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Strategic Plan 2004-2010

2. The Strategic Plan

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2.1 What the Plan is for

Given the recommendations of the SCAR Review, the emergence of other Antarctic organisations, the growth in SCAR membership, and the new requirements of ICSU, it is clear that SCAR will benefit from developing a strategic planning process. This will enable it to take a long-term view of its evolving role in relation to changing developments, including consideration of its potential role in the proposed International Polar Year 2007-09.

The Strategic Plan is intended to:

  • set broad objectives and strategies for the organization;
  • provide guidance for formulating the biennial work programme and budget;
  • provide a broad outlook of SCAR’s priorities;
  • set out the present thinking on SCAR Programme activities and deliverables;
  • consider the possible impacts on SCAR activities of foreseeable scientific, technological, social and economic developments;
  • optimize the programme structure and use of available resources;
  • provide Members with the longer-term framework within which to plan and manage at the national level those activities that contribute to SCAR’s international cooperative programmes;
  • provide SCAR committees and advisory groups with policy guidance and approved longer-term plans within which to organize their inter-sessional activities;
  • give the Executive Committee a benchmark against which to monitor progress and performance in the implementation of the scientific programmes;
  • describe SCAR’s operations and make them more transparent
  • provide guidance for the Secretariat.

The Plan is the product of extensive consultation with Members and with SCAR’s constituent bodies and key partners It will help to foster a strong sense of commitment to the actions necessary for implementation.

The Plan is intended to help SCAR to exploit its comparative advantages to make strategic choices about future directions. SCAR’s comparative advantages come from its particular geographical focus, its multi-disciplinary character, its ability to work in partnership with other bodies of ICSU, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and intergovernmental bodies, and its ability to act as an independent source of advice and to provide comprehensive analyses and solutions of scientific and environmental relevance to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. Further comparative advantage will come about through fostering interactions at the interfaces between the scientific disciplines to make activities interdisciplinary rather than simply multidisciplinary. The Plan also provides guidance to assist Members in the formulation of their own plans in relevant scientific fields.

The Plan covers a six-year period (2004-2010), representing three of SCAR’s biennial cycles.Progress against the Plan will be examined at each biennial meeting of the Delegates, and the Plan will be revised as appropriate following the performance review in 2008.

Relevant sections of the Strategic Plan will be converted into a Implementation Plans with time lines. The work programme and budget approved by the Delegates at XXVIII SCAR forms a short-term Implementation Plan for the initial period of the Plan (2002-04).

The SCAR Implementation Plan should include the recommendations by the Delegates at each of their biennial meetings for specific actions on selected topics (see the Recommendations in SCAR meeting reports on the SCAR web site).

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2.2 The Vision Mission and Main Objectives of SCAR

By setting out the overall vision, or raison d’être, for SCAR, along with a definition of the mission and main objectives, the Plan addresses what SCAR is, does, and should do, and the reasons why SCAR does it.

The vision of SCAR is:

“ To establish through scientific research and international cooperation a broad understanding of the nature of Antarctica, the role of Antarctica in the Earth System, and the effects of global change on Antarctica.”

SCAR’s specific mission is:

“To be the leading independent organisation for facilitating and coordinating Antarctic research, and for identifying issues emerging from greater scientific understanding of the region that should be brought to the attention of policy makers”.

To achieve its mission, SCAR aims to achieve the following five Main Objectives:

  1. to initiate, develop, and co-ordinate high quality international scientific research in the Antarctic region, and on the role of the Antarctic region in the Earth system;
  2. to provide objective and independent scientific advice to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings and other organizations on issues of science and conservation affecting the management of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.
  3. to facilitate free and unrestricted access to Antarctic scientific data and information;
  4. to develop scientific capacity in all SCAR Members, especially with respect to younger scientists, and to promote the incorporation of Antarctic science in education at all levels;
  5. to communicate scientific information about the Antarctic region to the public.

Underpinning these major objectives, and contributing to their success are two Cross Cutting Objectives:

  1. to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and flexibility of the structure, working mechanisms and practices of SCAR.
  2. to increase funding to match requirements, and to maintain a healthy funding stream.

To meet these objectives SCAR will adopt the strategic approaches set out in sections 3 through 9 of the Plan.

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