Polar and Alpine Community News

The European Space Agency is organising the 13th Advanced Training Course on Land Remote Sensing with focus on Snow and Glaciers,which will be held at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, from 16 to 20 September 2024. The course aims at:

• Training the next generation of scientists and professionals in remote sensing of snow and glaciers
• Explaining the theoretical principles, processing algorithms and data products from multiple sources including optical, thermal and microwave 
• Stimulating the use of EO in the domains of water cycle science, water management and hazards e.g. floods.

The Sikumiut Field School will take place on the sea ice near Utqiagvik, Alaska, from April 7-11, 2025 and organizers are requesting applications from all sea ice knowledge holders.

What is the Sikukuit Field School?
Sikumiut means "people of the ice" in Iñupiaq and the field school aims to bring together sea ice knowledge holders from Indigenous and scientific ways of knowing to create a learning environment that blurs the
line between students and instructors. Participants will learn about sea ice using methods based on Indigenous Knowledge, On-ice Observations, Remote Sensing, and Numerical Modeling.

The Polar Science Early Career Community Office (PSECCO) and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Action Group (SCAR EDI AG) are teaming up to host a workshop at the 2024 SCAR OSC titled “Synergistic approach to addressing DEI issues; learning from different contextual initiatives” (W20) to be hosted on Friday, August 23, 2024, from 14:00 to 15:30 local time. Our goal for the workshop is to create a plan for pursuing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) action through coordinated, synergistic activities by first understanding how DEI efforts vary across international contexts, and then exploring with workshop attendees how we can learn from one another about how to improve DEI across the Antarctic research community. This workshop will be the start of an ongoing conversation and action plan, that we hope to continue through workshop outputs and online interaction in the months following the OSC. We encourage those interested in attending to RSVP by filling out this form by 23:59 UTC on Sunday August 4th, so that we can gear the workshop towards our planned participants; that said, an RSVP is not required to attend, and all are welcome!

Each year, the data curation and outreach teams of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Santa Barbara, California offer hands-on workshops both in Santa Barbara, CA, and virtually. The dates for the first 2025 data science training workshop are now announced and and the ADC invites applicants for the first in-person course, "Fundamentals of Qualitative and Quantitative Data Management for Arctic Research." This course will be held at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) in Santa Barbara, CA, from January 27-31, 2025. This course is designed to equip Arctic researchers, it provides an introduction to programming in R, an overview of reproducible and ethical research practices, qualitative data management, and more.

Limited travel support is available for in-person participants. Applications are open until August 16, 2024, you can apply here: https://forms.gle/k8MwmDPocFiQMCH86.

The first Arctic Council Chairship conference for and by youth will be held in Tromsø. This 3-day conference (January 24-26th, 2025) aims to bring together Arctic youth, Indigenous knowledge holders, young professionals, early-career researchers and students to:

• Network with Arctic youth and Arctic Council delegates/officials
• Develop skills in advocacy and leadership
• Engage with and experience diverse cultures and perspectives

Initiated in 2015, the KOPRI Fellowship Program aims to promote research collaboration and provide future generation scientists with networking and research opportunities. The participants will be provided with a round-trip airfare, moderate living expenses, and accommodation within the KOPRI facilities for a period up to 3 months.

The Polar Science Early Career Community Office (PSECCO) and IARPC Collaborations are excited to announce that registration is now open for a two-part workshop series entitled ‘How to Write a One-Pager.’ Join NSF Office of Polar Program (OPP) Program Officers to learn how to write a one-pager to summarize an idea you want to pitch to a funding agency. This workshop is open to polar early career scientists and will be run in two parts.

The SCAR Plastic Action Group (Plastic-AG) has launched a competition for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) to create an infographic describing plastic pollution in polar regions. The infographic should synthetise available scientific literature and visualize data about plastic pollution in polar regions (in the Arctic and/or Antarctica), including micro- and nanoplastics, to represent the latest advancements in polar research, including key concerns for polar ecosystems. The deadline to send the infographic is the 5th June 2024. The prize is a 400 USD ($) voucher to support the winner in attending the upcoming SCAR Open Science Conference “Antarctic Science: Crossroads for a New Hope”, in August 2024 or to attend another relevant conference in the field of the environment and polar regions.

For more information, please visit: https://scar.org/scar-news/life-sciences/plastic-news/infographic-competition

Opportunity for Early Career Researchers: become an observer at an international team of science communicators!

The SIOS Information Advisory Group (IAG) offers an early career researcher (ECR) the opportunity to serve as an observer member of the working group. The ECR will act as a SIOS ambassador and assist in distributing news about SIOS activities in ECR and other administrative and scientific networks. The selected ECR observer is expected to also contribute actively to other communication tasks and outreach efforts on Earth System Science in Svalbard. This engagement provides a platform for ECRs to become involved in an international organisation and expand their network of communicators and researchers in the field of Earth System Science in the Arctic/Svalbard.

The Bilateral initiative aiming at Harmonisation of the Svalbard cooperation (HarSval) is a multidisciplinary initiative which aims to strengthen the existing collaboration and foster new partnerships between scientists from Poland and Donor States (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein) conducting scientific research in Svalbard. An offer is addressed to Early Career Scientists (undergraduate/graduate students and PhD. candidates) affiliated with Norwegian universities or research institutes. Proposals with a strong bilateral collaboration will be prioritised. (A similar offer is addressed to ECRs affiliated to Polish entities through a separate call announced by the International Environmental Doctoral School associated with the Centre for Polar Studies at the University of Silesia in Katowice). Read more the eligibility criteria and application process here.