international
polar
foundation

Belgian Polar Day will take place on Thursday, September 11th! The day-long event, hosted at Usquare in Brussels, will bring together researchers from many different scientific disciplines to celebrate the diversity and richness of Belgian polar science, explore its relevance in global environmental and geopolitical contexts, and foster new collaborations across fields.

On Thursday, June 5th, IPF Founder and President Alain Hubert will give a presentation at the Cryosphere Pavilion in the lead-up to the start of the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France.

For the fourth consecutive year, the International Polar Foundation and the Trân Family Foundation are pleased to announce that the call for submissions for the annual Laurence Trân Arctic Futures Award has opened.

It is with great sadness that we must communicate with the BELARE community that one of our team members, Craig Masson, passed away on Friday the 16th of May, following an accident at work.

Prof. Eric Rignot from UC Irvine discusses his work following a successful field campaign on the King Baudouin Ice Shelf in East Antarctica during the 2024-25 BELgian Antarctic Research Expedition (BELARE).

 Graduate student Ratnakar Gadi from UC Irvine’s Department of Earth System Science made history by successfully defending his Ph.D. dissertation in an extraordinary setting—Belgium’s Princess Elisabeth Antarctica. It was only the second thesis defense ever conducted from Earth’s southernmost continent.

The soon-to-be-released film 2050 by renowned filmmakers Eric Goens and Kristoff Van Den Bergh financed by Syensqo has been shown in a few locations to much acclaim prior to its official release date of March 5th in cinemas across Belgium.

Wildfires in California, floods in Spain and the Ardennes, Hurricane Hélène leaving a trail of destruction across the United States… The climate record of 2024 is devastating: the hottest year ever recorded, with 219 officially registered weather disasters and thousands of victims.

BELARE 2024-25 is drawing to a close. Preparations are being made to put the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica into winter mode and pack away scientific equipment.

This week the four remaining scientific teams for this season - EXPOSOILS, PASPARTOUT, NISAR, and EPFL-CRYOS - wrapped up their work and started preparing for their flight home, which is scheduled for Friday, February 14th.