientists Meeting is intended to spark conversation, inspire new ideas, and garner feedback amongst the Toolik community. All are welcome to attend the meeting, including science talks, poster presentations, and breakout discussions/workshops on topics like education & outreach, equitable Arctic research with Alaska Native communities, creating field safety & inclusion plans, and station support needs.

Picture by Jason Stuckey, UAF