ITASC is a decentralized network of individuals and organisations working collaboratively in the fields of art, engineering and science on the interdisciplinary development and deployment of renewable energy, waste recycling systems and sustainable architecture to enable the production and distribution of open-format, open-source remote field research in Antarctica and the Arctic. ITASC is a lichen-like structure sharing and integrating local knowledge, resources and skills across seven continents in order to symbiotically engage with the air, ocean, earth and space commons.

Dense water formation in Polar areas; Impact on global ocean circulation and climate This international team of oceanographers will embark on expeditions to the Polar Oceans with ice going vessels to measure ocean temperature, salinity and currents, ice formation and distribution. They will employ remote sensing as well as bottom anchored instrument moorings to feed global numerical models. The project will try to estimate the impact of dense water formation in the polar regions on the global ocean circulation and climate.

An International Antarctic University The International Antarctic Institute is a consortium being developed by leading global Antarctic educational and research-intensive institutes. Its purpose is to facilitate cooperation and collaboration between member universities in Antarctic undergraduate and postgraduate multi disciplinary education. By sharing teaching resources between international partner universities we can create educational opportunities on a scale unattainable by any one institute or through traditional bilateral alliances.

The proposed project focuses the efforts of 20 scientists in 9 countries to produce a series of benchmark data sets for the International Polar Year. Those data sets culminate in the first quantification of the total rate of ice loss by flow from the Antarctic Ice Sheet. This work will be conducted by young scientists mentored by professional scientists to help train the next generation of scientists in the use of remote sensing data of the polar regions. Satellite data include ICESat laser altimetry, Landsat optical imagery and various European and Canadian synthetic aperture radar data.

The Antarctic Peninsula is one of the Earth’s three most rapidly warming regions: most of the glaciers there are in retreat and large ice shelves have broken up. This project investigates the impact of these changes on the plants and animals that live on the land, the shore and coastal sea around the Antarctic Peninsula. Organisms are facing a barrage of complex effects including warming, decreased ice and snow cover, increased iceberg grounding, sedimentation and freshening. A wide range of apparatus and techniques will be used from remote operated vehicles (ROV) and simple underwater light meters to satellite imagery and counting microscopic life. ClicOPEN scientists from 15 countries will study changes in the environments and organisms around a number of retreating glaciers of the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Most of Antarctica's very rich biodiversity lives nowhere else in the world and we know little about how it will responding to such exceptional and unprecedented warming.

Sea level rise will be responsible for one of the most profound and costly impacts of climate change on human society, so gathering accurate data on sea levels worldwide is vitally important. Although sea level is monitored at hundreds of sites through the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and World Meteorological Organization's Global Sea Level Observing System, there are large gaps in data from the Arctic and Antarctic because measuring sea level along polar coastlines is a huge technical challenge. By enhancing existing sea level gauges in the Antarctic, and installing new, high-tech devices in the Arctic that will provide high-frequency, real time data, this project will provide the missing piece of the jigsaw for scientists monitoring sea level rise across the globe. The same sea level data can also be used to monitor changes in the circulation of the high-latitude oceans, which in turn may provide clues as to why sea level is rising.

The SCAR-programme EBA (2004-13) will address the impacts of climate change on species biodiversity, evolutionary adaptations and depletion of marine fisheries on community dynamics in the Southern Ocean. A better understanding of the effect of such changes will be obtained by investigating the acclimatory responses to high latitudes. It will contribute to development of a baseline understanding of sensitive ecosystems.

Polar Heritage - once lost, it can never be regained. Protection and preservation of early scientific bases in polar regions. A multidisciplinary and international conference with presentations focussed on technical and administrative issues associated with the protection and preservation of historic scientific bases and in "Historic polar resources are disappearing! Once lost, it can never be regained. Protection and preservation of early scientific bases in polar regions. The age of discovery in polar regions also brought scientific research and soon the first non-indigenous structures were built. Regretably some of these historic sites have already been lost and more are under threat. The International Polar Heritage Committee IPY conference in Barrow Alaska, the site of one the first IPY scientific stations will assemble organisations and individuals working to protect these sites so they can share their expertise and experience to preserve them. "

"The APICS project is an effort to understand all aspects of the ice and climate system in one of the most rapidly-changing regions on Earth - the Antarctic Peninsula' Larsen B embayment. In 2002, a huge section of this ice shelf collapsed, after decades of record-warm summers. Following this collapse, glaciers in the region accelerated abruptly. Coastal ecology and nearby ocean currents changed drastically due to the loss, and a preliminary survey of the newly-exposed ocean floor showed previously unknown sub-ice life forms still present after the break-up. The APICS project is intended to use the dynamic Larsen B ice shelf region as a natural laboratory for what to expect from climate warming in Antarctica. It is a collaborative effort among 11 major U.S. research institutions, and four other countries (Spain, Belgium, Argentina, and England) to coordinate research across several disciplines, using the US research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer as a platform. The work will include an ice core at the crest of the ice ridge above the Larsen B, remote robotic systems for glacier measurements, extensive flights to visit unique rock outcrops that may reveal the history of the region, and a remotely piloted vehicle for exploring the new life forms and ocean sediment changes. The first field season is currently planned for February/March of 2008."

Understanding the state of the cryosphere, and its associated past, present and future variability, is essential to understanding physical and biogeochemical interactions between the oceanic, atmospheric, terrestrial, social, cultural, and economic systems. This project will provide a framework for assessing the state of cryosphere. It will establish links with IPY projects involved in monitoring, assessing, and understanding the global cryosphere, and with projects involved in socioeconomic and cultural issues.