Application for Scientific Projects to be Carried out on POLARSTERN

Operators of large and medium-sized German research vessels have commonly established a procedure which offers the opportunity to exchange the applications for ship's time for individual ships within the framework of the expert group "Koordinationsgruppe Schiff" constituted by the "Konsortium Deutscher Meeresforschung" and the "Senatskommission für Ozeanographie". Such a coordinating system will provide equivalent standards for all ships and optimize operational services. AWI is in charge of POLARSTERN, DFG for METEOR, MARIA S. MERIAN, PTJ for SONNE and the steering group medium-sized ships respectively the operating companies for POSEIDON, ALKOR, HEINCKE. Small-sized research vessels are excluded from this arrangement.

Scientific evaluations is executed by the responsible panels or boards, i.e. the "Nutzerbeirat" for POLARSTERN, the "Senatskommission für Ozeanographie" for METEOR and MARIA S. MERIAN, the expert panel "Meeresforschung mit FS SONNE" for SONNE, and the steering group for POSEIDON, ALKOR, HEINCKE.

Applications for POLARSTERN can be submitted in English or German to the Alfred Wegener Institute, either by email:

Polarstern-Coordination(at)awi.de

or by mail:

Alfred Wegener Institute
Attn: Petra Steffens
PO Box 12 01 61
27515 Bremerhaven

 according to the guidelines with a cover page. 

 Applications for METEOR and MERIAN can be submitted in English or German to the Senatskommission für Ozeanographie der DFG. For further information please refer to web page:

www.dfg-ozean.de

Applications for FS SONNE must be submitted in German and addressed to PTJ MGS. For further information please refer to web page:

http://www.ptj.de/sonne-rundbrief

Applications for medium-sized research vessels can be submitted in English and German to the steering group. For further information please refer to web page:

http://www2008.io-warnemuende.de/general/vessels.html

Applications for POLARSTERN

Proposals can consist of projects from individuals but we encourage groups of common scientific interest, logistic needs or regional correspondence to join to group proposals. For group proposals a responsible head has to be designated. Proposals from foreign countries can be taken into account within the capacity limits. They should be submitted in the framework of cooperation agreements or related to German proposals.

The applications will be evaluated normally by members of the Advisory Board (Nutzerbeirat) who will review them by their scientific content and also consider the feasibility and the suitability of implementing the projects on POLARSTERN.

The plan covers three years and is completed one year prior to the beginning of the cruise. The current plan is valid from 2011 to 2014. In winter 2011/2012 the next call for applications for the period 2014 until 2016 is planned and will be released on the web page. There will not be an overall written notice.

The planning procedure will be as follows:

1. A call for applications with a deadline of 1 June 2012 will be released on the POLARSTERN web page by the coordinator during winter 2011/12.
2. The evaluation will be performed anonymously by at least two members of the Advisory Board or external specialists.
3. Setting up of a schedule by the coordinator on the basis of the positively reviewed proposals,
4. Meeting of the Advisory Board in May 2013,
5. Possible modification of the schedule depending on outcome of meeting,
6. Resubmission of proposals accepted with restrictions,
7. Acceptance of schedule by the Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute and the Advisory Board in autumn 2013.

Proposals during the actual planning period

During the term of the actual plan it is possible to submit proposals at any time which will be realized if they fit into the planned schedule without significant conflicts with already accepted proposals. The set time schedule with its regional foci will not be altered except for urgent reasons. If it seems likely that the proposed work can be incorporated into the current programme, it will be submitted for review. This evaluation procedure does not apply to smaller projects which will complement projects already evaluated. The integration of the late proposals will occur during the planning meetings for the season or the leg. The planning meeting for the Arctic season occurs in October, the one for the Antarctic season in December.

Late proposals have to follow the guidelines and contain a cover page .

To be conform to the requirements of environmental regulations, all projects to be carried out on POLARSTERN need to be consistent to the Commitment to responsible marine research by the DFG/KDF.

Applicants for proposals to work on POLARSTERN accept the data guidelines released by AWI consistent with those of the Senatskommission to assure the safe data storage and availability for all data samples collected with POLARSTERN.