International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

Notes
1 The original composition of the Joint Committee of 14 ‘science’ members, with their respective country and field of expertise and
of five ex officio members was announced in November 2004 (Chapter 1.3).
2 I. Allison (nos. 105, 141,313), R. Bell (no. 67), K. Danell (no. 305), E. Fanta (no. 137), E. Fahrbach (nos. 8,35,379), G. Hovelsrud (nos. 157,
PI), I. Krupnik (nos. 166, PI), J. López-Martínez (no. 77), T. Yamanouchi (nos. 9,99).
3 Prior to JC-2, representatives of the Arctic Council and of the Antarctic Treaty System were officially invited to serve on the Joint
Committee as observers. The composition of the JC underwent changes over five years: Paul Cutler replaced Leah Goldfarb as
the ICSU representative (from 2007); Mahlon (Chuck) Kennicutt II, SCAR President from 2008, became the SCAR ex officio member
instead of Colin Summerhayes (from 1 April, 2010); Helena Ödmark succeeded Vitaly Churkin as the AC observer (from 2007); and
Manfred Reinke replaced Jan Huber as ATCM observer (from November 2009). Yoshiiyuki Fujii was replaced by Takashi Yamanouchi
in 2007. Lastly, Edith Fanta passed away in May 2008 (Box 1). Her position on the JC was eventually offered to Colin Summerhayes,
after his retirement from SCAR in early 2010.
4 Meteorology and climate (Béland, Sarukhanian, and Allison); Oceanography (Fahrbach, Alverson, Carlson and Summerhayes);
Glaciology (Kotlyakov, Qin, Fujii); Geology (Bell, López-Martínez); Geochemistry (Rachold), Biology (Danell, Fanta, Ellis-Evans);
Sociology/Education and Outreach (Krupnik, Hovelsrud, Rogne); Space/Data/Legacy (Rapley, Mohr).
5 There were four primary evaluation criteria for EoIs (significant advance within a theme or to EO&C; undertaken within a polar
region and within the IPY timeframe; involves international collaboration; and includes preliminary plans for management,
funding and logistic support) and six additional criteria (involves nations new to polar research; provides a legacy; builds on
existing programmes or initiatives; links to other EoIs; is interdisciplinary; and is endorsed by an IPY National Committee).
6 The selection panel for the Executive Director of IPO consisted of the Co-Chairs of the JC (Michel Béland and Ian Allison – also chair
of the panel), representatives of ICSU (Leah Goldfarb) and WMO (Ed Sarukhanian) and a representative of the funding agency, BAS/
NERC (Chris Rapley).
7 David Carlson, the IPO Director, has degrees in biology and oceanography and a professional background in research
management, including as Director of the International Project Office for TOGA COARE, a multi-year climate research program
involving atmospheric and oceanic scientists from 12 nations. He was passionate and enthusiastic about the objectives of the IPY
and came to be seen as the “face of IPY” to many of the project scientists and the general public. He was relentless in his efforts to
communicate IPY ideals and achievements to the wider community.
8 The nominated observers, Jan Huber (ATCM) and initially Vitaly Churkin and then Helena Ödmark (AC), were to join subsequent JC
meetings and to provide very productive input to the work of the committee.
9 That website later transformed into a permanent main IPY website www.ipy.org that was maintained out of IPO from 2006 till 2010.
10 The full set of almost 900 EoI’s submitted by March 1, 2005 was also copied onto CDs, given to all JC members and made available
to the national IPY committees.
11 National Committees represented at the first OCF were Belgium, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, India,
Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain and U.S.A.
12 As a result of the JC review, all EoIs were divided in three categories. The EoIs assessed as “Category 1” were encouraged to advance
with the full proposal. Applications in “Category 2” were recommended to look for additional options in coordination with other
proposals and improvement, in adherence to IPY criteria. Most of the “Category 2” proposals were essentially applications from
a single nation, which could become valuable IPY contributions if they were combined with other similar proposals. “Category 3”
applications were advised to re-submit. All Education and Outreach proposals were encouraged to proceed.
13 JC Review template for ‘full proposals’ included six ‘primary’ criteria (significant contribution; address of IPY themes; targets IPY
geographical areas; targets IPY timeframe; evidence of international collaboration; and clear plans for project management) plus
nine ‘additional’ criteria (provides essential infrastructure or other support; non-polar nations involvement; evidence of legacy;
builds on existing initiatives, where appropriate; evidence of links to other clusters; evidence of interdisciplinarity; clear plans for
data management; contribution to the development of the next generation (of scholars); and plan for Education and Outreach)
(Appendix 4).
14 The total number of endorsed proposal eventually grew to 231 – 171 in research; 59 in education, outreach and science
dissemination; and one in data management, though three proposals were later withdrawn.
15 The IPO received information on 172 ‘funded’ international proposals and three were officially ‘withdrawn’ due to the lack of
funds. The remaining 56 proposals did not report to the IPO on their funding status; evidently, many of them did not materialize.
Nonetheless, several of those 56 proposals were actually implemented with funding from national sources or from individual
researchers’ grants.
16 See, for example, www.ipy-api.gc.ca/intl/index_e.html for the Canadian IPY awards; www.ipyrus.aari.ru/scientific_program.html
for Russian national IPY awards not related to international projects; www.nsf.gov/od/opp/ipy/ipy_awards_list.jsp for the list of
U.S. NSF IPY awards; www.umea-congress.se/polar_final porgramme.pdf for Swedish activities, etc.
17 National committees’ reports from Sweden and the Netherlands were reviewed at JC-4 (September 2006); from Austria, Canada,
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