Be-Polar Conference 2025

What a day! On 11th September 2025, the Belgian Polar community reunited at Usquare.brussels for the BE-Polar Conference: a day full of discoveries, networking, and new exchanges.

The weather was particularly Belgian that morning and many of our guests arrived slightly soaked… But not to worry! Reuniting with old friends and colleagues soon warmed everybody up! The day started with a welcome speech by the organizing committee (François Massonnet, David Docquier, Mieke Sterken, Coraline Leseurre,  Marie Cavitte, Louise Delhaye) and was followed by a word from our sponsors and collaborators: Frank Pattyn for Belgian National Committee on Arctic and Antarctic Research (BNCA²R), Maaike Vancauwenberghe for the Belgian Science Policy PPF (BELSPO), and Joseph Cheek for the International Polar Foundation (IPF).

This event was also made possible with the help of the BELSPO RESIST project (main financial contributor), ULB, VUB, and Usquare.brussels.

The room was full, with 135 attendees from 34 institutes/universities/foundations, with an excellent spread of career stages, notably Early-Career Researchers (ECR, ≤7 years post highest degree), and gender diversity, with all three poles (Arctic, Antarctic, Mountains glaciers) represented, and we’re really happy to see we gathered a lot of polar research focus areas!

Word Cloud made by participants on the day on their theme focus, what a breadth of expertise!

Introductions were followed by the first plenary session of the day in which our first speaker, Jean-Louis Tison (Glaciology lab, ULB), spoke about the changes in the polar regions that he observed over his long career in glaciology. Particularly astonishing was the amount of time needed for fieldwork back then! Emilie Canova (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge) talked about geopolitics and governance shifts in the Arctic while the plenary session closed with an insightful talk from Pam Pearson (Director of the ICCI) about polar science and climate diplomacy and the urgent need to sound the alarm. A very insightful point: “You are not an alarmist if the situation is alarming”, talking about communicating the urgency of much needed mitigation.

We then enjoyed a delicious coffee break prepared by our wonderful caterers, Les Gastrosophes. 

After the coffee break, we broke out into scientific sessions where we learned about our colleagues' work on the continental cryosphere, atmospheric sciences, sea ice, the polar oceans and their interactions with the cryosphere, as well as human, socio-economic and geopolitical sciences, and finally outreach and communication. What a breadth of topics! The parallel sessions continued into the afternoon.

We then reconvened in the main hall to attend the second plenary session of the day: a panel discussion during which we dove into science-policy dialogues. Our panellists were Karen van Loon (Cligendael Institute), Maria Grigoratou (Executive Secretary of the European Polar Board), Pam Pearson (Director of the ICCI) and Gael Lymer (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences). We discussed some of the remarks and thoughts from attendees on the science-policy interface, how much and how as scientists we should engage in policy. Panellists shared some insights from their respective work with policymakers, be it drafting the first ever proposal for an Arctic Belgian policy, engaging year after year through the Cryosphere Pavilion at COPs, synthesizing a huge report on community needs for collaborative research or coordinating EU-level polar research and policy needs. The session closed with a Q&A from the public.

It was then time for our poster session, which gave the opportunity to discuss Belgian-led science in a more informal way, with some Brussels-brewed beers and we voted for our favorite early-career poster presentation. Congratulations to the two competition winners, Chloe Paice and Alexandre Tytgat, for their excellent work and dedication to polar research!

The ECR prizes, including two amazing polar books by IPF and a photo taken by scientific photographer and attendee Francesca Pasotti, were supported by the National Decade Committee for Belgium via ECOP Belgium, APECS Belgium and the International Polar Foundation. Thank you for recognizing and encouraging the next generation of polar scientists!

By then, we were starting a little peckish after such a dense day of science. Fortunately, the food truck from Burgers&co had arrived! Lots of networking around some delicious burgers (including one called ‘the APECS’! We particularly enjoyed that one!) and local beers. And in the evening, we were treated to a concert by the Broes band introducing their new album ‘Belgica’, accompanied by enchanting storytelling of the misadventures of Adrien de Gerlache’s trip to Antarctica aboard the first Belgica (and their cats!)

It was then time to say goodbye and thank you for yet another wonderful Polar day!

We would like to thank our sponsors and collaborators for making this amazing event possible: BELSPO, IPF, BNCAR, ECOP, Usquare.brussels, ULB and VUB.

Your devoted organizing committee!

Your devoted APECS Belgium team!

You!