• For mentoring, see the Fellowships Mentoring page.

SCAR is committed to helping scientists in all of its Member countries to participate in understanding scientifically the physical, biological, chemical and geological processes at work in the Antarctic region, to use that understanding to predict change both there and elsewhere in the world, and to provide objective and independent advice to policy makers, especially the Antarctic Treaty System. To achieve that goal requires that efforts be made to raise national scientific capacities, especially in developing countries. SCAR is also committed to promoting the incorporation of Antarctic science in education at all levels.

The SCAR CBET Committee was established to address these goals and to help Members' scientists achieve the following objectives:

• to engage in high quality international scientific research;
• to benefit from SCAR’s activities;
• to make best use of data and information;
• to provide objective and independent scientific advice to their own governments;
• to make best use of Antarctic examples to illustrate key scientific principles in schools and universities.

Meetings:

The Committee held an online meeting on Dec 13th 2016 to discuss progress and the next steps required for the roles and tasks agreed at the 2016 Delegates Meeting. The minutes of the meeting inlcuding the Action Items are available here:

•   pdf CBET Committee Meeting December 2016 minutes (157 KB)

Publications

Current committee members

M. Ravichandran (Chair)
Rahul Mohan
Jose Xavier
Daniela Liggett
Hanne Nielsen
Alexander Thornton
Gabriela Roldan
Eoghan Griffin
Louise Huffmann

Terms of Reference of the CBET Committee

At the 2014 Delegates Meeting the new Terms of Reference for the CBET Committee, introduced in Working Paper 25 at that meeting, were approved. The suggested mechanisms to achieve the CBET Committee’s goals were set out in the paper, and repeated in Working Paper 26 presented to the 2015 EXCOM meeting for discussion.

The 2015 EXCOM meeting also considered the recommendations of the 2015 Structure Review. Issues identified from the Structure Review in relation to CBET were coordination with the Scientific Research Programs (SRPs), wider advertising for Fellowships and the Visiting Professor schemes, as well as helping improve wider participation from countries with less developed Antarctic programs by such measures as organising proposal workshops, webinars and mentor lists. The issue of mentoring was seen to be the most important area in which the Committee should seek to make progress. An online meeting of the existing CBET Committee to begin implementation was recommended.

Progress to Date

In late February 2016 an online meeting of the CBET Committee took place, chaired by the VP for Capacity Building, and which considered the following issues:

• The new CBET Committee Terms of Reference and Objectives
• The adoption of specific roles and responsibilities within the Committee
• The creation of a review panel to be used for Fellowships, Visiting Professorships etc.
• Mentoring for Early Career Scientists
• Changes to Standing Science Group (SSG), SRP and Standing Committee (SC) reporting as a result of the Structure Review.
• The 2016 Open Science Conference (OSC) CBET meeting and related OSC events.

A series of Action items were identified to progress the work of the Committee, and it was noted that there would be a mentoring webinar specifically to support applicants for the 2016 Fellowships program.

To address the Action Items and the wider objectives of the CBET Committee a number of roles and associated tasks were identified which were detailed in the  pdf CBET Update (152 KB) to the 2016 SCAR Delegates Meeting. At the OSC CBET Meeting these proposals were discussed and refined to reflect the practical actions required.

In the  pdf Brief Report (60 KB) on the meeting the final list of roles, tasks and suggested teams for each was proposed to be:

1. Overseeing the review of our Fellowship applications and reporting (suggestion: Jose Xavier)
   Tasks: Efficiency of the process, update FAQs and applications based on feedback, updating the list of reviewers, overseeing final selection process
2. Liaise with representatives in the Education field (suggestion: Advisory Team lead by Liz Pasteur, with Viviana Alder, Louise Huffman and Emmanuelle Sultan supporting, including representatives from APECS and PEI and IAI)
   Tasks: Collating information on relevant external resources and opportunities for young scientist and educators, advising SCAR on best practices to support CBET activities, provide advice on producing materials etc.
3. Liaison with the SG, SRP and other Group leadership to monitor the level of funding for Early Career Scientists (ECS) and effectiveness as network nodes, specifically addressing openness towards the whole community (suggestion: Rahul Mohan and Satoshi Imura)
   Tasks: Examine the Group reports extracting information on support for both ECS and developing programmes, consult with groups on examples of best practice
4. Liaison with the Development Council to investigate extra funding for the Fellowships and other programmes through additional voluntary contributions and other means (suggestion: Karin Lochte)
   Tasks: Produce a funding strategy to be used for directed fundraising, develop interaction with IAATO for targeted funding etc.
5. Organizing mentoring to investigate the best way to provide support for potential Fellowship applicants (suggestion:  APECS representative to work with SGs and SRPs and specifically their junior officers (once that programme is created))
   Tasks: Karin to send an official request to APECS for a representative to be appointed, request contact points from SGs and SRPs to assist potential applicants with identifying hosts, develop questionnaire targeted at potential applicants from developing countries about their mentoring needs, organize translation of FAQs and information material.
6. Develop a plan for improved capacity building for developing Antarctic Research programmes (suggestion: Gary Steel assisted by Azizan and Daniela)
   Tasks: Develop check list for how groups can help develop capacity and what is meant by a developing programme, develop list of discipline specific points of contact

In order to move forward with these tasks online meetings will be conducted at least every 6 months for the committee, with the small groups supporting each role interacting more frequently.

These proposals were presented at the 2016 SCAR Delegates meeting and were approved, including the establishment of an Education, Capacity Building and Outreach Medal.

SCAR Strategic documents on Capacity Building, Education and Training

• pdf SCAR Strategy for Capacity Building, Education and Training (314 KB)
• ICSU Report: pdf "Priority Area Assessment on Capacity Building in Science" (244 KB) (2006)
• Inter-Academy Council report: "Inventing A Better Future: A Strategy for Building Worldwide Capacities in Science and Technology"
•   document SCAR Director's Presentation on Capacity Building, Education and Training (714 KB) - given during the COMNAP-INFONET meeting on Education, Outreach and Communication during the International Polar Year 2007-2009, Washington DC, April 10-11, 2006.