International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

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IPY 20 07–20 08
Box 3 Formal establishment of IPY
2007–2008 by the 28th ICSU
General Assembly
The 28th ICSU General Assembly was held from
October 18-21 2005 in Suzhou, China and was attended
by more than 200 scientists. They represented 111
national ICSU Members, 42 International Scientific
Unions and 15 ICSU Interdisciplinary Bodies and
Scientific Associates.
The main business item of the Assembly, which meets
every three years, was to adopt a new ICSU Strategic
Plan for 2006-2011. This plan—ICSU’s first—had been
developed through extensive review, planning and
consultation during the previous three years, and the
IPY 2007–2008 was to be one of the major activities.
Although the ICSU Executive Board had approved
establishment of the IPY in February 2004, it had to be
ratified by the full Assembly.
Ian Allison and Dave Carlson attended the Assembly
on behalf of IPY and Allison presented IPY program
to delegates on 19 October. The delegates subsequently
accepted by acclamation the resolution “to establish
the International Polar Year 2007–2008….”. Many
delegates commented that IPY was the sort of project
that ICSU needed to raise its profile.
An ICSU press conference was held on October 21
and attended by nearly 40 representatives of the
international science press as well as Chinese national
television, newspapers and journals. Many of the
questions at this conference related to an ICSU press
release (19 October) on the establishment of IPY.
agencies organized by the European Polar Board and
focused on the implementation of IPY, and the second
IPY Open Consultative Forum (13 November; Fig. 1.5-
5). These events gave IPY a boost in visibility across
the broad spectrum of scientists, policy makers, and
organizations. The ICARP-2 had over 450 participants
and the ‘Forum’ was attended by 150 people.
Participants at JC-2 were informed of the activities of
the WMO Inter-commission Task group on IPY, which,
in collaboration with WMO technical commissions, had
developed a number of constructive actions towards
IPY implementation. These were focused primarily
on further development and extension of observing
networks in polar regions, standardization of the
observations and instrument traceability, and access to
data to be obtained during IPY. The JC also considered
the progress of the nascent IPY Subcommittees on
Observations; Data Policy and Management; and
Education, Outreach and Communication. Terms of
Reference were developed for these subcommittees.
Reports were given on behalf of bodies interested in
the support and promotion of IPY, including the Arctic
Council, the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting
(ATCM), World Climate Research Programme (WCRP),
SCAR and IASC.
Three breakout groups discussed and reported
back on the key issues of building the IPY science
program through the ongoing assessment of full
proposals, links with logistical organizations and IPY
fund-raising. (Figs. 1.5-6) The proposal to establish
a special Eurasian IPY ‘sub-office’ in St. Petersburg,
Russia to facilitate IPY activities in the Russian Arctic,
which had been deferred from JC-1, was endorsed.
JC-3 Meeting: April 2006
The JC-3 meeting took place on 20-22 April 2006 at
British Antarctic Survey headquarters in Cambridge,
U.K. (Appendix 3, Fig. 1.5-7). By this time, all elements
of the IPY structure were firmly in place. The JC
reviewed the activities of the IPO and reports from
the three Subcommittees on Education, Outreach
and Communication; Observations; and Data Policy
and Management. A proposed IPY ‘Data Policy’
was formally introduced for the first time. Another
‘first’ was the introduction of the IPY ‘Youth Steering
Committee’ (by David Carlson), a new group that
would take prominence during the later phases of the
IPY. The JC was briefed on the status of IPY funding by
several participating nations.
The JC-3 also finalized the review of ‘full proposals’
submitted as IPY projects. The IPY ‘honeycomb’ project
chart was revised and would keep its same general
shape for the duration of IPY with minor modifications
(Appendix 6).
A special session, chaired by Robin Bell, was devoted
to the integration of individual project clusters
within the emerging science program and across IPY
themes. A Task Group (led by Ian Allison) was established
to develop an integrated ‘IPY Science Plan’ by
the next JC meeting; this eventually resulted in the
document Scope of Science for IPY 2007–2008 (Allison,