The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research Open Science Conference in Oslo

Islands & Ice Travel’s Founder and General Manager David Sinclair writes from Oslo (August 2026).  Islands & Ice Travel offers small group expeditions in Antarctica and supports scientific research in Antarctica.  David travelled to Oslo to learn more about scientific cooperation in Antarctica, how Islands & Ice Travel might better support science in Antarctica and to enjoy some of the wonderful history and culture on offer in Norway’s capital.  Image above: Statue of Queen Maud, The Royal Palace, Oslo.

David writes:

Last month I travelled to Oslo to attend the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (‘SCAR’) Open Science Conference.  According to the SCAR website, “The SCAR Open Science Conference, organised by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), is held every two years and brings together polar researchers in all disciplines from around the world to present their work, network, and participate in SCAR’s scientific activities. The conference is a key platform for sharing the latest research findings, fostering collaborations, and addressing the critical challenges facing this southernmost region of the world.”

SCAR2026 saw over 1400 attendees from over 50 countries come together to discuss all manner of Antarctic and Southern Ocean subjects from oceanography and cryosphere dynamics to ecological studies and polar governance.  

The 2026 Conference was also an important opportunity to prepare for Antarctica-InSync and plan for IPY5.  Antarctica-InSync:

“is a global effort to synchronise research across Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, connecting ice, ocean, climate, and life to protect this vital region.  Antarctica InSync coordinates international, high-resolution, synchronised observations to quantify and analyse rapid environmental and ecosystem change around and across Antarctica. By integrating harmonised data across the coupled ice–ocean–atmosphere–ecosystem system, it improves process understanding of how Antarctic components respond to climate forcing and strengthens projections of their influence on global climate, sea-level rise, and biodiversity. This enhanced predictive capacity supports evidence-based risk assessment and adaptation planning.”

IPY5 is the fifth International Polar Year.  As the name suggests it follows on from 4 previous International Polar years that date back to the first IPY in 1882-1883.  Other IPYs occurred in 1932-1933, 1957-1958 (the International Geophysical Year) and 2007-2008.   An international polar year occurs across two calendar years as Antarctic science is for the most part conducted in the austral summer. The IPY website describes why another IPY is needed and what IPY5 aims to achieve.

A few personal observations from the Conference:

1. Scientists are carrying a heavy load.  Imagine you’ve spent your career collecting and interpreting data and the science is clear, human activity is placing extraordinary pressure on marine and terrestrial ecosystems and causing extraordinary change that will have lasting consequences for humans and countless other species.   The burden is falling upon scientists to not just research but also educate and advocate. Yet, the data and findings are ignored by many and in some countries scientists are being underfunded, defunded or fired.  This is a heavy load to bear for Antarctic and Southern Ocean scientists who are motivated by a desire to understand, preserve and protect the ecosystems we all rely on to thrive and survive.  It appears few understand how precarious life on Earth is. Our planet is a life-raft protected by the thinnest of atmospheres adrift in an infinite lifeless void, a perspective common to astronauts circling the globe at 28,500km/h (the overview effect).  We should all celebrate and support our scientists and educate and advocate for the outcomes we need to protect the only human life-raft in the known universe.   

BUT

2. There is room for optimism.  

(a) Over 1400 people from 50 countries actively collaborating to solve issues that are not constrained by borders.  In today’s world where politicians and algorithms stoke controversy and fear, that’s cause for celebration.  It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that people all around the world collaborate every day to solve problems and build a better world.  

(b) There are so many bright early career scientists finding cheaper and better ways to collect and study data and decipher the secrets Antarctica and the Southern Ocean hold in the ice, oceans and sediment, secrets that will help us chart a smoother course for our life-raft.

YET

3.  The elephant in the room was the proverbial geopolitical beast, not something I need or wish to elaborate on, suffice to say it is worth remembering the Antarctic Treaty was forged during the height of the cold war.

AND

4. There is room for non-government organisations to help fund and facilitate science.  It is clear that there are funding and capacity constraints and a lack of political will in some treaty signatories to fully fund critical research at a time when defence and cost of living pressures abound.   Civil society must help fill the gaps to support critical Antarctic and Southern Ocean science.  Civil society must support education and fact-based decision making.

Oslo a Fabulous City for Art, Culture and Polar History

The conference was fabulous and so was Norway’s beautiful capital city established in 1040  (known as Ánslow).  The city acquired its current name in 1925 (previously Kristiania). 

I arrived in Oslo on a beautiful calm sunny Saturday morning after a long haul journey from Hobart via Melbourne and Bangkok.  Jet lag has its upsides.  For me this meant waking very early in the morning and taking to Oslo’s vacant streets.  In August the days are still long and the gardens verdant.   I was able to use this time to explore the city on foot.   

Vigeland Park is serene at dawn before the crowds arrive.   Vigeland’s mastery of stone and sculpture in the human form is extraordinary and an absolute must see.  The most famous sculpture in the park is Sinnataggen, the Angry Boy.  It’s so popular the boy’s lefthand fist is polished from tourists holding his hand for a photo, a blemish that distinguishes it from all but one other of the 200 sculptures in the park.   Vigeland’s sculptures capture an array of human emotion and idiosyncratic behaviour, all elegantly set among a beautiful park, itself a monument to the need for shared green space in our cities.

The National Museum of Norway is another masterpiece, both in design and its collection of interesting and eclectic art.   Arguably the most famous work, Edvard Munch’s decidedly dark, The Scream sits among many masterpieces.  Some of the landscape paintings from lesser known Norwegian artists are masterful and emblematic of an extraordinary beautiful country.  The museum sits beside the Nobel Museum and across from the Oslo city hall which stands out for its brutalist architecture and wonderful murals adorning the interior walls within which Nobel laureates receive their medals. 

Oslo, Polar Gateway City

Norway is one of the 12 original signatories to the Antarctic Treaty and one of only 7 countries to lay claim to a slice of Antarctic pie, Dronning Maud Land where Islands & Ice Travel runs its deep field Antarctic tourism and science expeditions.   Norway is, of course, also an Arctic nation laying claim not only to a long coast line above the Arctic Circle in mainland Norway but to the Svalbard Archipelago, the subject of another international treaty.  The Norwegian Polar Institute punches well above its weight in polar science arguably making Norway a polar country and Oslo a polar (as opposed to Arctic) gateway city.

Norway has a storied history, laying claim to arguably the greatest polar explorer of the heroic age, Roald Amundsen and many other exceptional explorers including Nobel prize winner, scientist and humanitarian, Fridtjof Nansen.

Any visitor to Oslo with a passing interest in polar exploration must visit the extraordinary Fram Museum documenting the exploits of polar explorers past.  Amundsen’s home a pleasant 45 minute drive south of the capital is also well worth a visit.  Even for an avid reader of the exploits of Roald Amundsen his home and the artefacts in his home afford insights into a man cast rather simply as a hero by older generations and as a rather humourless and unsympathetic character by younger generations.

In summary, Oslo felt like an appropriate place for an Antarctic science conference, a city and a society that values history, artistic expression, human endeavour, science and democracy.

If you wish to visit the Geographic South Pole check out our South Pole & Emperors tour.

If you are a scientist or science administrator looking for support for a marine or terrestrial science campaign in Antarctica contact us for a confidential discussion.