Scientific proposals

Ships

Polarstern and Heincke

The operators of the large and medium-sized German research vessels have jointly established a procedure which offers the opportunity to exchange the applications for ship time for individual ships. This procedure provides a comparable standard as to the reviews for all ships and thus helps optimizing operation.

Proposals for the use of research vessels POLARSTERN and HEINCKE can only be submitted to the German Research Vessel Evaluation Panel (GPF) via the German Research Vessel Portal (www.portal-forschungsschiffe.de). Here you will also find all the necessary information for writing cruise proposals.

AWI-internal main-user and secondary-user applications for both vessels have to be related very closely to the POV IV programme (exception: Third party funded projects). Therefore, it is necessary to consult the scientific coordinator (polcoord@awi.de) and the AWI Board of Directors well before submitting an application.

Each year, you may submit proposals for all medium and large-scale research vessels.

For HEINCKE – season 2025:

Submission deadlines: The GPF submission system is permanently open. However, to ensure that expedition proposals are still reviewed in the summer session of the GPF.

For POLARSTERN (main use):

TRANSIT:   from 2025 (South to North) and later (only applications without significant additional need for shiptime)

Submission deadline: see deadlines HEINCKE

ARCTIC and ANTARCTIC: The long-term plan to the polar regions will be largely completes to the end of 2027. Anyone interested in a main us application beyond 2027 should contact the scientific coordinator (polcoord@awi.de).

For POLARSTERN (secondary-use):

Currently the submission deadlines are the same as for medium-sized ships - end of August and end of February each year with a lead-time of approx. 1.5 years. Applications are currently possible for transit (north - south) at the end of 2021.

Applications are currently possible from the transit trip (north – south) at the end of 2021.

The same applies here: the GPF submission system is permanently open. However, to ensure that applications for additional use are assessed in a timely manner, they should be submitted to the GPF at least 1.5 years before the planned expedition.

If you have any questions, please contact: polcoord@awi.de

Marine Stations Helgoland and Sylt

Marine Stations Helgoland and Sylt

The AWI operates marine stations on the islands of Helgoland and Sylt and makes them available to the international scientific community. National and international users can access the marine biological stations. A description of the infrastructure is published in JLSRF.

Register here as user in the webportal

What happens to my request / proposal?

After registration or login to the portal and, if applicable, submission of an application for the use of the marine stations Helgoland and Sylt, including the associated infrastructures (Uthörn, Aade, Mya II, mesocosms, long-term data series, scientific diving, laboratories, material shipping, etc.), an assessment of technical and logistical feasibility is carried out.

Individual visiting research stays that exceed a period of 15 working days are subject to a review process. This requires the preparation of a proposal. If several people are planning a longer research stay within the framework of a such a project, only one joint proposal is required for the project. The upload into the system is done by the visiting researcher responsible for the project upon registration. All other guest researchers involved in the project do not need to upload a proposal.

If you have any questions, please contact marinestations@awi.de

Smaller vessels

Expeditions with the smaller vessels of the Alfred Wegener Institute require shorter periods of planning. We do, though, recommend to submit proposals in due time. Proposals for Uthörn, Mya II and Aade are sent directly to the contact persons.

Stapellauf Uthörn-Nachfolge
The new research cutter Uthörn (Photo: Folke Mehrtens)

Polar aircraft

Research in polar regions requires special equipment and logistics because the access to the research areas is very difficult due to extreme environmental conditions. The use of research aircraft is an important link between ground based and satellite investigations. Moreover, the aircraft are integrated into the international logistics co-operation DROMLAN (Dronning Maud Land Aircraft Network).

If you wish to use the polar aircraft for your research projects you have to send project applications to the scientific co-ordinator Daniel Steinhage in due time. In case that you bring your own scientific instruments you must add respective information and certificates to the application.

The planing phase for the polar aircraft comprises 2 years. Due to the required time for preparing the aircraft and primary use the planning phase begins in October and ends in September the following year. Project proposals are due on 30.11. for the period beginning October the year after next.

Ongoing: Deadline 30.11.2024 for projects for the period October 2026 until September 2027.

A summary on the application process can be downloaded here.

Distribution of costs

Generally, all users have to cover their travel costs for themselves and for the participants they dispatch on the expedition. External, non-university partner will be charged in addition further costs, such as flight hours and for example:

  • expenses for required certification
  • transport of freight belonging to the project
  • kerosene

The costs are calculated for each project individually. In case of shared projects the costs will be shared according to the respective share.

The decision about the amount of costs to be covered by the respective party is made by AWI based on the specifications given in the proposal. For joint porjects the contribution of each partner has to be given in the project application, and if necessary explained.

If you have any question please contact us: Coordination Polar Aircraft

 

Research aircraft on the runway
On expedition in Canada (Photo: R. Waltenberg)

Neumayer III Station, Kohnen station and Antarctic land expeditons

At the Neumayer Station III the AWI is performing a long-term research program comprising observations in the fields of meteorology, atmospheric chemistry and geophysics. During the polar summer from December until February Neumayer Station III, in combination with the plateau station „Kohnen“, is used as logistical base for flight operations all over Antarctica as well as field campaigns on the continental ice sheet.

The logistic requirements of such expeditions differ with regard to large-scale or short-term projects:

  • Short-term projects: are performed in January/February of the coming season (freight is being transported on board Polarstern), or in November/December (freight is completely being transported by aircraft).
  • Large-scale projects: long-time and/or early starting campaigns (November until February). In this case, freight can only be transported into Antarctica on board Polarstern. This means that transport hast o be effeccted in the previous season.

Information for expedition participants here.

If you have any questions, please contact antland-coordination@awi.de .

Neumayer Station III
Neumayer Station III, Ekström Ice Shelf (Photo: Alfred-Wegener-Institut / U. Cieluch)

Arctic Land Expeditions (Svalbard, Greenland, Canada, Alaska) - ARC-Land

For land expeditions to the Arctic (Svalbard, Greenland, Canada, Alaska), long-term planning is necessary, depending on the scope of the research. AWI staff please register a project in the Arctic with logistics. Each year in March, a query (Lime Survey) is conducted on the planned ARC land projects for the following year.

 

For AWIPEV project proposals, please go to www.awipev.eu aufrufen. If you have any questions, please contact the scientific or logistics coordinators.