Mission and Objectives

Mission and objectives

A shared framework for polar knowledge, cooperation, and action

IPY-5 will provide a unique opportunity to strengthen international cooperation and partnerships, advance polar research and knowledge production, and connect people working across the Arctic, Antarctic, and beyond.

What IPY-5 will do

IPY-5 will build on the outcomes of previous International Polar Years and support new approaches to understanding rapid environmental and societal change. It will expand coordinated observations, support modelling and synthesis efforts, strengthen long-term monitoring, and encourage transdisciplinary work across research fields and knowledge systems.

Strengthen cooperation

Provide an international framework for cooperation, partnership, and shared knowledge production across polar research communities and organisations.

Expand observations

Support integrated and coordinated observations, modelling efforts, synthesis studies, and long-term monitoring of polar conditions.

Work across knowledge systems

Build on methodological, technological, educational, and epistemological advances, with emphasis on equitable and ethical engagement with Indigenous Peoples and their knowledge systems.

Understand polar ecosystems

Provide a more comprehensive understanding of polar ecosystems and their role within interconnected living systems on a changing planet.

Support education and outreach

Create open and accessible education and outreach opportunities, including new ways to communicate research and engage communities worldwide.

Inform action and policy

Support evidence-based mitigation and adaptation solutions from local to global levels, including stronger science- and knowledge-policy interfaces.

Connecting people, knowledge, and polar regions

IPY-5 will support, connect, and extend networks of Indigenous Peoples, academics, local leaders, early career researchers, community researchers, educators, and knowledge holders. These connections are essential for understanding the links, impacts, and feedbacks between the polar regions and the wider world.

It will also help recruit and build capacity for a new generation of experts able to understand Arctic and Antarctic change and its global implications.

From polar research to global understanding

Through coordinated research, education, outreach, and knowledge exchange, IPY-5 will help generate the understanding needed to respond to rapid change in the polar regions and its wider global consequences.

Get involved in IPY-5