Planning Group

Origins of the Planning Group

The concept of an International Polar Year in 2007 - 2008 has been advanced by a broad range of polar and global research groups since the late 1990's but began to develop a substantial momentum during 2002. Early in 2003, in response to this groundswell of interest, the International Council for Science (ICSU) was approached to consider establishing an IPY. ICSU was enthusiastic and agreed to form an International Polar Year Planning Group (IPY-PG), to develop the concept of IPY and to establish a science plan.

The membership of the Planning Group was approved by ICSU to give broad representation from the global science community. The Group has held four meetings following its inception and reports of these meetings as well as relevant related documentation is presented chronologically on the Documentation page. A Discussion Forum was organised the day before both Planning Group meeting 3 and 4 to give IPY stakeholders an opportunity to interact with the Planning Group and contribute directly to IPY planning.

This group was succeeded by a joint ICSU-WMO IPY Joint Committee in late 2004 to take on the Science Plan developed by the Planning Group and deliver the IPY programme.