ARIA-funded VERIFY project (UK) : 7 fully funded PhDs on climate tipping points

Dear UKPN,

Applications are invited for 7 fully funded PhDs across the UK, starting October 2025, as part of the multi-institution project VERIFY: Out Of Sample Testing For Early Warning Systems Using Past Climate.

VERIFY's aim is to observe and understand massive changes (so-called tipping events) in the climate of the North Atlantic in the recent and geological past. Embedded in 6 institutions across the UK, and with partners in mainland Europe and the USA, VERIFY brings together experts in modern and palaeo-climate dynamics, high resolution and complexity modelling, with data scientists and statisticians. These past tipping events will serve as a testbed for verifying whether tipping behavior can be predicted by Early Warning Systems (EWSs), forming a crucial component of an £81m ARIA-funded effort to develop these systems in the North Atlantic region.

Projects are available in a diverse array of disciplines, including dynamical systems, Earth System Modelling, ice and sediment core geochemistry, statistical climate analysis, and social science. Students will benefit from involvement in the broader project and interactions with researchers and fellow students across VERIFY and the wider ARIA 'Forecasting Tipping Points' programme.

For a full list of projects and links to project descriptions, see here: https://gmacgilchrist.github.io/docs/verify_all.pdf

Deadline for applications: various in March, please see further details of each project. 
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an interview shortly after the submission deadline.
Eligibility: Please note that the funder covers stipend and home fees only – international students will need to secure additional funding or cover the difference between home and international fees themselves.  The project will assist with applications for additional funding for exceptionally strong international students.

Fw: Request to advertise upcoming Polar webinar - Polar Impact

From: Polar Impact <pimi@polarimpactnetwork.org>

Sent: 11 February 2025 15:30
To: president@polarnetwork.org <president@polarnetwork.org>
Subject: Request to advertise upcoming Polar webinar - Polar Impact

Hi there,

The Polar Impact Mentorship Initiative (PIMI) is hosting a public webinar on February 28, 2025. If you all are able to distribute the following text and graphical advertisement (attached) amongst the UK Polar Network, we would greatly appreciate it! Please reach out with any questions.

On behalf of the PIMI Organizing Committee,

Alie

The Polar Impact Mentorship Initiative warmly invites the polar research community to join us as we explore what contributes to "successful" collaborations! During this hour-long panel discussion, we will consider collaborations through multiple lenses and embrace the benefits that come from engaging with interdisciplinary research groups, policy and decision makers, and Indigenous and local community members. Whether you are building a career in polar research, have decades of polar experience, or want to learn more about how communities, scientists, and decision makers can better work together to solve complex problems, this panel discussion will offer insights and inspiration for all!  

 

The event will take place on February 28 from 10-11a EST | 3-4p GMT, and registration through this google form is required to receive the Zoom link. The Polar Impact Mentorship Initiative is one of many efforts led by Polar Impact, an international, inclusive network whose mission is to support, highlight, and connect racial and ethnic minorities in the polar sciences.  

 

Register here: https://forms.gle/L4ojd9UjMCti5SMQ7 

Learn more about Polar Impact here: https://www.polarimpactnetwork.org/ 

 

Panelists for this event include: 

 

Dr. Heather Sauyaq Jean Kwamboka Gordon (PhD, MS) is the owner/principal consultant at Sauyaq Solutions, an adjunct assistant researcher at American University and affiliated faculty at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Dr. Gordon specializes in research, evaluation, and technical assistance with and for Indigenous Nations/communities and their partners. Dr. Gordon holds a PhD in Indigenous Studies with a concentration in Indigenous Sustainability. From Homer, Alaska, she is Iñupiaq and a citizen of the Nome Eskimo Community and the US. 

 

Dr. Lauren Miller (PhD, BS) attended Oklahoma State University as an undergraduate student and the University of California Santa Barbara as a graduate student. Prior to arriving at the University of Virginia in 2018, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Rice University. Lauren uses the geological record to study how and why extinct and extant ice-sheets change, as well as to constrain coastal evolution, on timescales of decades to millennia. She is an advocate of meaningful collaboration, resourceful science, and holistic professional development.  

 

Hugo Guímaro is a PhD student at the University of Coimbra (Portugal), based at the Marine and Environmental Science Centre (MARE) and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in the UK. His research focuses on Antarctic marine animal ecology using tools like satellite imagery, telemetry, molecular analysis, and modeling. He serves as APECS President for the 2024/25 term, actively engaging in education and outreach initiatives to raise awareness of polar science and environmental issues, and he fosters a collaborative global community among polar early career researchers. Hugo is also linked with international organisations such as SCAR and SOOS. 

 

Dr. Clara J. M. Hoppe studied at the University of Bremen (Germany) and the University of Tasmania (Australia). She did her PhD on climate change effects on Southern Ocean phytoplankton before focussing on Arctic phytoplankton for her postdoc positions. She now works as a research scientist at the Alfred Wegener Institute - Helmholtz Centre for polar and marine research (Germany). Claras work focuses on understanding the ecophysiology of current and future phytoplankton communities, with a focus on seasons outside the summer. She has been a co-coordinator of the Ecosystems-related work on the year-long high Arctic drift expedition MOSAiC and chairs the Kongsfjorden System Flagship.  

 

Please contact us at pimi@polarimpactnetwork.org if you have any questions. 

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Fw: REMINDER: Get involved with InSync (UK)

See below to get involved in the UK InSync (international Antarctic research effort) - it would be great to have as many ECRs involved as possible! 

---

From: Louise Sime - BAS <lsim@bas.ac.uk>
Sent: Friday, February 14, 2025 13:43
To: BAS Science <BASScience@exchange.nerc.ac.uk>
Subject: REMINDER: Get involved with InSync (UK)

 

A last  reminder on the message below..  Please do forward this to your other UK contacts who might be interested in InSync, and if interested, please do fill in the survey form by the 27^th of February. Thanks!

