United States
Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research

US-SCAR News

NSF Virtual Grants Conference

Join the National Science Foundation for the Spring 2023 NSF Virtual Grants Conference June 5, 2023 2:00 PM ET - June 8, 2023 4:00 PM ET. Registration will open on Wednesday, May 10 at 12PM ET. Just like the in-person grants conferences, the NSF Virtual Grants Conference is a must, especially for new faculty, researchers and administrators. The NSF Grants Conference is designed to give new faculty, researchers, and administrators key insights into a wide range of current issues at NSF. NSF staff will provide up-to-date information about policies and procedures, specific funding opportunities and answer attendee questions. Continue Reading


2nd US Antarctic Science Meeting - announcement and call for abstracts

US-SCAR is hosting an online meeting on 20-23 June 2023 for US scientists who are conducting research in, from or about Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Scientists interested in getting involved in Antarctic research through US programs are also welcome and encouraged to attend. This conference is open to all US scientists and anyone interested in US Antarctic research. There is no registration fee. Continue Reading


Update: Ross Sea Planning Meeting Report, One-pager and more!

Dear Ross Sea research community, Thanks again to all of you who were able to attend our planning meeting and to those of you who were there in spirit. We have a variety of updates and resources to share with you below, including moving forward on Working Groups. Continue Reading


Polar Genomes Workshop Announcement 2023

NSF-sponsored Workshop: Detecting adaptive evolutionary events in genomes of polar species at the Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience, St. Augustine, Florida. This workshop is funded by the National Science Foundation through awards #1935635 and #1935672. A two-day workshop will be held at the Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience (University of Florida) in 2023 (July 24 & 25). Participants should plan to arrive on the afternoon of July 23rd and depart in the morning or afternoon on July 26th. The workshop organizers, Dr. Scott Santagata and Dr. Joseph Ryan, will lead participants through a series of computational exercises having the following goals: Construct orthologous gene assignments (OrthoFinder), prune paralogous genes (PhyloPYPruner), align orthologous gene (MAFFT), and multi-gene phylogenetic relationships (IQ-TREE); Establish collaborative research groups to test for genes under positive selection from diverse organisms and habitats (e.g., polar, terrestrial, marine, tropical) using genomic and transcriptomic datasets; Evaluate current analytical methods for determining positive selection (e.g., PAML, HyPHy) and their statistical significance. Participants are encouraged to work with their own NGS-based datasets, but sample datasets will also be provided and analyzed using a bioinformatics platform. Applicants with transcriptomic datasets that span ecological boundaries (e.g. high vs. low latitudinal habitats, marine vs. freshwater habitats, deep vs. shallow water habitats, etc.) will be given priority. However, anyone who is interested in learning these techniques is encouraged to apply. Continue Reading


EVENT: Live from Antarctica - In search of worms and gooey invertebrates

Join a "dream team" of invertebrate taxonomists and evolutionary biologists searching for new species around Eastern Antarctica. They'll give you a quick tour of their deep-sea research ship, answer your questions about their work, and more on March 6 at 1 pm ET. The audience for this event is grades 4 to 12, but all are welcome! Continue Reading


National Science Foundation Crevasse Webinar Series

In June 2021, NSF sponsored the Crevasse Risk Management and Safety Workshop. In continuing the conversations of this workshop, the NSF Office of Polar Programs is hosting a four-part webinar series on using technology to increase the ability to detect crevasses, an essential need while doing fieldwork in rapidly changing, ice-laden landscapes. There is no need to register in advance. Simply follow the link listed below. Continue Reading


New NSF Office of Polar Programs Staff

The Office of Polar Programs (OPP) is pleased to announce two new staff members. Dr. William Ambrose has been selected as a Permanent Federal Program Director in the Office of Polar Programs (OPP) in the Antarctic Sciences Section and will serve as the Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems Program Director. Ms. Gina Selig is OPP’s new 2023 Knauss Marine Policy Fellow. Continue Reading


