The polar early career world summit

From March 22–24, 2025, over 100 early-career researchers (ECRs) from more than 24 countries came together for the Polar Early Career World Summit (PECWS). This gathering provided a space for early-career scientists, researchers, and community members to ask big questions about the future of our field: What should polar research look like? Who should be involved? What values should guide this evolution?

Building on previous convenings, the summit was designed with several ambitious goals in mind: to help shape polar research priorities that will inform the next International Polar Year (IPY) in 2032–33; to amplify the voices of polar early-career researchers; and to strengthen connections between polar networks through deep conversations, relationship-building, and collaborative visioning.

The International Polar Year is a large-scale scientific program focused on the Arctic and Antarctic, historically organized once every few decades to coordinate international research on polar systems. Previous IPYs have led to major advances in understanding climate change, ecosystem shifts, and the global significance of the poles. They also played a key role in building lasting research capacity, including the creation of networks like the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists. For ECRs, the upcoming IPY represents a rare opportunity to shape long-term research agendas, foster interdisciplinary collaboration, and advocate for more inclusive, community-engaged science, at a time when polar regions face increasingly urgent challenges.

PECWS was more than an event. It was a platform to reimagine how science can serve society, especially in regions as vulnerable and politically charged as the Arctic and Antarctic. Many of the preliminary ideas and outputs from PECWS were presented just days later at the Fourth International Conference on Arctic Research Planning, held during the Arctic Science Summit Week in Boulder, Colorado. These presentations connected the energy of early-career voices to broader scientific and policy communities.

In a break after some of these presentations, one mid-career researcher told us: “It’s refreshing to hear what you all [young researchers] have to say about the future of collaborative research. Too often, we don’t believe change is possible and only consider what’s realistic, instead of dreaming of what could be.”

That statement encapsulates the core tension we are navigating. Where senior voices often face institutional constraints, early-career researchers are freer to imagine what a radically better research system might look like and then push toward making it real. While official summit outcomes will be published later this year, initial discussions from participants stressed the importance of:

• Broadening the definition of science [1]
• Encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration [2]
• Developing open science principles into practice [3]
• Building and leveraging international collaboration
• Understanding societal responses to climate change
• Implementing ethical research practices
• Fostering equitable, sustainable, and relationship-centered engagement with local communities and Indigenous peoples [1,4]
• Making polar science more accessible, inclusive, and welcoming [5]
• Breaking hierarchical barriers in scientific communities [2]
• Reimagining career paths [6,7]
• Communicating science effectively and engaging the public [8]
• Reducing the environmental impact of research
• Bridging science and policy more directly [2]
• Increasing and maintaining funding sources for polar research

Before official PECWS outcomes can be published, they will be reviewed and expanded by a group of remote ECRs who were unable to attend the conference in person in May 2025. These themes reflect a vision not just for scientific excellence, but for a more just and collaborative research culture.

That vision was already taking shape at the summit. Participants were supported in taking initiative through innovative formats, including the creation of a collective visual description of ways to broaden the definition of science. It was especially powerful to witness sessions focused on imagining a decolonial future for the polar regions, where Indigenous voices and knowledge systems led the dialogue. These approaches helped translate big ideas into tangible practices, setting a precedent for what inclusive and values-driven polar research could look like.

All this dreaming happened against a sobering backdrop. The war in Ukraine has led to the removal of Russian institutions from many international Arctic collaborations, splintering long-standing networks and threatening the continuity of critical data and observation systems [9]. At the same time, shifts in U.S. science policy driven by political polarization, uncertainty in research funding, and culture-war rhetoric around climate and EDI (equity, diversity, inclusion), have made the future of publicly supported climate research increasingly precarious [10]. Indeed, international collaboration has grown more uncertain [11].

Yet in the face of these challenges, PECWS was a beacon. It reminded us that across borders and disciplines, researchers and community members can still come together to envision and co-create what the future of polar research could be: collaborative, ethical, responsive, and as inclusive as possible.

Dreaming of a better future is a vital first step. However, turning that vision into reality will take collective effort. PECWS showed us that when early-career voices are centered, innovation and imagination thrive. What comes next is a shared responsibility across generations and institutions.

A call to the broader scientific community

One moment from the summit stands out: a small group of participants, huddled around a giant notepad over a lunch break, sketching out what a radically inclusive research project might look like—one where funding, credit, and impact were co-designed with Indigenous leaders, artists, and policymakers. It wasn’t a grant proposal. It was a dream. But it felt possible. That’s the energy we want to carry forward.

Our generation of researchers isn’t just inheriting the climate crisis. We are also inheriting systems of science that urgently need renewal and reimagination. What we are asking for is not to be handed the reins, but to be invited into the room where the future is being shaped.

To senior scientists, policymakers, and institutions: we see you as essential collaborators. We need your support to open space for new voices, new ways of working, and new definitions of success.

To the next generation of polar scientists, challenge us. As we step into mid- and senior career roles, push us to be the mentors and collaborators you need. Hold us accountable to the forward-thinking values we champion today.

Let PECWS be more than a moment. Let it mark a turning point – toward research that is collaborative, courageous, and grounded in hope.