Coordination of European Polar research

Proposals should provide a platform to co-develop the strategies to advance and further coordinate the European Polar Research action and its contribution to the policy-making processes. This should include the prioritisation of research areas during transdisciplinary workshops, strategies for capacity building related to meaningful stakeholder involvement, allocation of seed money for the preparation of pre-studies and interaction with national funding agencies on ways of building synergies and optimising the use of resources. Proposals should cooperate with the relevant services of the European Commission and provide evidence-based policy advice. A special focus should be placed on supporting the implementation of sustained observation systems in the Arctic and Antarctic by setting up a European coordination office and by identifying measures to sustain it beyond the termination of the project. The office should also coordinate and support the contributions of the EU and the Associated Countries to International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON), Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS). Proposals should coordinate the EU Arctic Research Cluster ensuring a good cooperation between the projects in areas such as communication, dissemination, and stakeholder engagement. Proposals should build upon the previous action funded under Horizon 2020 and avoid duplications or overlaps.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

The EU is a major investor and player in Polar research. The EU also supports the development and the international access to research infrastructures (terrestrial research stations, remote and in-situ observing systems, research aircrafts and vessels, etc.) throughout the Polar Regions, with relevant international scientific cooperation activities with non-EU countries. Previous actions proved to be instrumental in providing the needed support and the high degree of coordination within the European landscape and beyond.

The project results are expected to contribute to:

• substantially advance Polar research cooperation in Europe by creating a Polar European Research Area;
• a more synergetic use of European resources;
• the policy advice at regional, national and EU level and to the support of the EU's international commitments with respect to the Arctic Council, the Montreal protocol, the UNFCCC and others related to polar sciences, such as the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS);
• improved cooperation of international polar research programmes and create the basis for the development of future large-scale joint international polar initiatives;
• the support of international scientific cooperation initiatives of the European Commission such as the G7 Future of the Seas and Oceans initiative, Galway Statement, the Belèm Statement and of the Administrative Arrangement on marine research between the European Commission and Argentina.