AGU Cryosphere Awards

Please consider nominating scientists for the AGU Cryo Awards! All packets are due April 12th! The AGU Cryosphere Canvassing Committee is striving to receive a wide diversity of nominations for the Early Career, Nye Lecture, and AGU Fellows awards. Nearly anyone can lead a nomination and if you don't have time to lead one, consider filling out our suggestion box and we can try to help. Note that the Nye Lecture now accepts nominations for science teams! Lastly, contributions in education, outreach, science communication, and mentorship are valued as much as "typical" science contributions (grants, papers, etc.), and Cryosphere doesn't just mean glaciologists (e.g., soil scientists, biologists, geochemists, oceanographers, glacial geologists, etc. are appreciated)! Please share widely within your networks and check out the resources, including evaluation criteria, below. There is interest in creating informal nomination groups to work on nominations as a community. If you are forming these groups and would like us to help spread the word, please let us know! Continue Reading


PSECCO's Spring 2023 Conference Travel Grant Applications  are now open!

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 2023 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, 2023 at 11.59pm MT. PSECCO will open another round of conference travel funding in fall 2023. Continue Reading


2nd Notice: Travel support for summer 2023 international Antarctic meetings

NSF Polar Programs is providing funding through US-SCAR to support travel of US scientists to three Antarctic meetings this summer. Applicants must be affiliated with a US institution, and preference will be given to early career researchers. There is a separate travel grant application for each meeting. If you apply for more than one meeting, you will be asked to prioritize your choices. Deadline for all travel grant applications is 1 March 2023. (Decisions are expected by 31 March.) The three Antarctic meetings are: (1) IV Ross Sea Conference (3-7 July 2023, Naples, Italy), (2) XIII SCAR Biology Symposium (31 July -4 August 2023, Christchurch, NZ), and (3) 2023 SOOS Symposium: Southern Ocean in a Changing World (14-18th August 2023, Hobart, Australia). Continue Reading


US-SCAR Internship Opportunity

The United States delegation to the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR) has a part time paid internship position available for a PhD student who is currently involved in Antarctic research at a US institution. This position is funded by a grant from the NSF Office of Polar Programs, Antarctic Sciences awarded to the University of San Francisco. A part time intern is sought to assist with various aspects of the operations and outreach efforts of US-SCAR. The US-SCAR internship will be through a contract with the University of San Francisco. Hours will be flexible and variable, averaging 5-8 hours per week. Compensation is at the hourly rate of $25, there are no fringe benefits. Work will be coordinated remotely with the US delegate to SCAR, Deneb Karentz (Professor of Biology and Environmental Science, University of San Francisco). A minimum commitment of one year is desired. Travel and registration costs for the intern will be fully supported for any SCAR-related meetings (e.g., Open Science Conferences, Biology or Earth Science Symposia, meetings of the US-SCAR team) that are held in person during the internship period. Application deadline is March 21, 2023. Continue Reading


Supporting Open Polar Research Software

NSF Dear Colleague Letter: Supporting Open Polar Research Software - Federal agencies are celebrating 2023 as a Year of Open Science. Open software tools, libraries, frameworks, and data are playing increasingly prominent and impactful roles in activities supported by the NSF Office of Polar Programs (OPP) in the Directorate for Geosciences (GEO), as they are across federally funded research. Complementing the disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and cyberinfrastructure goals articulated in the current Antarctic and Arctic solicitations, this Dear Colleague Letter (NSF DCL 23-053) is designed to encourage the sustainable development and use of open-source software, tools, libraries, and frameworks that are critical for OPP scientific objectives. OPP encourages the submission of new proposals and supplemental funding requests which support the opening, documenting, and sharing of open polar research software/code. Principal Investigators are encouraged to contact Allen Pope, Program Officer for Polar Cyberinfrastructure (apope@nsf.gov), with any questions pertaining to this DCL and to discuss the scope and size of potential proposals. For full consideration in Fiscal Year 2023, full proposals should be submitted by May 1, 2023. Supplemental funding requests may be submitted at any time. Continue Reading


Community Workshop: Future Directions for Southern Ocean and Antarctic Nearshore and Coastal Research

The National Academies invites you to this community workshop hosted by the Committee on Future Directions for Southern Ocean and Antarctic Nearshore and Coastal Research on February 9th and 10th, 2023. With a focus on collecting feedback from the Antarctic and Southern Ocean research community, this workshop will assist the committee in its information-gathering. It will also provide the Office of Polar Programs with community perspectives that can be used to inform the design of the proposed Antarctic Research Vessel and the portfolio of technologies that expand capability beyond ship-based assets. Learn more and see the draft agenda by visiting the event webpage. Continue Reading


NSF Office of Polar Programs (OPP) communications survey

Are you interested in OPP news, research, and events? Your input is important! We have put together a short survey to find out how you receive our information and how helpful it is to you. The survey should only take 3-5 minutes and will help us provide better, more valuable information to you and others in our science community. Take the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WKGK36M. Feel free to distribute this survey to those who might be interested. Continue Reading


Apply to the 2023 Polar Postdoc Leadership Workshop!

