International Collaboration during the IPY 2007-2008

28 Nov 2006 - Special Reports, Logistics, Human Dimension, Arctic, Antarctic

Flags at the southpole - Copyright IPF / Alain Hubert

In addressing the subject of international scientific collaboration during the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008, it seems only appropriate to start by asking if this is something new? Perhaps a unique concept spearheaded by this 4th IPY?

The answer to that question, of course, is 'no'.

International collaboration in the polar sciences is more than a century old, but its origin does root back to the IPY: That is, the first IPY of 1882-1883.

In fact, not just the first International Polar Year, but the original International Year full stop. The one that spearheaded all other International Years across all disciplines.

A rich history

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The first IPY

The first International Polar Year was initiated by Karl Weyprecht, an Austrian naval officer who recognised the scientific importance and relevance of the Polar Regions, and who foresaw that understanding Polar meteorology and geophysics was much beyond the reach of one nation alone.

11 European nations, plus the United States, took part in this first International Polar Year, and a whole new network of observing stations was deployed across the Arctic.

In all, the first IPY saw 13 expeditions to the Arctic and 2 to the Sub-Antarctic.

The second IPY

Even though the second IPY of 1932-33 took place in the midst of the political tensions that would lead to World War II, it nevertheless managed to attract the involvement of 40 participating nations from 4 continents.

40 permanent observing stations were established in the Arctic, whilst in Antarctica, the United State's second Byrd expedition set up the first inland meteorological station 125 miles from the sea across the Ross Ice Shelf.

The third IPY

The third IPY was much expanded and subsequently renamed the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957-58.

The IGY was the first Polar Year during which research was carried out on a significant scale in the Antarctic, which by then was opening up to intense scientific scrutiny, thanks in part to new technologies and the increased use of air transport and logistics.

The IGY was a truly global undertaking involving 67 nations, 8,000 observing stations and about 80,000 participants.

An international cooperation that was all the more remarkable for taking part at the height of the Cold War, and for getting the United States and the U.S.S.R openly collaborate.

It also led to the signing of the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, which set aside of Antarctic territorial claims and dedicated Antarctica as a continent for Peace and Science.

The IGY of 1957-58 was the founding stone of all future Polar research, thanks both to the lasting station infrastructure it put into place, and through the international scientific networks it established and which have since flourished across and between all the polar disciplines.

Networks such as SCAR (The Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research), charged with initiating, developing and coordinating high quality international scientific research in the Antarctic region.

In many ways, the IGY or 1957-58 remains the benchmark, not just for international Polar research programmes, but for large research programmes and international collaboration across all scientific disciplines.

A milestone which the IPY of 2007-2008 will both celebrate and attempt to emulate.

So how will the IPY of 2007-08 help perpetuate this centennial spirit of polar research collaboration, and the legacy of the IGY?

What added value will it bring to the table?

Looking to the Future

Co-sponsored by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) - a UN organization - and the International Council for Science (ICSU), it is estimated that the IPY 2007-2008 will involve some 50,000 scientist from 60 participating nations, making it the largest international science programme of the last 50 years (since the IGY).

Participating nations will range from traditional polar research countries such as Canada, Japan, Australia, and the UK, to non-traditional polar nations such as, for example, Malaysia, Greece, and in particular Egypt, which will be researching linkages between climate change in East Africa and the Polar Regions.

Indeed, this breadth and inclusive spirit will be one of the key factors that will make this IPY stand out and endeavor beyond the parameters set by previous International Polar Years.

Also for the first time, and resulting from the IPY Joint Committee review process which recommended that related projects from all over the world be regrouped into clusters, each one of the more than 230 endorsed IPY 2007-08 projects is international in nature, involving anything from 2 to 20 countries.

A spirit of collaboration designed not only promote the sharing of Data and information, but as with the IGY of 57-58, also to streamline scientific enquiry and avoid repetition and duplication of research efforts.

