International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

2007 (Appendix 3). It was the only North American
meeting of the Joint Committee. The meeting
included a joint session with the Canadian National
IPY Committee and JC members participated in
the Canadian IPY event Meet the Press: Canadian IPY
Celebration organized by the Université Laval.
With IPY field activities already in their eighth month
and on the eve of the first IPY Antarctic field season,
there was a lot of new information on the project
efforts, funding and status. Reports from ten national
IPY committees were tabled and short overviews from
major supporting organizations were also presented. 18
The JC noted with concern that, according to
the survey by its Subcommittee on Data Policy and
Management, 40% of substantially funded ‘full
proposals’ had not provided information regarding
their data management plans (based upon responses
from 80 projects). A small JC breakout group
addressed this and subsequently advised JC-6 that
the data plan should aim to identify all IPY metadata
by June 2009, ensure all data were available by March
2010 and have all data in secure archives by March
2012 (Chapter 3.11).
The Education, Outreach and Communication
Subcommittee reported on the first IPY ‘Polar Day’,
held on 21 September 2007 and focused on sea ice.
This was the first of seven planned major outreach and
educational events (Chapter 4.1). Also in September
2007, the former IPY ‘Youth Steering Committee’
became the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists
(APECS)—an important and active new body
emerging out of the IPY (Chapter 4.3).
The JC-6 meeting again addressed the issue of
IPY legacies (Part 5: Introduction) on the basis of a
discussion paper written by David Carlson and an
external review on IPY 2007–2008 planning prepared
for the OECD Global Science Forum (Stirling, 2007).
Carlson’s paper highlighted four prospective IPY
legacies: observations, data, future researchers
and infrastructure. Another emerging legacy was
the strengthening of bipolar (Arctic-Antarctic)
science planning and coordination, and the growing
partnership between two major international polar
science organizations—IASC and SCAR (Chapter 5.5).
At JC-6, these two organizations agreed to extend the
IPY momentum by establishing a joint Bipolar Action
Group to define a strategy for post-IPY collaboration.
Another development in the post-IPY process was
Fig. 1.5-15. JC
Members at the
JC-5 meeting on the
stairs of the ICSU
Secretariat in Paris,
March 2007. Left to
right: Igor Krupnik,
Chen Zhenlin (guest),
Cynan Ellis-Evans
(IPO), Tom Gross (IOC,
for Keith Alverson),
Volker Rachold,
Kjell Danell, Michel
Béland, Jan Huber,
Grete Hovelsrud,
David Carlson (IPO),
Robin Bell, Ian Allison,
Qin Dahe, Eduard
Sarukhanian, Chris
Rapley, Odd Rogne
(IPO), Tillmann Mohr,
Eberhard Fahrbach,
Colin Summerhayes,
Carthage Smith
(ICSU). Missing: Edith
Fanta, Jerónimo
López-Martínez,
Nicola Munro (IPO).
(Photo: ICSU)
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