The Institut Nordique du Québec (INQ), the Swiss Polar Institute (SPI) and the French Polar Institute Paul-Émile Victor (IPEV) are launching the CASCADES expedition. The call is now open until 2 June 2025 and welcomes proposals from research groups in Switzerland and France, and from the Canadian Transforming Climate Action programme, with fieldwork to be carried out in summer and autumn 2026.
Aiming to foster scientific collaboration between the research communities of Switzerland, France and the Canadian programme Transforming Climate Action (TCA), the CASCADES expedition will focus on the coastal region of West Greenland, Baffin Bay and Ellesmere Island. It will comprise two legs of 28 days each onboard the Canadian research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen. Access to the vessel and its facilities (incl. helicopter) will be free of charge for all teams selected by the scientific review panel.
The first leg will be carried out during the peak of the melt season, from south to north along the coastal region of West Greenland. The second leg will concentrate on the freeze-up period in western Baffin Bay between the straits of Nares and Davis during the initial stages of sea-ice formation.
Research teams led by a Principal Investigator from TCA (Canada), France and Switzerland are invited to submit proposals through the application form available on the SPI application portal. Collaborative projects between Canadian, French and Swiss teams are particularly encouraged.
The deadline for submissions is 2 June 2025, 12:00 CEST (noon). Successful projects will be notified at the latest by October 2025.
- Access detailed information on the eligible research topics, the call’s timeline and the application portal on the expedition’s dedicated webpage: https://swisspolar.ch/expeditions/cascades
An additional call for complementary projects on the FOREL Research Platform will be issued in spring 2025.
We invite you to consult the CASCADES webpage for more details, and for questions related to the call we welcome your emails at grants@swisspolar.ch.
Header image: © Julie Lattaud, all rights reserved