BE-Polar Conference 2025

Exploring the poles, connecting the dots.

This year again, we invite you to join us for a full-day event dedicated to celebrating and strengthening the Belgian polar research community! The BE-Polar Conference aims to highlight the richness and diversity of polar science in Belgium, connect it to broader scientific and societal challenges, and foster meaningful collaboration across disciplines. 

The day will open with a plenary session designed to place polar research within a larger environmental and geopolitical context, highlighting its global relevance and the importance of cross-disciplinary dialogue.

Participants will then have the opportunity to dive deeper into their own research field during two blocks of parallel sessions organized around four themes, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, to share research advancements across universities and institutes and foster further exchanges. The parallel sessions are divided into four topics:

• Ice, Ocean and their Interactions:

  Interactions between ice (whether sea ice, ice shelves or glaciers) and the ocean play a key role in polar regions and in the climate system in general. In this session, we welcome all scientific topics using (in situ and remote sensing) observations, as well as climate modeling. Topics include (but are not restricted to) research on sea-ice, ocean, and impacts of the ocean on ice-sheet / ice-shelf systems and sea ice, dynamics of tidewater glaciers and ice shelves, fjords, cavity circulation, contributions of ice-sheet and glacier loss to sea-level rise, changes related to sea ice and its effects on marine life and population, bio-geo-chemistry, coupled ice-ocean models, physical oceanography, and biology/marine ecosystems.

  
  

• Atmospheric Science:

  The atmosphere is a critical component of the climate system and it plays a key role in polar and mountain glacier regions, which are undergoing unprecedented environmental changes. In this session, we plan to cover all aspects related to the role of the atmosphere in polar regions and mountain glacier regions. Topics include atmospheric dynamics, heat and moisture exchanges, atmospheric physics, water cycle, clouds, aerosols, ozone detection, volatile organic compounds, katabatic winds, blowing snow, snowfall, ice-sheet/glacier surface mass balance and cryosphere-atmosphere interactions. The presentations can focus on both observations and modeling.

  
  

• Continental Cryosphere: Observations and Modeling:

  The terrestrial cryosphere (ice sheets, glaciers, permafrost, polar soils, snow) has substantially decreased in area and volume in the past decades in response to ongoing climate change. In this session, we plan to cover scientific aspects related to all these land cryospheric elements (in the Arctic, Antarctic and mountain glacier regions) using a wide range of methodologies (in-situ and satellite observations, laboratory analyses of samples, modelling, theoretical aspects, etc.). Topics include (but are not restricted to) ice/sediment core environmental reconstructions, biogeochemistry, terrestrial or lacustrine biodiversity (including biogeography), adaptation mechanisms, permafrost thaw processes, oldest ice record findings, ice-sheet/glacier surface mass balance (if the focus is more on land rather than the surrounding atmosphere), meteorites & neutrino detection. 

  
  

• Human Health, Socio-Economic and Geopolitical Aspects and Outreach:

  The polar regions are unique in both their remoteness, physical harshness and specific diurnal and seasonal daylight regimes. This not only has an impact on the organisms thriving in these areas, but also on humans. This creates opportunities to research the human body, mind, and/or social interactions and cohesion in remote places like a research station in Antarctica or remote communities in the Arctic (where a tension exists between indigenous communities and newcomers regarding custody of the land and exploitation of resources). Due to the intergenerational aspects of Arctic indigenous or local communities, these environments are therefore interesting analogs and opposites. Apart from that, climate change is having a more pronounced impact on polar regions, with consequences at every level, be it the livelihood of indigenous people in the Arctic or international geopolitical dynamics through the opening of shipping routes, an increase in tourism activities, or (real or projected) emergence of natural resource exploitation opportunities. These changes are accelerating and creating a context requiring both research and outreach. This is relevant for both polar and non-polar residents. In a highly changing world where information overload often impedes people to identify relevant information for society to thrive more sustainably, the role of science education and outreach has become more important than ever. In this session, we welcome all presentations related to human research, whether it be human health, physiology, psychology, sociology, socio-economics and (geo)politics, or about polar education & outreach practices.

  
  

Attendees are invited to submit an abstract to present their work either through oral presentations within these parallel sessions or via a poster, for which there will be a dedicated time slot at the end of the day. Early-career researchers presenting a poster will automatically be eligible for the best-poster award, awarded during the reception at the end of the day.

Tickets will be on sale from June 2nd 12h00 CEST to August 24th 23h50 CEST, only 130 tickets will be available.

!! Abstract submission closes on the 30th of June 23h50 CEST. After registration to the conference, abstracts can be sent by email to apecsbelgium@gmail.com using the template below.

The day will conclude with a plenary session focused on shaping the future of polar science in Belgium, fostering exchanges on the research priorities in the context of Belgian and international policy needs. Note the presented program is not yet definitive.

To wrap up, we’ll celebrate together with an evening dinner, a little surprise (to be confirmed), and plenty of informal networking opportunities.

We look forward to seeing you there!

This event is organized in collaboration with BELSPO, APECS Belgium, IPF, BNCAR and Usquare.brussels.