Key projects

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Although it would be impossible to include them all here, a list of some of the most notable and consequential multinational research projects in the IPY programme might read something like this:

iAOOS, the Integrated Arctic Ocean Observing System and ocean monitoring programme, involving some 12 participating countries (including Canada, China, Japan, Poland and Germany).
CARE, or Climate of the Arctic and its role for Europe, involving 16 participating countries (including Spain, Iceland, Estonia, Romania, and Greece).
APEX, or Arctic Palaeoclimate and its Extremes, looking at palaeo records to understand Arctic influence on past climate, involving 18 participating countries (including Austria, Italy, Ireland and the Netherlands).
SALE-UNITED, the Subglacial Antarctic Lake Environments (SALE), Unified Team for Exploration and Discovery (UNITED) looking at subglacial Antarctic lake environments and involving 6 countries (including Italy and Belgium).
CAML, the Census of Antarctic Marine Life, one of the largest and most important IPY projects involving 17 participating nations and nearly as many research vessels (including India, New Zeland, Brazil, Korea and Ukraine).
DAMOCLES, the lead European funded IPY project, looking at ocean, sea-ice, atmosphere interaction and Developing Arctic Modelling and Observing Capabilities for Long-term Environmental Studies.
PLATES & GATES, looking at Plate Tectonics and Polar Gateways in Polar History, and involving 15 participating nations.
TASTE-IDEA, or Trans-Antarctic Scientific Traverses along the ice divide of East Antarctica, involving 8 nations and significant logistical resources and know-how.

We would recommend that interested readers consult the IPY website (to be re-launched in December 2006) in order to browse through more of these key projects and to fully grasp the richness, variety and breadth of what the IPY will seek to study and help to understand.

Polar communities

But beyond these large, complex and often very ambitious collaborations in the Earth Sciences, the next IPY will also be the first to encourage collaborations between scientists and Polar communities: For if we want to genuinely understand change in the Arctic, then we now know that we must also consider and incorporate indigenous knowledge and a less binary understanding of the land.

This genuine effort to draw indigenous cultures and people into the IPY programme is probably the single most important factor in making this IPY more progressive and adapted to its time - an approach that will facilitate and widen our pursuit of knowledge.

Even more so than the IGY of 1957-58, this 4th IPY is destined to be truly interdisciplinary, stretching from glaciology to microbiology, but also including the social sciences and fields such as human health and anthropology.

Timeliness and oppportunity

To wind up, I would say that at a time when we are facing truly global issues such as climate change - issues that will only be resolved through global international collaboration - it seems more appropriate, timely and necessary than ever, that researchers from all countries and across all disciplines should once again work together to take the pulse of the Polar regions. Regions that are so central to the Earth System as a whole:

Our climate archives, as well as our early warning system.

What's more, in view of the complexity of Polar and Global environments, and with the interdependency of all things becoming more and more apparent, there seems no surer means of acquiring sufficient data with which to provide answers, than by encouraging communities and specializations to cooperate and organize themselves around an event like the IPY.

This is why the next IPY is so important and inspirational.

It is an event that, on the one hand, perpetuates the international legacy and context of Polar science, and on the other, adapts to its time. An endeavor that focuses on the issues of the day, whilst feeding off the international nature of the Polar Regions, and specifically of Antarctica: A continent that, like space, belongs to no one, but the understanding of which is crucial to everyone.

A metaphor, perhaps, for how we should consider our planet.

International Polar Years have always stood out as vital, timely, and pragmatic peaks in international scientific collaboration. The IPY 2007-08 will be taking place at a time when this spirit is more necessary than ever before in our pursuit of answers and solutions to the global questions and challenges we now face.

This is why would urge you not to overlook the truly collaborative and international dimension of the IPY - the I in IPY - when promoting the IPY both nationally and internationally. But rather to try and push this message centre stage in any education, outreach and communication planning you make today and in the months to come.