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International Polar Year
Call for Expressions of Intent for the IPY
| Our ref.: AREP/IPY | |
| Annexes: 2 (in English only) | GENEVA, 5 November 2004 |
Dear Sir /Madam,
As you are aware, in 2003 ICSU and WMO proposed an International Polar Year 2007-2008 (IPY). The fundamental concept of the IPY is of an intensive burst of internationally coordinated, interdisciplinary, scientific research and observations focused on the Earth's polar regions. The official observing period of the IPY will be from 1 March 2007 until 1 March 2009. The main geographic focus will be the Earth's high latitudes, but studies in any region relevant to the understanding of polar processes or phenomena will be encouraged.
The IPY aims to exploit the intellectual resources and science assets of nations worldwide to make major advances in polar knowledge and understanding, while leaving a legacy of new or enhanced observational systems, facilities and infrastructure. The Planning Group (PG) established by ICSU to develop a science and implementation strategy for IPY consulted widely with the research community and received nearly 600 "ideas" for the scientific content of the programme. Six main themes for IPY 2007-2008 were identified from these. These themes are given in Science Plan section of the PG report ("Framework for the International Polar Year 2007-2008": www.ipy.org).
In November 2004, ICSU and WMO established an International Polar Year Joint Committee (JC) to coordinate and guide implementation of the programme. The JC must facilitate projects and activities within IPY that are consistent with the themes and observational goals outlined in the "Framework", and needs to rapidly develop an IPY 2007-2008 implementation structure, especially for those projects that involve complex logistics. The JC now seeks information on IPY projects that will be proposed by self-organising groups of researchers, their parent organizations, existing bodies with a role in polar regions research and monitoring, and consortia of such bodies.
To: ICSU International Unions and National Members,
Permanent Representatives of WMO Members,
ICSU Interdisciplinary Bodies and Joint Initiatives
National IPY Committees and Contact Points
On behalf of Joint Committee, we are therefore pleased to invite you to submit brief expressions of intent for IPY to the IPY International Programme Office (IPO) - by 14 January 2005, via the Internet at www.ipy.org or by e-mail: jcel@bas.ac.uk or by fax: +44 1 223 221 270. Details of the information required in this expression of intent are given in the Annex 1 to this letter. It is hoped that the broad awareness of IPY over the past year makes this short deadline manageable by most interested groups, particularly for projects requiring complex logistics or extended preparations.
There will be subsequent opportunities to submit proposals for consideration as IPY activities, to accommodate for example projects that start late during the programme period or have lesser complexity. However, the relatively short preparation time prior to 2007, especially as regards the availability of polar logistics, provides a strong incentive for projects to submit as early as possible, if they are to be successfully integrated into the overall IPY programme.
The expression of intent has to provide the information needed by the Joint Committee to evaluate how well each proposed activity will satisfy the IPY criteria given in Annex 2. These criteria address science content, feasibility, data management, outreach and education, and overall project management, and are drawn from the IPY objectives and characteristics as outlined in the "Framework".
The JC will evaluate how well submissions satisfy the selection criteria for IPY projects, and shall assess them into one of three categories. Proposals which satisfy all criteria (first category) will be encouraged to be developed into a full proposal. They will also receive formal recognition including provisional permission to adopt and use the IPY imprimatur pending the receipt of an acceptable full proposal. It is expected that there will be also a number of proposals which satisfy many, but not all IPY criteria (second category) and these could be substantially improved in meeting IPY objectives. In this case the JC will provide guidance on how these can better address IPY criteria and invite resubmission of an amended proposal. Proposals that are assessed as not relevant to IPY objectives (third category) will be omitted from further consideration.
This assessment will begin before the end of January 2005 with responses provided to the proposers no later than the mid-March 2005. The period following JC's response should be used by proposers to fully develop their plans for research implementation and management (including any appropriate additional collaborations with other organizations), data and information management, and education/outreach issues. Proposers should also seek National Committee endorsement where appropriate. However, you are invited to submit proposal even if there is no IPY Committee in your country. Full proposals will be due in June 2005 and should include a complete science proposal and detailed descriptions related to all criteria.
Based on the submitted full proposals, the JC will decide which proposals satisfy all the criteria, approve those activities as part of the official IPY programme, and give permission for the project to use the IPY imprimatur. The JC will identify (or recognize, if it already was proposed) the Project Steering Committee and its leader, as part of this final assessment.
For more information, please, address Framework for IPY 2007-2008 (www.ipy.org), or to the IPO
IPY International Programme Office
British Antarctic Survey,
Madingley Road
Cambridge CB3 0ET
United Kingdom
Yours sincerely
| T. Rosswall Executive Director of ICSU |
M. Jarraud Secretary-General of WMO |
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