COMNAP Antarctic Research Fellowships
2016 Fellowship Awardees are anounced!
COMNAP is delighted to announce that this year we are awarding three COMNAP Antarctic Research Fellowships to the following deserving early career researchers:
Blanca Figuerola from Spain, who will work at the Australian Antarctic Division on her research entitled “Vulnerability of Antarctic bryozoan communities to environmental change”;
Christopher Horvat from the USA, who will work at the New Zealand National Institute for Water and Atmosphere on his research entitled “Modelling the Antarctic Sea Ice Floe Size Distribution”; and Ronja Reese from Germany, who will work at the British Antarctic Survey on her research entitled “On the importance of buttressing in Antarctica”.
We congratulate these early career persons and we wish them every success with this work.
As a result of the SCAR/COMNAP Action Group formed in 2010, SCAR and COMNAP are working together to attract talented researchers, engineers and other professionals to strengthen international capacity and cooperation. Below is information on the COMNAP Antarctic Research Fellowships. For information on the SCAR Fellowships go to: http://www.scar.org/awards/fellowships
The COMNAP Antarctic Research Fellowship:
The COMNAP Antarctic Research Fellowship was offered for the first time in 2011. COMNAP is the international independent organisation of National Antarctic Programs. Formed in 1988, COMNAP has as its goal to develop and promote best practice in managing the support of scientific research in Antarctica.
The COMNAP Antarctic Research Fellowship is similar to the SCAR Fellowship Programme in that, it is designed to encourage the active involvement of early career Antarctic researchers and to strengthen international capacity and cooperation in the spirit of the Antarctic Treaty. Both Fellowship Programmes allow the selected Fellow to become acquainted with recent advances in research and/or to develop long-term research linkages and international partnerships.
However, there are two primary differences between the SCAR and COMNAP Fellowship Programmes. First, the COMNAP Fellowship Programme is intended to allow researchers from a COMNAP Member National Antarctic Program country to undertake short-term visits to major international laboratories, field facilities, and/or home institutions in or operated by other COMNAP Member National Antarctic Programs (for a list of members, please visit the "Our Members" page of the COMNAP website).
Secondly, the proposed research proposal should contribute to the objectives of the home or host National Antarctic Program's research objectives. This therefore, may be broader than the Scientific Research Programmes endorsed by SCAR (Postgraduates/PhDs in, for example, Engineering, Social Sciences, Humanities, Education, Communication and Outreach, and Medicine, etc would be welcome to apply.)
The award will be up to US$15,000, providing, as needed, economy-class round trip travel and a modest subsistence allowance for the fellowship period. The Fellow's home institute will bear all expenses incurred in his or her own nation (domestic travel, visa costs, etc.), and the host institute will waive any fees that they might normally charge. One or two COMNAP Fellowships will be awarded in total, depending on the quality of the applications and the budget available.
Evaluation for both schemes:
A scientific review panel chaired by a representative of the SCAR Capacity Building, Education and Training Committee and in addition comprising a member of the SCAR Executive Committee, a member of the COMNAP Executive Committee, the Chief Officers of the three Standing Scientific Groups or their Alternates; and the Executive Officer will evaluate all proposals on the basis of the scientific excellence of the proposed research. This evaluation will also take into consideration factors such as:
§ its importance and timeliness;
§ its achievability within the time frame allotted;
§ the extent to which links have already been established with the proposed host institution;
§ the extent to which it will strengthen the scientific research capacity of nations with smaller or less well-developed Antarctic research programmes;
§ its 'fit' with SCAR's place in science and with SCAR's scientific directions; and for COMNAP, its fit with COMNAP's goals and objectives.
Completion of Fellowship:
At the end of each Fellowship, each candidate must provide a report to be published on the SCAR and/or COMNAP websites. Reports should cover the accomplishments and a budgetary report. These reports will be tabled and discussed at the COMNAP AGM. The SCAR and/or COMNAP Fellowship scheme should be acknowledged in any resulting publications.
The COMNAP Antarctic Research Fellowship Recipients 2011-2015
The following were awarded COMNAP Fellowships. Their reports are also available below.
2014-2015 Keith Soal "Characterisation of Ice Structure.pdf", (Full title: Characterisation of Ice-Structure and Fluid-Structure Interactions on Polar Vessels using Operational Modal Analysis), University of Stellenbosch, South Africa to Germany and Finland
2015-2016 Alejandro Velasco Castrillon "Limno Terrestrial Microfauna.pdf", "100 years on: a re-evaluation of the first discovery of limno-terrestrial microfauna of the McMurdo Sound region", University of Adelaide/South Australia Museum to McMurdo Sound, Antarctica
2015-2016 Inka Koch (Awarded a joint SCAR/COMNAP Fellowship) "Airborne Ice Penetrating Radar.pdf", "Detecting marine ice internal layers and thickness in an Antarctic ice shelf with airborne ice penetrating radar", University of Otago, New Zealand to University of Texas, USA
Other Opportunities
CCAMLR Scholarship Scheme
University of Canterbury Summer Scholarship Scheme
Each Austral summer, the Unviersity of Canterbury which hosts the COMNAP Secretariat in Christchurch, New Zealand, offers senior students an opportunity to work on a summer project. COMNAP has participated in two such projects and reports from each one are below.
2010/11 Max Gallagher "Impacts of Tsunami on National Antarctic Program Operations and Personnel in Coastal Antarctica".
 FINAL Tsunami Report.pdf
2013/14 Hanne Nielsen "From Shelter to Showpiece: The Evolution of Antarctic Station design".
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