To provide an integrated, cradle-to-grave support service to our science and projects teams. Our expertise includes identifying and developing new business and research opportunities, supporting the pre- and post-award stages of research grants and postgraduate study, managing large European funded projects, and managing science facilities & laboratories in the UK and the Polar Regions.
Our activities are designed to meet our strategic priorities to grow and diversify research income, to support the effective allocation of science resources and enable access to scientific facilities.
We undertake outward-facing activities to promote our facilities and support capabilities to UK researchers. We guide the development of national and international partnerships for delivering UK polar science. We support the UK Arctic and Antarctic Partnership to provide strategic leadership in polar science.
13 January, 2021
Applications to carry out small-scale research projects in the Antarctic in the 2021/22 season are invited from UK-based researchers. The Collaborative Antarctic Science Scheme (CASS) provides fieldwork opportunities for scientists …
25 November, 2020
Applications for PhD projects with British Antarctic Survey (BAS) are now open for October 2021 admission. There are currently over 100 PhD students associated with BAS, working on a huge variety …
13 January, 2020
Applications to carry out small-scale research projects in the Antarctic in the 2020/21 season are invited from UK-based researchers. The Collaborative Antarctic Science Scheme (CASS) provides fieldwork opportunities for scientists …
12 November, 2019
Applications for BAS PhD projects are now open for 2020 admission. There are currently over 100 PhD students associated with BAS, and nearly half of these students work full time …
9 January, 2019
Applications to carry out small-scale research projects in the Antarctic in the 2019/20 season are invited from UK-based researchers. The Collaborative Antarctic Science Scheme (CASS) provides fieldwork opportunities for scientists …
4 December, 2017
Applications are invited for the Collaborative Antarctic Science Scheme (CASS) for Antarctic fieldwork in the 2018/19 field season. The closing date is 5th March 2018. CASS provides opportunities for UK-based …
8 November, 2017
This week (10-11 November) leading scientists and experts from EU-funded research programmes engage with political leaders from the Pacific Ocean and the Arctic to examine the economic and social consequences …
7 April, 2016
16 PhD students and Early Career Researchers have a unique opportunity to gain practical skills for working safely and effectively in the polar regions.
9 February, 2016
Application deadline approaches The deadline for applications from researchers to the Collaborative Antarctic Science Scheme, CASS (formerly known as the Collaborative Gearing Scheme, CGS) is just under three weeks away, …
13 August, 2014
In April 2014, the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) brought together scientists and policy-makers from 22 countries to agree future Antarctic research priorities. Through discussions, debate and voting, the …
25 March, 2016 by Hilary Blagbrough
Oh look it’s snowing/raining and getting dark… it must be time for the Night Shift. I’m Hilary, the night shift leader on the SO-AntEco scientific cruise to the South Orkney …
8 February, 2016 by Ali Massey
I am sat gazing with child-like wonder through my office window at the huge snow-flakes falling outside and, despite the fact that the snowstorm is obscuring my usual spectacular view …
28 May, 2021 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
Over the last two decades, Zootaxa has hosted nearly 200 papers concerning tardigrade taxonomy, systematics, phylogeny, and evolution. A total of 160 researchers from all continents (except the Antarctic) published…Read more on 20 years of Zootaxa: Tardigrada (Ecdysozoa: Panarthropoda).
1 July, 2020 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
Tardigrades are potentially dispersed by birds, but the extent of the interactions between birds and tardigrades is virtually unknown. We discovered nine tardigrades within feces of White-bellied Seedsnipe (Attagis malouinus)…
4 June, 2020 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
Tardigrades constitute one of the most important group in the challenging Antarctic terrestrial ecosystem. Living in various habitats, tardigrades play major roles as consumers and decomposers in the trophic networks…
16 March, 2020 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
The 14th International Symposium on Tardigrada took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from 30 July to 3 August 2018. Approximately 140 participants, representing 28 countries from five continents attended the meeting,…15 February, 2019 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
1 June, 2017 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
The origin of the Antarctic continental extant fauna is a highly debated topic, complicated by the paucity of organisms for which we have clear biogeographic distributions and understanding of their…1 June, 2017 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
This paper is the fourth monograph in a series that describes the global records of limno-terrestrial water bears (Tardigrada). Here, we provide a comprehensive list of non-marine tardigrades recorded from…Read more on Annotated zoogeography of non-marine Tardigrada. Part IV: Africa
1 December, 2016 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
Zoogeographical studies on Tardigrada are limited by the extent of our knowledge on tardigrade taxonomy and faunistics. In this paper we analyse the relationships between the tardigrade fauna of North,…1 December, 2016 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
Antarctica is an ice-dominated continent and all its terrestrial and freshwater habitats are fragmented, which leads to genetic divergence and, eventually, speciation. Acutuncus antarcticus is the most common Antarctic tardigrade…1 December, 2016 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
This paper is the third monograph of the series that describes the global records of limno-terrestrial water bears (Tardigrada). Here, we provide a comprehensive list of non-marine tardigrades recorded from…Read more on Annotated zoogeography of non-marine Tardigrada. Part III: North America and Greenland
1 December, 2015 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
Antarctica contains some of the most challenging environmental conditions on the planet due to freezing temperatures, prolonged winters and lack of liquid water. Whereas 99.7% of Antarctica is permanently covered…Read more on Mitochondrial DNA analyses reveal widespread tardigrade diversity in Antarctica
25 February, 2015 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
This paper is the second monograph of nine that describes the global records of limno-terrestrial water bears (Tardigrada). Here, we provide a comprehensive list of non-marine tardigrades recorded from South…Read more on Annotated zoogeography of non-marine Tardigrada. Part II: South America
1 September, 2014 by Peter Convey, Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
Tardigrades are important members of the simple terrestrial ecosystems in the extreme environments in Antarctica. This study provides a baseline description of tardigrade species diversity and distribution pattern within the…1 September, 2014 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
Despite the importance and regular occurrence of tardigrades in the Antarctic terrestrial ecosystem, taxonomic studies of, in particular, continental Antarctica species have advanced very slowly. During a large survey to…5 February, 2014 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
Dividing the world into nine regions, this first paper describes literature records of the limno-terrestrial tardigrades (Tardigrada) reported from Central America. Updating previously published species lists we have revised the…Read more on Annotated zoogeography of non-marine Tardigrada. Part I: Central America
2 October, 2013 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
Tardigrades are important members of the Antarctic biota yet little is known about their role in the soil fauna or whether they are affected by anthropogenic factors. The German Federal…Read more on The impact of tourists on Antarctic tardigrades: an ordination-based model
1 January, 2012 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
A new species of eutardigrade, Hebesuncus mollispinus, sp.nov. is described from Charcot Island, maritime Antarctica. The three knowm species of Hebesuncus are either widespread with questionable reports from the Antarctic…1 January, 2012 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
The number of described species on the planet is about 1.9 million, with ca. 17,000 new species described annually, mostly from the tropics. However, taxonomy is usually described as a…1 January, 2012 by Chester Sands, Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
Recent studies have suggested that some resident Antarctic biota are of ancient origin and may have been isolated for millions of years. The phylum Tardigrada, which is part of the…
