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