International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

eceived, with 337 being scientific or data management
proposals and 85 being for education and outreach
activities. The number of proposals received in
each round was 109, 92 and 209 respectively, and
12 later submissions were also accepted. Each was
independently reviewed by three to four JC members
and assessed against 15 IPY criteria. 13 (After the second
round, education and outreach submissions were
reviewed by the EOC Subcommittee rather than the JC.)
Proposals that were assessed as meeting the criteria
became ‘endorsed IPY projects’ and were added to
the emerging IPY 2007–2008 project chart developed
by the IPO Director, David Carlson (Fig. 1.5-4). This
eventually became known as the IPY ‘honeycomb
chart’ (Appendix 6). All submitted ‘full proposals’ were
made openly accessible on the IPO website (http://
classic.ipy.org/development/eoi/proposals.php). Both
the EoI and the ‘full proposal’ databases remained
accessible throughout and beyond IPY 2007–2008,
showing both the openness of the IPY processes and
the breadth of its science.
By the time IPY 2007–2008 formally commenced
in March 2007, a total of 228 ‘full proposals’ had been
endorsed 14 – 170 in scientific research; 57 in Education,
Outreach and Science dissemination; and one in
Data Management. Although not all were eventually
funded, 15 that network of endorsed international
projects (often known by their acronyms and ‘IPY
number’) became the core of IPY 2007–2008 program.
The build-up of IPY through an open and crossnational
process overseen by the JC strengthened its
image as inclusive and grass-roots initiative (Stirling,
2007). No similar process existed in the previous
IPY/IGYs, in which activities, though internationally
coordinated, were always planned and implemented
by nations under their own national IPY plans. Most
of the funding for the international IPY 2007–2008
projects was, nonetheless, allocated by national
funding agencies. Some nations like Canada, China,
Russia, Sweden and U.S.A. also funded a large number
of ‘national’ IPY initiatives not necessarily related to
the JC-endorsed proposals. 16
JC-2 Meeting and Second Open
Consultative Forum: November 2005
The second JC meeting (JC-2) was held on 15-
17 November 2005 at the headquarters of WMO in
Geneva, Switzerland (Appendix 3). It came on the heels
of the official declaration of IPY 2007–2008 by the 28th
ICSU General Assembly (Box 3) that was attended by
Ian Allison, David Carlson and Colin Summerhayes of
the JC. The JC-2 meeting also had a powerful ‘prelude’
in the form of a series of meetings attached to the
International Conference on Arctic Research Planning
(ICARP-2, 10-12 November 2005) in Copenhagen,
Denmark, including a meeting of funding and mission
Fig. 1.5-4. Early version
of the IPY project chart
presented at JC-2.
(Photo: Chris Rapley)
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