US-SCAR News

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wanting to know more about non-tenure track faculty jobs and what opportunities exist for polar scientists beyond academia? The Polar Science Early Career Community Office (PSECCO) has put together its first panel to discuss job opportunities beyond academia for polar scientists. What you learn here will absolutely be transferrable to jobs outside of polar science too, so be sure to spread word of this event far and wide! The panel will take place on Tuesday, January 24, 2023, from 9am to 10.30am AKT | 11am to 12.30pm MT | 1pm to 2.30pm ET. Continue Reading

SCAR is pleased to announce the inaugural SCAR Ant-ICON | SC-ATS science-policy fellowship programme for early-mid career researchers (EMCRs). The aim of the fellowship programme is to provide the opportunity for EMCRs to gain experience in the science-policy interface from participating in Antarctic policy forums through the preparation and potential submission of a science/policy paper based on their research, in collaboration with SC-ATS. The fellowships are open to early-mid career researchers from all SCAR member countries. Preference will be given to researchers who have not previously participated in these meetings and are actively seeking to contribute. The deadline for applications is 16 January 2023. Continue Reading

Following their recently renewed partnership agreement, the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) and Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) are pleased to confirm that preparatory work has started for a 5th International Polar Year (IPY) in 2032-33. Organizing the 5th IPY 25 years after the last IPY in 2007-08 reflects the urgent need for coordinated international research to tackle the biggest challenges of polar research, for both the Polar Regions themselves and for the world as a whole. Continue Reading

The National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs (OPP) is inviting members of the USAP community to an upcoming Sexual Assault Harassment Prevention and Response (SAHPR) virtual Listening Session taking place on December 13th (Eastern). Additional virtual Listening Sessions will be taking place in January and February 2023 as well. Continue Reading

Happy Antarctica Day! December 1 is Antarctica Day, celebrating the anniversary of the signing of the Antarctic Treaty in 1959. Also, earlier this year, SCAR worked with scientists across the globe to produce the Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment Decadal Synopsis (ACCE). The report provides a summary of a decade’s worth of research, and its eight chapters leave little room for doubt: The continent is warming, and so is its surrounding Southern Ocean. Learn more about SCAR's new animation that summarizes the key messages from the report, and for links to read the ACCE report in full and to obtain a set of infographics to accompany the report. Continue Reading

The National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs, Antarctic Sciences Section, is seeking a qualified candidate for a Physical Science Administrator (Program Director) position. Interested candidates can learn more about the position and apply by January 16, 2023, on the USAJOBS website. Continue Reading

The public is invited to the first meeting of the committee on Future Directions for Southern Ocean and Antarctic Nearshore and Coastal Research to take place on December 5, 2022, from 1:30PM - 3:15PM ET. The committee will hear from the sponsors of this study and discuss the statement of task. This committee meeting will take place virtually and will be webcast on the event page. This event is open to the public and free to attend. Continue Reading

Under the growing global geopolitical challenges, are the Antarctic Treaty System and its legal system (ATS) still fit for its purpose of maintaining the Antarctica as a natural reserve, devoted to peace and science? Looking into the future meetings to be held in Finland in 2023, Italy in 2025 and Japan in 2026, the world’s renowned experts will discuss whether the ATS has the capacity to continue as a dominant Antarctic governance regime. This Symposium, being held on December 1, 2022, is being held in Japan (in English) and will be available on Zoom (no fees). It is part of the KOBE PCRC Antarctic Open Symposium Series. Continue Reading