..

 

Dear potential UK InSync member,

Antarctica InSync is a global effort to synchronize research across Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, connecting ice, ocean, climate, and life to protect this vital region. Please see Antarctica InSync and Antarctica INSYNC Factsheet for further information.

As we begin to organise the UK component of InSync, we would very much like your involvement.  If you are a resident of the UK, there are various ways for you to do this.

 

1. Join the new InSyncUK mailing list.
2. Come along to one of our two upcoming webinars. These are Tuesday the 4^th of March 10:00-12:00 or Monday the 10^th of March 10:00-12:00.
3. Tell us about your idea for InSync science. We'd really like to hear about your initial research thoughts about InSync. If you do have an idea, please prepare one slide for the webinar, send it to Kate Smithson (kason@bas.ac.uk). It does not have to be polished! You will have 2 minutes during the webinar to present your initial idea.
4. Tell us how you would like to be involved, and whether you'd be interested in a national committee or subcommittee role.

Sign up for any combination of 1,2,3, and 4. Apologies for inevitable cross-posting, however please do also forward this message to other UK scientists who could be interested in InSyncUK.

Best wishes,

 

Jane Francis (UK representative for InSync)

Louise Sime (UK co-science coordinator)

Alberto Naveira-Garabato (UK co-science coordinator)

Kate Smithson (UK support)

 

This email and any attachments are intended solely for the use of the named recipients. If you are not the intended recipient you must not use, disclose, copy or distribute this email or any of its attachments and should notify the sender immediately and delete this email from your system. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has taken every reasonable precaution to minimise risk of this email or any attachments containing viruses or malware but the recipient should carry out its own virus and malware checks before opening the attachments. UKRI does not accept any liability for any losses or damages which the recipient may sustain due to presence of any viruses.

Antarctic Science Bursary 2025

Antarctic Science Bursary 2025 

In coordination with the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS), Antarctic Science Ltd. is running a webinar to help potential applicants of 2025 Antarctic Science International Bursary. This bursary runs every year and is for up to £6000 to support PhD or early career researchers to extend the scope of an existing research project. More details here: http://www.antarcticsciencebursary.org.uk/. A great opportunity to get top-up funding for that exciting idea of yours!

The webinar will explain more about the bursary and advice on how to submit a successful application. Previous recipients of this bursary will share their experiences on the usefulness of this bursary in their research careers in Antarctic science. This will be followed by a Q+A session, where you can ask any bursary related question to our panel of past award recipients and members of the Antarctic Science bursary board.

Follow the links to register for the webinar, which will be held in two separate sessions on February 14, at 15:00 GMT (registration link) and 20:00 GMT (registration link). 

Lucy Stephenson (she/her) | Scientific Data Officer| UK Polar Data Centre | British Antarctic Survey

Antarctic President | UK Polar Network 

Room 330a, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET

Email: lustep@bas.ac.uk  

 

Explore the PDC Discovery Metadata System Discovery Metadata System - British Antarctic Survey (bas.ac.uk)

Feedback for the PDC  https://forms.office.com/e/VtyQs3ZVqp

UK Polar Network https://polarnetwork.org/

Association of Polar Early Career Researchers https://apecs.is/

Visit our website www.bas.ac.uk | Follow BAS on Twitter and Facebook

 

 

This email and any attachments are intended solely for the use of the named recipients. If you are not the intended recipient you must not use, disclose, copy or distribute this email or any of its attachments and should notify the sender immediately and delete this email from your system. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has taken every reasonable precaution to minimise risk of this email or any attachments containing viruses or malware but the recipient should carry out its own virus and malware checks before opening the attachments. UKRI does not accept any liability for any losses or damages which the recipient may sustain due to presence of any viruses.

Deadline 14 Feb : Fully-funded PhDs in ocean-ice-atmosphere dynamics (St Andrews, UK)

Good morning UKPN,

I'd like to draw attention to an upcoming deadline for 2 fully-funded PhD projects on polar ocean-ice-atmopshere dynamics at the University of St Andrews. Please share with any interested students and encourage them to reach out with any questions!

~~~

Join the dynamic and growing COASt research group at the University of St Andrews (https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/earth-sciences/research/centres/coast/). Two fully-funded PhDs are still available for 2025 entry, focused on understanding fundamental dynamics of the ocean, atmosphere, and cryosphere, and their interactions. Deadlines 14th February.

"Westerly winds overturning oceans", supervised by Graeme MacGilchrist, Mike Byrne, and Simon Lee (all Earth and Environmental Sciences); explore the fundamental dynamics and interactions of the ocean and atmosphere circulation in the high latitude southern hemisphere. https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/study/fees-and-funding/scholarships/scholarships-catalogue/postgraduate-scholarships/world-leading-scholarship-03-earth-sciences/

"Groundwater under Antarctica: Impact of deep subglacial groundwater on Antarctic ocean circulation", supervised by TJ Young (Geography) and Graeme MacGilchrist (Earth and Environmental Sciences); explore the dynamics and pathways of groundwater under Antarctica and its impact on ice sheet and ocean flows. https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/study/fees-and-funding/scholarships/scholarships-catalogue/postgraduate-scholarships/world-leading-scholarship-05-geography-earth/

For information on how to apply, please visit https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/earth-sciences/prospective/pgr/

For discussion and further information on the projects, please contact the relevant supervisor(s):
Graeme MacGilchrist (gam24@st-andrews.ac.uk)
Mike Byrne (mpb20@st-andrews.ac.uk)
Simon Lee (shl21@st-andrews.ac.uk)
TJ Young (tjy1@st-andrews.ac.uk)