news & Events archive

12 November 2024

COMNAP is pleased to open the call for the COMNAP Middle Manager’s Award.

The COMNAP Middle Manager’s Award is aimed at awarding members of COMNAP Member national Antarctic programs in senior or middle-management/middle career positions of all types.

It is meant to provide support to the applicant to undertake a short-term visit to another COMNAP Member national Antarctic program facility (including an Antarctic station or facility) or to a related organisation to participate in training, mentoring or to exchange ideas or work on joint projects.

The eligibility checklist and application forms are available here.

Spread the word within your organisations!

11 November 2024

The COMNAP Secretariat is attending, virtually, the UN Climate Change Conference Baku - COP29, 11-22 November 2024.

COP, which stands for Conference of Parties, is the series of formal meetings Conference of Parties, where governments assess global efforts to advance the Paris Agreement and the Convention.

The management implications of a changing Antarctic region is an important topic for the COMNAP Membership.

A better understanding of the mechanisms behind negotiations at COP29 and presentations of issues and topic, is relevant to assist national Antarctic programs in their effort to protect the Antarctic environment.

30 October 2024

Celebrating 150 years of US-NZ Scientific Collaboration, we announce the second speaker of the Antarctic Summer Science Lecture Series being Associate Professor Molly O. Patterson, Department of Earth Sciences, Binghamton University, who will present “Spatial variability of Antarctic ice sheet dynamics and its influence on deep ocean circulation during the Pliocene“. Molly is in Christchurch on the way to Antarctica to start the 2024/25 Antarctic research season.

20 November | 5.30pm – 6.30pm | University of Canterbury | Central Lecture Theatres | Room C3

For more information, visit the Antarctic Summer Science Lecture Series webpage.

16 October 2024

The annual Antarctic Fellowship is an investment in the professional development of talented early career researchers. COMNAP will support two early career Antarctic persons in 2024: María Cristina Casero Chamorro and Clara Álvarez Hernández. María Cristina Casero Chamorro is a postdoctoral researcher at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain, and she will be hosted by the Czech Antarctic Research Program. This award will support Cristina’s project entitled “Understanding viral abundance and distribution from airborne samples in and around Johan Gregor Mendel Base, northern James Ross Island, Antarctica”. Clara Álvarez Hernández will join researchers at the British Antarctic Survey, United Kingdom, with a project entitled “Exploring plastic waste removal options to minimize local introduction of micro-plastics in the Antarctic environment”.

You can read the announcement here.

15 - 16 October 2024

The COMNAP EXCOM met for their yearly in-person meeting in Cambridge, England, hosted by COMNAP Member program, the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). EXCOM discussed the outcomes of the Annual General Meeting and advanced the strategic direction for COMNAP. Topics of discussion included expert groups, new projects, strategic opportunities in environmental protection, sustainability, safety & wellbeing, and enhancing COMNAP’s status within the Antarctic Treaty System by continuing to provide practical, technical and non-political advice. While in Cambridge, EXCOM also took the opportunity to visit the SCAR Secretariat and meet with the SCAR Executive Director and staff.

25 September 2024

COMNAP and Gateway Antarctica, University of Canterbury, in collaboration with the Embassy of the United States in Wellington, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U. S. Antarctic Program (USAP), Antarctica New Zealand, and the Antarctic Office, present free public lectures on current Antarctic research.

First in a three-part series’ speaker is Professor John Kovac, Harvard Astronomy Department, Harvard University, who will present “The Search for the Universe's Beginning from the Ends of the Earth“. John is in Christchurch on the way to Antarctica to start the 2024/25 Antarctic research season.

30 October | 5.30pm – 6.30pm | University of Canterbury | Ernest Rutherford Building | Room 140

For more information, visit the Antarctic Summer Science Lecture Series webpage.

20 September 2024

With the 2024/2025 Antarctic season underway, a reminder to remain vigilant for signs of avian flu in wildlife in all regions of Antarctica. Look for signs of HPAI in Antarctic species and report those signs, take extra precautions to prevent the intra-continental spread of the virus by human activity, and protect our human expeditioners from contracting the disease from infected birds and mammals.

COMNAP HPAI Guidance (version 3, 20 September 2024) for COMNAP Members remains available by way of the Member’s Only Document area.

An HPAI training module – currently in the English language only – has been prepared through the Secretariat. Any National Antarctic Program can use the module. You can download the training module from here.

19 August 2024

On Monday 19 August 2024, COMNAP held a joint mini-symposium during the SCAR Open Science Conference, in Pucón, Chile.
The mini-symposium, entitled “A Promising Future for Antarctic Research: Facilitation of circumpolar initiatives through science and science support partnerships” was co-chaired by Antonio Quesada, COMNAP Chair, and Deneb Karentz, SCAR Vice President Science.

