Polar Early Career
World Summit
22-24 March 2025 / Boulder, Colorado, US
The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS), the Polar Science Early Career Community Office (PSECCO), and the Early Career Ocean Professionals (ECOP) Programme are collaborating to organize a Polar Early Career World Summit. It will be held alongside the International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP) IV and the Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) in Boulder, Colorado, US in March 2025 with the aim to bring together early career researchers, professionals, Indigenous scholars and knowledge holders connected to the Arctic, Antarctica, and the wider cryosphere from across the world. We will have discussions to:
Provide input into ICARP IV and the development of the 5th International Polar Year (2032-33)
Discuss the past, present and future of polar early career networks and strengthen them through in-depth discussions, relationship-building, and developing formats of collaboration
Conversations at the summit will be synthesized into multiple output formats to reach a broad audience and influence polar science policy and decision-making processes
Interested in attending?
Please help the planning team by indicating your interest in this short form. This will inform our planning of anticipated numbers and locations that polar early career individuals are travelling from, which will help us to try to secure the attendance of as many people as possible.
Register your interestThe future of polar research
Building on the successful history of two previous APECS World Summits, this summit will foster international collaboration across disciplines and encourage discussions that many early career professionals are already spearheading within the scientific community, including emphasizing a need for equity and inclusion within polar research, urging open science development, working across disciplines, furthering applied research, effective science communication, and equitably collaborating through co-production of knowledge.
The timeline to the World Summit
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Call for Planning Team members
The Organizing Committe is seeking enthusiastic polar early career scientists to join the Polar Early Career World Summit 2025 Planning Team to help plan and steer the summit’s activities. The application period closed on 21 July and the Planning Team will start to work in August 2024.
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Call for session and workshop proposals
The Polar Early Career World Summit will accommodate workshops and sessions to gather input for the next IPY, discuss research priorities from an early career perspective and to strengthen the networks facilitating these activities. In addition to these themes an open call for activity proposals will be released in October 2024.
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Application for travel grants
The Organizing Committee is collaborating with partner organizations and funding bodies to offer limited travel grants for the Polar Early Career World Summit. More information about the available grants and the application procedure will be published in fall 2024.
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Polar Early Career World Summit
The Polar Early Career World Summit 2025 will be held alongside ICARP IV and ASSW in Boulder, Colorado, US in March 2025. A detailed program will be distributed in January 2025.
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Activities towards the 5th IPY
The organizers will continue to collaborate with attendees, partner organizations and the broader polar community to facilitate the representation of early career voices in the planning and execution of the 5th IPY.
Meet the Organizing Committee
The Polar Early Career World Summit is organized by APECS, PSECCO and the ECOP Programme.
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Axel Schlindwein
APECS International Directorate
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Conor Savage
ECOP Programme / APECS Executive Committee 2024-2025
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Hugo Guímaro
APECS Executive Committee 2023-2025
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Mariama Dryák-Vallies
PSECCO Director
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Meghan Schaberg
USAPECS Co-chair
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Natasha "Tash" Haycock-Chavez
PSECCO Advisory Board / ELOKA
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Sarah Strand
APECS Executive Director
Frequently Asked Questions
Will it be possible to participate digitally?
The detailed hybrid capacities at the summit are to be determined, but we are aiming to create several avenues for participating in the conversation in addition to in-person presence.
How can I register?
The registration is not open yet, but you can help the planning team by filling out this short form indicating your interest to attend. This will inform our planning to secure the attendance of as many polar early career professionals as possible. The registration will open later in 2024.
Do I need to be a researcher to attend?
No, the summit is open to all early career individuals being connected to and having a passion for Arctic and Antarctic spaces.
Who is considered to be "early career"?
This is open to self-definition. We ask that if you consider yourself to be an established or mid-career professional that you keep this space open for those earlier in their career.