The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP) are pleased to announce this year’s Fellowship awardees. The Fellowships are worth up to US$15,000 each and seven Fellowships (four SCAR, three COMNAP) will be awarded in this round. The SCAR Fellowships are awarded to: Lavenia Ratnarajah, Jilda Caccavo, Graeme Clark and Ryan Reisinger. Graeme Clark becomes the second Prince Albert II of Monaco Fellow, funded from the Prix Biodiversité awarded to SCAR in 2013. The COMNAP Fellowships are awarded to: Chris Horvat, Blanca Figuerola and Ronja Reese.
This year, 55 applications were received. The winners of the Fellowships will carry out a range of scientific research in areas including sea ice distribution, ecological response to environmental change, invasive species and iron fertilization in the Southern Ocean.
SCAR has been offering scientific fellowships to early career scientists since 2005. Such fellowships have enabled Antarctic scientists to participate in a range of significant research including using ice cores to determine proxies for the Southern Annular Mode, a molecular study of Antarctic ostracods, and investigating particulate carbon and biogenic silica in sea ice in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Since 2005, 38 SCAR Fellowships have been awarded.
In 2011, COMNAP launched the Antarctic Research Fellowship Scheme, offering one fellowship for an early career person in order to carry out research within a COMNAP National Antarctic Program. With this year’s awards, there have been twelve COMNAP Fellowships or joint Fellowships awarded.
The Fellowships support the scientific goals of SCAR and the international cooperation goal of COMNAP to develop and promote best practice in managing the support to Antarctic science. The Fellowships enable the early career researchers to join a project team from another country, opening up new opportunities and often creating research partnerships that last many years and over many Antarctic research seasons.
