Project and Strategic Reports

In 2015, the APECS Executive Committee decided that a critical review of the organization should be undertaken in order to develop a strategy for the development of the organization in the coming years. The ExCom appointed a committee to conduct this review, consisting of 8 people, both members and mentors of APECS:

• Yulia Zaika - Committee Chair - Khibiny educational and scientific base of the Faculty of Geography M.V.Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
• Renuka Badhe - European Polar Board, the Netherlands
• Inga Beck - Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany
• Ivan Dubinenkov - Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Germany
• Elena Kuznetsova - Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
• Allen Pope - National Snow & Ice Data Center, Boulder / Polar Science Center, University of Washington, USA
• Volker Rachold - International Arctic Science Committee, Germany
• Jose Xavier - British Antarctic Survey (UK) and University of Coimbra (Portugal)

More information on the tasks of the Organisational Review Committee can be found in its Terms of Reference.

The review consisted of informal interviews as well as a comprehensive survey of APECS members, mentors, and the wider polar community. The survey received over 200 responses from 29 different countries. After multiple virtual meetings, on the committee met in person alongside ASSW2015 in Toyama, Japan to discuss major results and outcomes of the survey and agree on recommendations for future strategic actions listed below.

Recommendations for APECS included:

• Moving to a more project-based operational strategy
• Consider new avenues of funding
• Continuing to stimulate the interdisciplinary
• Maintaining high standards of communication
• Expanding the APECS membership
• Focusing on core skill development and resource offerings
• Making the APECS leadership more open and transparent
• And considering future trends in polar research

To see more in-depth data from the survey, as well as the text of the survey itself, and more about the organization review process, please read the committee’s full report below.