Open call for applications: INQ-SPI-IPEV CASCADES Expedition

Institut Nordique du Québec (INQ), the Swiss Polar Institute (SPI) and the French Polar Institute Paul-Émile Victor (IPEV) are jointly launching the CASCADES expedition as part of the Peak Program Transforming Climate Action (TCA). Scientists who are members of TCA at Université  Laval  and Université du Québec à Rimouski, their colleagues from Dalhousie University  and Memorial University, as well as Swiss and French research teams, are invited to submit their proposals until June 2, 2025. Fieldwork for  the selected projects will be conducted during the summer and fall of 2026.

Aiming to foster scientific collaboration between the research communities from 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 aboard the Canadian research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen. Access to the vessel and its facilities (including 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 Nares and Davis straits 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 June 2, 2025, 12:00 CEST (noon). Successful projects will be notified 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 webpage above for more details and for questions related to the CASCADES Expedition call, we welcome your emails at secretariat@swisspolar.ch