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SCAR Bulletin, No 154, July 2004

SCAR Executive Committee Meeting
Bremerhaven, Germany, 21 January 2004

Report of the Meeting

Present: J Thiede (President); R Schlich, J López-Martínez, C Howard-Williams (Vice-Presidents); C P Summerhayes (Executive Director); P D Clarkson (Executive Secretary); A Capra (SSG Geosciences); J Turner (SSG Physical Sciences).

Apologies for absence were received from R H Rutford (Past-President); C G Rapley (Vice-President); P E O’Brien (SSG Geosciences) and S L Chown (SSG Life Sciences).

1. SCAR Prince of Asturias Fellows

The Executive Committee recalled the proposal that the five SCAR Prince of Asturias Fellows should be invited to the SCAR Open Science Conference in Bremen to give short presentations of their research at the opening session of the Conference. The invitation should cover attendance at the whole of the Conference. It was agreed that the travel and subsistence of the Fellows should be funded by SCAR and that $5,000 should be added to the SCAR budget for 2004 to meet these expenses.
There would be no other travel awards from SCAR to assist other participants.

2. Secretariat Matters

2.1 The Executive Committee welcomed Dr Summerhayes as the newly appointed Executive Director of SCAR and expressed its thanks to the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) for making him available to SCAR on a part time basis from 1 January 2004, and for releasing him from his IOC duties to attend this meeting prior to taking up the appointment full-time on 1 April 2004.

2.2 The Committee endorsed the Job Description of the Executive Director as revised in Annex 1.

2.3 The priorities for the Executive Director were reiterated:

i. Prepare a vision and strategy document;
ii. Prepare a document on communications and outreach;
iii. Prepare a plan for capacity building;
iv. Prepare plans for raising additional funding.
v. Improve the efficiency of the SCAR Secretariat.

Items (i) through (iv) should be finalized ideally in time for consideration at the Delegates meeting. In addition the Executive Director was asked to consider mechanisms for helping national committees to raise the profile of Antarctic science, and for making the SCAR structure more effective.

2.3 The Executive Committee noted that R H Rutford was preparing a draft of a new Constitution for SCAR to incorporate changes resulting from the implementation of the SCAR Review. The draft is scheduled for completion by the end of March 2004.

2.4 The Executive Secretary and the Executive Director will continue to progress the legal status and incorporation of SCAR, with the aim of finalizing the new arrangements in time for the 25 July 2004 meeting of the Executive Committee.

2.5 The Executive Secretary will work with SPRI to finalize the agreement regarding the hosting of the Secretariat.

3. International Organizations

3.1 Integrated Global Observing Strategy (IGOS) Partnership

The IGOS Partners (comprising ICSU, WCRP, IGBP, IOC, WMO, FAO, UNEP, UNESCO and the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites – CEOS) is currently developing a portfolio of programmes to improve the coordination global research and monitoring. C P Summerhayes will develop a 2-page outline document for a Cryosphere programme in which SCAR will play a lead role. This should include potential links with the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), the Arctic Ocean Science Board (AOSB) and the European Polar Board (EPB) with respect to research on the cryosphere and the polar regions. The document should also include the names of polar scientists who might be expected to participate.

3.2 Oceanography

The Executive Committee received a report of the meeting of the SCAR Action Group on Oceanography. The Group has proposed the formation of a Joint SCAR-SCOR-IOC Coordinating Group on Inter-disciplinary Southern Ocean Science (ISOS) consisting of 6-8 people. Among other things, this group would facilitate coordination between the different discipline research groups currently active in the Southern Ocean; encourage an inter-disciplinary approach to Southern Ocean observational and modelling research, recognizing the inter-dependence of physical, chemical and biological processes in the ocean; identify historical and reference data sets of value to researchers; and coordinate the transfer of near real-time data (or a sub-set of such data) to operational users. The work of ISOS should greatly improve the coordination of Southern Ocean research both at the national and international levels, to the benefit of the nations and research programmes presently active there.
The Executive Committee endorsed the proposal and suggested that the current document needed to include a greater emphasis on marine biology and ocean chemistry. The Executive Committee requested C P Summerhayes to proceed with the development of this proposal which, when finalized, should be sent to national SCAR representatives.
It was agreed to invite Dr P Bernal (Executive Secretary of IOC) and Professor R A Duce (President of SCOR) to attend the SCAR Open Science Conference in Bremen. This would also provide an opportunity for further discussion on the links between the three organizations.
C P Summerhayes was also asked to explore with P Egerton (Executive Secretary of the European Polar Board) possible SCAR input to Eurocean 2004.
The Executive Committee agreed to co-sponsor the symposium A Century of Discovery: Antarctic Exploration and the Southern Ocean to be held in Southampton, United Kingdom, 28–30 June 2004. The sum of $3,000 was approved.

3.3 Global International Waters Assessment (GIWA)

At XXVII SCAR it had been proposed to hold a workshop in Brazil to develop the Antarctic input to the GIWA process. C Howard-Williams reported that there had been no progress on planning the workshop and he suggested that it would be more effective to hold the workshop in Bremerhaven immediately before or immediately after the Open Science Conference in Bremen. The Executive Committee approved this suggestion and asked C Howard-Williams to proceed, with the assistance of the Executive Director.

3.4 IGBP SO-GLOBEC

It was agreed in principle that SCAR should seek co-sponsorship of the Southern Ocean component of the Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics project (SO-GLOBEC), and C.P. Summerhayes was asked to make the necessary contacts. Concerns were expressed about the costs to SCAR of further co-sponsorships but a sum of $2,000 was agreed.

