Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research | South African National Antarctic Programme

Ant-ICON Science and Implementation Plan

Dear Colleagues,

At the end of July, Mecha and I traveled to Plovdiv, Bulgaria to participate in the SCAR Programme Planning Group Leaders Meeting, and present the draft Ant-ICON Science and Implementation Plan to the SCAR Executive Committee.

Both meeting were extremely useful, particularly with regard to identifying synergies between the developing SRPs, and receiving useful guidance and feedback on how the developing Ant-ICON Science and Implementation Plan could be improved.

During the meetings Mecha and I, together with some invaluable input from Daniela Liggett, Chandrika Nath and other attendees, revised the Ant-ICON S&I Plan. We have continued to work on incorporating feedback over the last few weeks, and have now arrived at a near complete draft, which is attached for your further consideration.

Some sections still need a bit of work, but we feel that it is now at a stage where it can be disseminated more broadly to interested members of the SCAR scientific community and other stakeholders to raise the profile of this emerging initiative and hear any feedback that might be forthcoming. We’d also encourage you to disseminate this through your networks to interested colleagues.

Both the plan and an updated overview presentation have been uploaded to the Ant-ICON home page, and can be accessed using the following link under the Publications tab (https://scar.org/science/ant-icon/resources/). Mecha and I will undertake the broader dissemination, through various SCAR mailing lists, directly to key policy end users and other interested stakeholders including NGOs.

Mecha and I also encourage you to disseminate this plan through your networks to help raise awareness and to ensure anyone who is interested in following progress can join the mailing list. I am currently compiling an informal mailing list of interested persons, so if people do indicate interest, please let them know they can contact me directly and I will add their names.

We have a number of tasks ahead of us over the next few months as we aim to finalize the plan. This includes the completion of the Supporting Information that will accompany the S&I Plan, the preparation of a 2-page ‘marketing document’ and finalization of the make-up of the proposed Steering Committee (see section D – Management in the attached). With regard to the latter, please let me know if you would like to express interest in any of the Steering Committee positions as we need to start a list of potential names as soon as possible.

We received considerable input again in the last round, and while it was sometimes challenging to incorporate everything, we think most people’s comments and suggestions have been addressed. Nevertheless, the Science and Implementation Plan is still a work in progress, so please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have further input.

We hope to have a final draft completed by the end of October. It is likely that most of the consultation between now and then will be electronic, however, Mecha and I will hold at least one meeting in the margins of the CCAMLR meetings, which will be in Hobart from the 21 Oct-1 Nov 2019. Please let me know if you are likely to be in Hobart for these meetings and we will ensure that we include you in any correspondence regarding Ant-ICON discussions.

Many thanks once again for your interest and active engagement. It’s a pleasure to work with such a knowledgeable and enthusiastic planning group.

All the best

Aleks and Mecha

Dr. Aleks Terauds

Chief Officer – SCAR Standing Committee on the Antarctic Treaty System

P: +61 3 6232 3339 |E: aleks.terauds@gmail.com | Alt E: Aleks.Terauds@aad.gov.au

Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) President, Prof Steven Chown from Monash University, with some representatives at the meeting of the South Africa National Committee for SCAR.

South Africa has been involved in Antarctic research since the geophysical year of 1957. The first 10 years of South Africa’s science and research in the Antarctic is highlighted in an article by DG Kingwell, at that stage the secretary of the South African Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SASCAR).

The Antarctic Research of South Africa is part of The International Science Council (ISC), South Africa.

South Africa is a national member of ISC through the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The South African ISC -Secretariat serves the scientific community and the ISC scientific unions and affiliates to which South Africa adheres. The SA ISC Secretariat provides support and organisational services for the ISC National Board of SA, and to the SA ISC National Committees to advance South Africa’s position in international platforms. The total membership of these committees is in excess of 200 scientists. Approximately 100 South Africans serve on ICS-related commissions and working groups. The ISC activities in South Africa are focused on the following principals:

Science-for-policy: Stimulate and support national and international scientific research and scholarship, and to communicate science that is relevant to national and international policy issues;
Policy-for-science: Promote developments that enable science to contribute more effectively to major issues in the national and international public domain;
Science-for-society: Stimulate science engagement with society;
Scientific freedom and responsibility: Support the free and responsible practice of science;
Adherence: Support committees through payment of ISC membership dues.

South Africa Science and Research is also part of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) where the committee members will represent South Africa at SCAR meetings.

The new National Committee has been announced in a letter by Tracy Klarenbeek – Professional Officer, Knowledge Advancement and Support (KAS) and their first meeting took place at Stellenbosch University on 6 March 2019.

Dear SANAP Community,

It gives me great pleasure in sharing the names of the individuals selected to represent us all at SCAR. Of course, these individuals will rely heavily on inputs from the entire community, so I sincerely hope that you will be available to support them in their endeavours. Members of the community that are not an the steering committee are still strongly encouraged to participate in SCAR and SCAR-related activities. The DST and the NRF are planning a follow-up meeting with the whole community, hopefully by the middle of the year (academic and other schedules permitting), so as to give feedback on a number of initiatives ongoing that will possibly impact on us all, including plans for current and future SA participation in SCAR. We look forward to seeing you there.

The final list is below, the details of which will be communicated to SCAR in due course. Professor Bettine van Vuuren was nominated as the Committee Chair, Tracy Klarenbeek as Vice-Chair and Dr Gilbert Siko representing the Department of Science and technology.