Polar and Alpine Community News

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.

SCAR launched its 2024 Antarctic-related Fellowships for early-career researchers today. The SCAR Fellowship Programme is designed to encourage the active involvement of early-career researchers in furthering our understanding of Antarctica. The Fellowships enable early-career researchers to join a project team from another country, opening up new opportunities and often creating partnerships that last many years and over many Antarctic research seasons.

Following the launch of the Polar Initiative in 2022 the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation has funded an additional SCAR fellowship and as a result SCAR will offer in total four to five fellowships of up to USD $15,000 each for 2024. 

The deadline for the SCAR fellowship applications is 31 July 2024.

The Norwegian Scientific Academy for Polar Research (NVP), in partnership with The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), is delighted to announce the NVP International Summer School 2024, entitled "The Global Arctic." This event forms part of a series of interdisciplinary summer schools conducted in the distinctive locales of Longyearbyen and Isfjord Radio, Svalbard, specifically designed for PhD students and Postdocs.

The Polar Science Early Career Community Office (PSECCO)* Conference Travel Grant Program is now open for applications. Travel awards to attend and present polar-related work at a conference are open to polar early career scientists and educators. In this Spring 2024 funding cycle, PSECCO will be distributing $5,000 of awards. Applicants may request a reasonable amount of funding to support their travel to/from a conference, up to a value of $900 per person, with awards aimed at those with demonstrated financial need.  An additional $100 is available for awardees who organize a PSECCO social event at the conference. 

The application deadline is March 15, 2024 at 11.59pm MT.  PSECCO will open another round of conference travel funding in the fall of 2024.