3.5 WCRP SO-CLIVAR

It was similarly agreed in principle that SCAR should seek co-sponsorship of the Southern Ocean component of the Climate Variability and Predictability Programme (SO-CLIVAR), which is now being managed by the CLIVAR-CLiC Southern Ocean Panel, and a sum of $2,000 was agreed.

3.6 Arctic Science Week

The Executive Committee discussed SCAR representation at the IASC’s Arctic Science week in Reykjavik, where SCAR may be represented by the President or Executive Secretary, or both depending on the meeting programme.

4. XXVII ATCM

It was agreed that SCAR will be represented at XXVII ATCM by D W H Walton (Chairman of the Standing Committee on the Antarctic Treaty System), C P Summerhayes (Executive Director), and P D Clarkson (Executive Secretary). The President will be able to attend for the first two days only.
M C Kennicutt II (US Delegate) had proposed that Dr R E Bell (Expert Group on Subglacial Antarctic Lake Exploration) should make a presentation on “Exploration of Antarctic subglacial environments” on behalf of SCAR. The Executive Committee welcomed this proposal and requested that M C Kennicutt and R E Bell should develop a full proposal for the presentation. They should be reminded that COMNAP had requested that the logistic aspects of supporting Antarctic research should be included in the presentation. K A Erb (Chairman of COMNAP) should be invited to review the draft presentation before review by the SCAR Executive Committee. The presentation will be supported by two Information Papers.
It was agreed that SCAR should fund R E Bell’s travel and subsistence to attend 3 days of the ATCM.
The SCAR Report to XXVII ATCM will be prepared by the SCAR Secretariat. The preparation of additional Information Papers will be overseen by D W H Walton.

5. XXVIII SCAR

The Executive Committee noted with satisfaction the progress made on the preparations for the SCAR Open Science Conference that will be held in Bremen, Germany, 25–31 July 2004 and congratulated M Kunz-Pirrung and M Reinke on their good work. It was very encouraging to learn that almost 600 abstracts had been submitted for oral and poster presentations by scientists from 34 countries. The SCAR Secretariat was asked to consider publishing a volume of the presentations by the Keynote Speakers at the Conference. The SCAR Secretariat was also asked to arrange for some international Press briefings on the Conference.
The Committee agreed to invite the President and Executive Director of ICSU to attend the meeting, along with a senior representative of the European Commissions Directorate-General for Research.
The XXVIII SCAR Delegates Meeting will be held in Bremerhaven, Germany, 3–9 October 2004. It was noted that practical arrangements were well in hand. The Executive Secretary was asked to prepare a draft agenda for consideration by the Executive Committee. The Executive Secretary was also asked to investigate the possibilities for making more extensive use of projection facilities for displaying documents, to facilitate understanding by different language groups. The Executive Committee requested the Secretariat to prepare an “instruction document” explaining the Roles of Procedure for Meetings of Delegates.

6. Scientific Research Programmes

The Executive Committee approved the plan for a Scientific Research Programme on Subglacial Antarctic Lake Exploration (SALE) that will be submitted to the SCAR Delegates for final approval.
The Executive Committee welcomed the preliminary plan for a Scientific Research Programme on Antarctic Climate and the Global System and encouraged the Planning Group to submit a full programme proposal before the SCAR meeting in Bremen.
The Executive Committee welcomed the proposal from C Lüdecke to establish an Action Group on the History of Antarctic Research. She was asked to develop a full proposal for submission to the Delegates Meeting, paying particular attention to the intended outputs and deliverables and describing the benefit to SCAR.

7. International Polar Year (IPY) 2007–08

The Executive Committee strongly endorsed the active involvement of SCAR in the proposed IPY programme. The President tasked the Executive Director to represent SCAR interests in the IPY programme, noting that C G Rapley is Chairman of the Planning Group (IPY–PG) while currently also a Vice-President of SCAR. The Executive Director should liaise with C G Rapley, Professor T Rosswall (Executive Director of ICSU) and the ICSU Executive Board to determine how best to maximize the role of SCAR in coordinating and implementing the Antarctic components of the overall IPY programme. It was agreed that the IPY should be given prominence on the SCAR website.
It was noted that IASC will hold the Second International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP II) in autumn 2005 and that 2006 has been designated by IUGS–UNESCO as the International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE).

8. Finance

The Executive Secretary reported that the SCAR financial accounts for 2003 are due to be completed in the near future and that they will be forwarded to R Schlich, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Finance, for review.
The SCAR Budget for 2004 will need to be revised to accommodate the additional allocations agreed at this meeting, other adjustments for requests to carry-over allocations from 2003, and the costs relating to the employment of the Executive Director.

The additional allocations agreed at this meeting are:

9. Future Meetings of the Executive Committee

It was agreed that the Executive Committee would meet in Bremen, Germany, on the afternoon of Sunday, 25 July 2004, and on the afternoon of Friday, 30 July 2004, in conjunction with the SCAR Open Science Conference. In addition, the Executive Committee will meet jointly with the COMNAP Executive Committee on Thursday, 29 July 2004.

10. Any Other Business

A paper from J Manning, Chairman of the Expert Group on Geospatial Information within the SSG on Geosciences, was tabled. In the paper he outlined some difficulties being experienced by the Group in operating as a subgroup of the SSG on Geosciences within the new SCAR structure. He asked that consideration be given by the Executive Committee to moving the Expert Group from the SSG and designating the Group as a Standing Committee on Geospatial Information under the Delegate Committee on Standing Committees.
The Executive Committee gave careful consideration to this proposition and decided that Geospatial Information should remain as an Expert Group under the SSG on Geosciences. The Expert Group should develop appropriate links and liaisons with the SSGs and their subgroups and with the SCAR Scientific Research Programmes to ensure that the necessary two-way flow of information is maintained.

11. Closure of Meeting

The President closed the meeting and thanked the members of the Committee and the Chief Officers for their participation.