International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

to coordinate the submission of the EoIs that would
provide the foundations for the eventual IPY science
and education/outreach program.
During this transitional period of late 2004, the
Interim Director and, to a lesser extent, former PG
members and the new JC Co-Chairs, were actively
promoting IPY at international events. These events
included the EGU and AGU meetings and, importantly,
the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA)
Conference and Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting,
both held in Iceland in November 2004. At those
meetings, IPY was promoted in several presentations
and panel discussions, against a background of
publication of the ACIA report and the Reykjavik
Declaration in which Arctic Ministers recognized IPY
as a unique opportunity to stimulate Arctic activities
and raise awareness and visibility of the Arctic region
(Chapter 1.4).
Summary: Putting IPY 2007–2008 Structure
in Place
By November 2004, the IPY structure, which would
shape its operation for the next five years, had started to
solidify. The new steering body—the Joint Committee
of 19 members with two Co-Chairs—was established,
an official call for ‘Expressions of Intent’ (preproposals)
was issued with the deadline of 14 January
2005 and a new hub in the form of the International
Programme Office (with an active IPY website) was
up and running. Many IPY National Committees
were also established and were coordinating with
the International Programme Office as the emerging
lynch pin in the international IPY network. Last but not
least, IPY already had a dedicated constituency and a
pool of more than 350 research ‘ideas’ submitted by
scientists from many nations and covering all fields
of prospective IPY research: from geosciences and
space studies to life sciences, social sciences and the
humanities. In the next few months, the number of
such research proposals would increase to more than
800 (Chapter 1.5) demonstrating the strong support
for IPY across broad swath of the polar research
community.
By all accounts, the first planning phase for IPY
was remarkably successful. In barely 15 months,
between July 2003 and October 2004, competitive
and sometimes contentious ground percolating
with many conflicting ideas was transformed into
a fairly orderly field, with common goals, a clearly
articulated program and a dedicated mobilized
constituency of many hundred if not a few thousand
activists: scientists, agency people, science managers,
educators and interested media specialists. Several
strategic decisions had been made, including the
smooth merger of the ICSU and WMO planning for
IPY and the organization of the IPY program along
trans-disciplinary science themes (‘Status,’ ‘Change,’
‘Global Linkages,’ ‘New Frontiers,’ ‘Vantage Points’ and
‘Human Connection’) rather than filling a matrix of
projects along the established ‘disciplines’.
Another early achievement was the abandonment
of the ‘flagships’ project concept which gave a clear
advantage to large and established research programs
often dependent upon multi-year governmental
funding. The latter decision, in particular, helped
democratize the IPY submission process and made it
open to science ventures and teams of any size and
from every nation. This was reflected in the submission
of over a thousand Expressions of Intent for future
IPY activities by January 2005 (Chapter 1.5). The early
IPY planners also navigated successfully through the
Fig. 1.3-23. Call for IPY
‘Expressions of Intent’
by Thomas Rosswall
and Michel Jarraud,
5 November 2004
(English version).
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