This mini-symposium explored the complex nature of establishing the framework for providing logistics for circumpolar research programs and it explored the critical science/science support nexus that enables circumpolar research collaborations.

For more information visit the meeting webpage.

16 August 2024

We farewelled and thanked for their active and constructive participation in the COMNAP Executive Committee: Gen Hashida (Japan’s National Institute of Polar Research), and Dragomir Mateev (Bulgarian Antarctic Institute) who completed their terms as Vice Chairs. We welcomed Ollie Darke (British Antarctic Survey), Shailendra Saini (India’s National Center for Polar and Ocean Research), and Walter Mac Cormack (Instituto Antártico Argentino) as new EXCOM Officers joining the continuing Vice Chairs Pavel Kapler (Czech Antarctic Research Programme), and Wendy Rubio (Chilean Antarctic Institute). COMNAP Chair, Professor Antonio Quesada, Executive Director of the Spanish Polar Committee, was re-elected for an additional one-year term of office.

14 - 16 August 2024

The COMNAP AGM 36 (2024) was convened as an in-person meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from Wednesday 14 August through Friday 16 August 2024.

National Antarctic programs exchanged pre-season information for Antarctic research season 2024/2025 in the six Regional Breakout Group Sessions.

COMNAP Member programs freely exchanged and further developed their expertise during topical Expert Group Forums and two Workshops. The topics of air operations, science facilitation, marine platforms, environmental protection, critical technologies, training, diversity & inclusivity, and human biology & medicine, were part of the AGM schedule.

You can read the communique here.

12 August 2024

While being in Buenos Aires in advance to the COMNAP AGM, Andrea Colombo, Deputy Director of the COMNAP Secretariat, met with Albert Lluberas, Antarctic Treaty Secretariat Executive Secretary, and the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat team for a very fruitful day exploring similarities between the two Secretariats and further improving exchange of information to avoid duplications when requesting information to our Members.

14 July 2024

A group of Spanish researchers from the Severo Ochoa Center for Molecular Biology (CBMSO-CSIC), under the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIU), in collaboration with the PERPANTAR research project on Antarctic penguin ecology of the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC), funded by the State Research Agency (AEI), has found the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus in the carcass of an elephant seal in Antarctica.

This is the first confirmed case of highly pathogenic avian influenza infection in marine mammals in Antarctica, indicating the spread of the disease to other animal groups (Beyond birds) with unknown consequences for Antarctic fauna and ecosystems.

Read more here.

3 June 2024

India hosted the 46th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM-46) and the 26th Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP-26) Meeting from May 20 to 30, 2024, in Kochi. The meetings were organized by the Ministry of Earth Sciences through COMNAP Member the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR). COMNAP submitted 13 papers, including 6 Working Papers, providing advice based on national Antarctic programs’ expertise on several topics.

On the margins of the very busy meeting sessions, EXCOM held a meeting on 20 May to discuss strategic issues and to plan for the upcoming AGM in Buenos Aires. Additionally, COMNAP EXCOM hosted a joint meeting with the SCAR EXCOM on 22 May to continue to foster collaboration between the two organizations.

COMNAP wishes to thank NCPOR for the warm welcome, generosity, and for the very well-organised meetings!

26 April 2024

COMNAP is an invited Observer to the annual IAATO Meetings. This year meeting was held in Annapolis, Maryland, USA, 22 - 25 April 2024. The COMNAP Executive Secretary attended the meeting.

5 March 2024

The awards, granted annualy by COMNAP, IAATO, SCAR, and CCAMLR, are an investment in the professional development of talented early career scientists and researchers and aim to strengthen international capacity and cooperation in the spirit of the Antarctic Treaty.

COMNAP and IAATO are each offering an award with funding of up to USD $15,000 for 2024. Both the COMNAP and IAATO schemes enable early-career persons to work with a project team from another country, creating new opportunities and often partnerships that last for many years and over many Antarctic field seasons. The deadline for COMNAP and IAATO fellowship applications is 31 May 2024.

Learn more here.

24 February 2024

The first confirmed cases of HPAI in birds in the Antarctic Treaty area (Peninsula region) were reported by the Argentine and Spanish national Antarctic programs. Read the announcement here (in Spanish): Scientists from the Severo Ochoa Center for Molecular Biology of the CSIC confirm the presence of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza virus for the first time in Antarctica.

Up-to-date information and COMNAP Member national Antarctic programs guidance are available at https://www.comnap.aq/heightened-risk-of-hpai-in-antarctica; COMNAP HPAI Guidance (version 1/30 August 2023) for COMNAP Members is available by way of the Member’s Only Document area.

30 January 2024

The proceedings of the 20th COMNAP Symposium “Antarctic Innovations and Collaborations” are now available to be downloaded as pdf here. Some hard-copies are available as well: if you wish to receive a printed copy, please contact the COMNAP Secretariat.