Polar Early Career
World Summit
22-24 March 2025 / Boulder, Colorado, US
The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) and the Polar Science Early Career Community Office (PSECCO) are collaborating to organize a Polar Early Career World Summit (PECWS). It was held alongside the International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP) IV and the Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) in Boulder, Colorado, US in March 2025 with the aim to bring together early career researchers, professionals, Indigenous scholars and knowledge holders connected to the Arctic, Antarctica, and the wider cryosphere from across the world. The PECWS aims to:
Provide input into ICARP IV and the development of the 5th International Polar Year (2032-33)
Discuss the past, present and future of polar early career networks and strengthen them through in-depth discussions, relationship-building, and developing formats of collaboration
Conversations at the summit were synthesized into multiple output formats to reach a broad audience and influence polar science policy and decision-making processes
The PECWS Synthesis Report is now available!
This comprehensive summary document captures the collective voice of 238 early career polar researchers from around the world and identifies their shared priorities for long-term research planning.
Help us implement these priorities & tackle urgent polar research questions responsibly!
You can add your endorsement to the report through fall 2026 and view endorsers here.
More information about the PECWS Synthesis ReportThe future of polar research
Building on the successful history of two previous APECS World Summits, the PECWS fosters international collaboration across disciplines and encourage discussions that many early career professionals are already spearheading within the scientific community, including emphasizing a need for building welcoming polar research communities, urging open science development, working across disciplines, furthering applied research, effective science communication, and collaborating through co-production of knowledge.
The timeline of the Polar Early Career World Summit
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APECS and PSECCO start planning the PECWS 2025
In 2023, the leadership of the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) and the Polar Science Early Career Community Office (PSECCO) committed to organise a Polar Early Career World Summit in 2025. Following these initial discussion an Organizing Committee and a wider Planning Team involving early career community members was established in 2024.
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Gathering community input on discussion themes
The organizers invited polar early career community members from around the world to provide their input on early career priorities which defined the discussion themes and informed the agenda of the PECWS.
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Polar Early Career World Summit
The Polar Early Career World Summit 2025 was held alongside ICARP IV and ASSW in Boulder, Colorado, US in March 2025. 120 polar early career researchers (ECRs) came together to discuss and synthesize priorities for input to ICARP IV and IPY discussions. At the end of the third day, polar ECRs had discussed 12 priority themes, and for those themes landed on 12 visions and 75 priorities to be addressed, which were supported by 186 reasonings and actions.
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Online Engagement Events
The PECWS team is hosting three Online Engagement Events on 27 - 29 May that will provide an overview of what was discussed at PECWS and refine the developed priorities with polar ECRs from all over the world. Register now to attend at 04:00-05:30 UTC | 09:00-10:30 UTC | 17:00-18:00 UTC on 28 May and fill out this form by 11 June to provide your input on polar early career priorities.
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Release of the PECWS Synthesis Report
The input provided by the polar early career community through the PECWS in March 2025 as well as online events and input forms will be synthesized into a report on polar research priorities.
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Activities towards the 5th IPY
The organizers will continue to collaborate with attendees, partner organizations and the broader polar community to facilitate the representation of early career voices in the planning and execution of the 5th IPY.
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