The Polar Science Early Career Community Office is excited to announce that the 2023 Polar Postdoctoral Leadership Workshop (PPLW) will be taking place in Front Range of Colorado, from May 15 to 19, 2023. The workshop will bring 20 US-based postdoctoral researchers studying Antarctic and Arctic topics together from across the country to activate leadership skills that they can bring into their future careers. Participation in the workshop is free and travel support will be provided (more details below). Participants will be selected by the PSECCO PPLW Selection Committee, with a goal of establishing a discipline-, geographic-, and holistically diverse cohort. The deadline by which to apply is February 15, 2023 at 11.59 pm MT. Continue Reading


Travel Support to Summer 2023 Antarctic Meetings

NSF Polar Programs is providing funding through US-SCAR to support travel of US scientists to three Antarctic meetings this summer. Applicants must be affiliated with a US institution, and preference will be given to early career researchers. There is a separate travel grant application for each meeting. If you apply for more than one meeting, you will be asked to prioritize your choices. Deadline for all travel grant applications is 1 March 2023. (Decisions are expected by 31 March.) Continue Reading


NSF/OPP New Sexual Assault Harassment Prevention and Response (SAHPR) Virtual Listening Sessions

The National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs (OPP) is inviting members of the USAP community to upcoming Sexual Assault Harassment Prevention and Response (SAHPR) virtual Listening Sessions taking place in February 2023. For background, in April 2021, NSF enlisted subject-matter experts to examine sexual harassment and sexual assault in the USAP Community and recommend corrective actions. Their findings and recommendations are detailed in the recently released SAHPR Needs Assessment Report and Implementation Plan (Report), which can be found on the NSF website. A summary of the Report’s key findings can be found here. The Report presents both serious concerns and a clear path for improvement. Continue Reading


Geosciences Open Science Ecosystem (GEO OSE) (NSF 23-534) - webinar this Friday (1/20) at 1 PM EST

Just a reminder about this funding opportunity - and when NSF says "geoscience", they also mean all aspects of Antarctic science, too! In alignment with the 2023 Federal Year of Open Science, the NSF Directorate for Geosciences (GEO) recently announced a new funding opportunity, the Geosciences Open Science Ecosystem (GEO OSE). The GEO OSE program seeks to support sustainable and networked open science activities to foster an ecosystem of inclusive access to data, physical collections, software, advanced computing, and other resources toward advancing research and education in the geosciences. The purpose of this support is to broadly enable geoscientists to leverage expanding information resources and computing capabilities to address interdisciplinary grand challenge research questions at the forefront of the geosciences. Proposals to the GEO OSE program solicitation (NSF 23-534) are due March 16, 2023. NSF will be holding an informational webinar this Friday, January 20, 2023, at 1 PM EST to offer guidance on the GEO OSE program and to provide an opportunity for Q&A. Continue Reading


Deadline Approaching for USAP Antarctic Fieldwork

The deadline for researchers interested in NSF funding for Antarctic fieldwork must submit a concept outline no later than January 17. More information can be found in the Antarctic Research Requiring U.S. Antarctic Program Support for Fieldwork solicitation, NSF 23-509: https://beta.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/antarctic-research-requiring-us-antarctic-program Continue Reading


Live from Antarctica: All Things Penguins with scientist Jean Pennycook

On January 10, at 1pm Eastern Time (US and Canada), join researcher Jean Pennycook live from the Cape Royds penguin colony in Antarctica! A seasoned researcher, Jean is part of a team conducting globally unique demographic studies of Adélie penguins in the Ross Sea, Antarctica. The study uses penguin-borne sensors to evaluate foraging conditions and behavior and environmental conditions on Adélies. Continue Reading