SCAR's Science Groups (formerly known as Standing Scientific Groups) are responsible for:
- Sharing information on disciplinary scientific research being conducted by national Antarctic programmes;
- Identifying research areas or fields where current research is lacking;
- Coordinating proposals for future research by national Antarctic programmes to achieve maximum scientific and logistic effectiveness;
- Identifying research areas or fields that might be best investigated by a SCAR Scientific Research Programme and establishing Scientific Programme Planning Groups to develop formal proposals to the Executive Committee;
- Establishing Action and Expert Groups to address specific research topics within the discipline.
The three Science Groups are: