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6CI
Short Title: 6CI Project URL: http://www.polarfoundation.org/index.php?rs=home&s=4&uid=416&fuid=388&lg=en Proposal URL: http://classic.ipy.org/development/eoi/proposal-details.php?id=191 The aim of the activity is to open up the possibility for researchers from developing countries to research and development activities in the Antarctic, introducing a whole new group of people who have limited exposure to this field, to the culture of international scientific cooperation in Antarctica, and its relevance in the wider scheme of things. The Antarctic Treaty claimed the continent for all humanity, and yet, 50 years after the IGY 1957, research on the 6th continent is still open to only a limited number of countries who are fortunate enough to have the resources and the infrastructure to support their research activities. With the menace of climate change looming over the future of the planet, the importance of the contribution of research carried out in the Polar Regions in the understanding of climate mechanisms should be made apparent to the wider World. The project aims to create a network of interested parties consisting of research institutions, funding agencies, logistics providers, international organisations, and NGOs to support the development of competences in non-traditionally polar countries, and thus creating improved conditions for exploring regional interlinkages. SCAR scientific fellowships will be provided to facilitate the participation of graduate students/ researchers from developing countries in research activities of the participating institutes. Certain Antarctic bases will allow selected researchers to spend time on the Antarctic continent. Logistics will be provided to the participating scientists by national operators. Host universities/ institutes will provide training and facilities. The researchers daily needs will be funded by capacity building measures from participating international organisations. The activity will benefit from education, communication and outreach support in order to communicate on the experiences, of the first groups of selected researchers, to a large international audience, so that there is maximum benefit gained from the activity in mobilising decision makers and potential young scientists. The scientific activities carried out during the International Polar Year will, through a knock on effect, lead to the opening up of new disciplines in developing country universities: glaciology, meteorology, climate modelling etc. which could then be integrated into the international network of scientific research activities, thereby reinforcing the regional development of observation and modelling activities, and completing it for areas where there is little actual data. This movement outwards would also empower scientists from the developing World and give them the feeling of being a part of global concerns, of being actively engaged in improving the future for their compatriots as well as for the wider human community.