Why does SCAR do Capacity Building?
Training, support and development of the Antarctic community are fundamental to SCAR. The SCAR Fellowships aim to facilitate collaboration and knowledge-transfer between researchers and institutions. SCAR also encourages and rewards excellence in Antarctic research, as well as outstanding service to the research community, through a performance recognition scheme in the form of biennially awarded SCAR medals. SCAR assists educators, students, and early-career researchers, and helps under-represented groups and emerging programmes to participate in SCAR’s activities and Antarctic research. SCAR promotes and facilitates the incorporation of Antarctic research into the educational landscape.
SCAR is committed to helping researchers in all of its Member countries and beyond to
- participate in understanding the physical, biological, chemical and geological processes at work in the Antarctic region
- use that understanding to predict change both there and elsewhere in the world,
- provide objective and independent advice to policy makers, especially the Antarctic Treaty System.
To achieve these goals requires that efforts be made to raise national scientific capacities, especially in developing countries.
Opportunities SCAR offers
- Early-Career Fellowships: Fellowships enable early career researchers to join a project team from another country, opening up new opportunities and creating partnerships. In 2022 additional support is being provided by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation through the Polar Initiative.
- Visiting Scholarships: The visiting scholar scheme is aimed to researchers and academics (more than five years after completing their PhD), and offers the opportunity to undertake a short-term visiting to another SCAR member country to provide or receive training and mentoring.
- SCAR Medals: SCAR medals recognise excellence in Antarctic and Southern Ocean research and outstanding service to the international Antarctic community.
For 2022, to reflect the impact of Covid19 related travel restrictions, applicants are able to propose partly or entirely remote Fellowships or Visiting Scholar proposals. There will also be greater flexibility with the timing of the awards, so that they may be delayed until the planned travel is possible.
Please refer to the flowchart below for guidance on who is eligible for each of our programmes. Click the image to be taken to the PDF version.
If you can’t find the information you need, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and the SCAR Secretariat will be happy to help.
