PECWS Synthesis Report released: explore early career perspectives on polar research priorities

We are thrilled to announce the release of the Polar Early Career World Summit (PECWS) Synthesis Report, a comprehensive summary of conversations that happened before, during, and after PECWS. This document captures the collective voice of 238 early career polar researchers from around the world and their priorities for long-term research planning.

In March 2025, the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) and the Polar Science Early Career Community Office (PSECCO) co-hosted PECWS in Boulder, Colorado, USA, alongside the Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) 2025 and Fourth International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP IV). This gathering brought together polar early career individuals to identify shared priorities for research planning within the polar community, with a particular focus on contributions to the ICARP IV process in 2025-2026 and the Fifth International Polar Year (IPY-5) in 2032-2033. The report presents collated input from the summit and associated online engagement opportunities that reflect the diverse backgrounds, disciplines, and perspectives of the polar early career community.

To show broad community support for the priorities outlined in this report, PSECCO and APECS  invite individuals to add their endorsement to the report through fall 2026. Interested individuals can add their endorsement through this online form. 

We encourage institutional partners and individual polar community members to review these findings and consider how they can be implemented to advance polar science and processes that enable us to tackle urgent research questions responsibly. The integration of this input into IPY-5 planning will require the intentional work of the broader community, not just the polar early career individuals who wrote it.