Project and Community Management in Polar Sciences – Challenges and Opportunities
<p>Because geoscientific research often occurs via community-instigated bursts of activity with multi-investigator collaborations variously labelled as e.g., years (The International Polar Year IPY), experiments (World Ocean Circulation Experiment WOCE), programs (International Ocean Discovery...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2019-04-01
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| Series: | Advances in Geosciences |
| Online Access: | https://www.adv-geosci.net/46/25/2019/adgeo-46-25-2019.pdf |
| Summary: | <p>Because geoscientific research often occurs via community-instigated bursts
of activity with multi-investigator collaborations variously labelled as
e.g., years (The International Polar Year IPY), experiments (World Ocean
Circulation Experiment WOCE), programs (International Ocean Discovery
Program), missions (CRYOSAT spacecraft), or decades (The International Decade
of Ocean Exploration IDOE), successful attainment of research goals generally
requires skilful scientific project management. In addition to the usual
challenges of matching scientific ambitions to limited resources, on-going
coordination and specifically project management, planning and implementation
of polar science projects often involve many uncertainties caused by, for
example, unpredictable weather or ocean and sea ice conditions, large-scale
logistical juggling; and often these collaborations are spatially distributed
and take place virtually. Large amounts of funding are needed to procure the
considerable infrastructure and technical equipment required for polar
expeditions; permissions to enter certain regions must be requested; and
potential risks for expedition members as well as technical issues in extreme
environments need to be considered. All these aspects are challenging for
polar science projects, which therefore need a well thought-through program
including a realistic alternative “plan B” and possibly also a “plan C”
and “plan D”.</p>
<p>The four most challenging overarching themes in polar science project
management have been identified: international cooperation,
interdisciplinarity, infrastructure, and community management. In this paper,
we address ongoing challenges and opportunities in polar science project
management based on a survey among 199 project and community managers and an
additional of 85 project team members active in the field of polar sciences.
Case studies and survey results are discussed with the conclusive goal to
provide recommendations on how to fully reach the potential of polar sciences
project and community management.</p> |
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| ISSN: | 1680-7340 1680-7359 |