IASC 25 years | Page 102

The IASC Secretariat has always advocated close cooperation between the science community and national governmental agencies (constituting most of the members of the Arctic Council working groups). Examples of such cooperation are ACIA and SAON (see Chapters 2.5 and 2.8). Today the IASC Secretariat, with its Executive Secretary and staff, is responsible for the daily operations of IASC, including: - Communicating with Council Members; - Communicating with other organizations, includ- ing the Arctic Council and its subsidiary bodies and ICSU; - Publication of the IASC Bulletin and IASC material as required; - Maintaining the IASC website, preparing the IASC newsletter Progress and in general facilitating outreach. The responsibilities of the Executive Secretary include: - Preparing budgets, the administration of IASC finances; - Preparing for, attending and reporting on all Council and Executive Committee meetings; - Representing IASC at meetings of other organiza tions as directed by the Executive Committee; - Hiring, dismissal, and overseeing secretariat staff; - Responding to duties assigned by the Executive Committee. Other responsibilities of the staff of the Secretariat include: - Preparing for, attending, and reporting on all Working Group and Action Group meetings as requested by Chairs of these bodies; - Facilitating communication between Working Groups. The host countries for the IASC Secretariat have been: 1991-2005: Norway, financed by the Norwegian Polar Institute; Executive Secretary: Odd Rogne, 101 05 IASC Secretariat Administrative Assistants: Maryanne Rygg and Margaret Davies. 2006-2008: Sweden, hosted by the Swedish Polar Secretariat and financed by the Swedish Research Council; Executive Secretary: Volker Rachold, Administrative Assistants: Anna Sundin, Charlotte TeglgaardPålsson. 2009- present: Germany, hosted by the Alfred Wegener Institute and co-financed by the German Science Foundation. Additional support provided by the US National Science Foundation (2009-2013), the Korean Polar Research Institute (2013-), the Canadian Polar Commission (2014-) the Japanese National Institute for Polar Research (2014-) and the Polish Polar Consortium (2015-). Executive Secretary: Volker Rachold, Executive Officers: Mare Pit (2009-), Sara Bowden (2009-2013), Yoo Kyung Lee (2013-), Susan File (2014-), Tetsuo Sueyoshi (2014-) and Maja Lisowska (2015-), Communications Officer: Ursula Heidbach, Administrative Assistant: Heike Midleja. IASC Fellowship Program Promoting and involving the next generation of scientists working in the Arctic is of major importance for IASC towards achieving its mission of encouraging and facilitating cooperation in all aspects of Arctic research, in all countries engaged in Arctic research and in all areas of the Arctic region. Since 2014, IASC maintains a Fellowship Program to engage Early Career Scientists (ECS) in the work of the IASC Working Groups (WGs). IASC Fellows are doctoral or postdoctoral researchers who actively participate in selected activities of the IASC WGs. IASC Fellows are expected to contribute scientifically, but also to help organize specific activities, including reporting to the IASC Secretariat. Thus, the Fellowship program provides the opportunity for ECSs to become involved in leading-edge scientific activities at a circum-arctic and international level, to build an international network of contacts and also to develop management skills. IASC supports one Fellow per WG for a period of one