The BAS Science Strategy Team ensures that the organisation delivers world-leading science underpinned by a clear polar science strategy, that science in BAS is well-managed and has funding that is appropriate and secure.
Director of Science David Vaughan
Terms of Reference
To develop, maintain and implement a science strategy that keeps BAS at the forefront of polar science, meeting the current NERC science strategy and delivering the BAS Vision
To ensure the delivery of the BAS science programme, assessing progress, and ensuring excellent scientific outcomes
To foster a vibrant and fertile intellectual environment within BAS, in which all scientists are challenged to develop bold and exciting scientific ideas, and to develop their personal and professional skills
To ensure that BAS leads and participates in scientific initiatives that lead to major advances in knowledge and expertise
To identify opportunities and ensure innovation, beneficial contact with stakeholders and to maximise the impact of BAS Science
To identify and initiate opportunities to maintain, diversify and increase funding available to BAS science; agreeing any changes or adjustments required ensure the sustainable funding of crucial science activities
To monitor performance of BAS’s science, and ensure its scientists perform in-line with the expectations of BAS and NERC, highlighting and praising excellence, and where required, implementing measures to improve performance
To identify, and seek to overcome, impediments to scientific progress; reporting those that cannot be overcome to the BAS Executive
CAMBRIDGE: British Antarctic Survey (BAS) continues to plan its operational support to the UK and international polar research community during global challenges posed by COVID-19. Halley and Signy Research Stations …
The British Antarctic Survey has been awarded National Capability funds for polar science which will strengthen UK national security, resilience, economic growth and societal benefit
A new UK-U.S. Antarctic research programme to improve the prediction of future sea-level rise is launched this week (Monday 30 April 2018) at British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Cambridge. The £20 …
In the Southern Ocean, several zooplankton taxonomic groups, euphausiids, copepods, salps and pteropods, are notable because of their biomass and abundance and their roles in maintaining food webs and ecosystem…
Dense water production in the seas around Antarctica is a key process for century-scale carbon storage, slowing global warming. Results from an advanced new model reveal the prospect of system…
1. Antarctic winters are challenging for terrestrial invertebrates, and species that live there have specialised adaptations to conserve energy and protect against cold injury in the winter. However, rapidly occurring…
The characteristics of the CISE-LOCEAN seawater isotope dataset (δ18O, δ2H, referred to as δD) are presented (https://doi.org/10.17882/71186; Waterisotopes-CISE-LOCEAN, 2021). This dataset covers the time period from 1998 to 2021 and…
Aim: The aim was to investigate the evolutionary origins of the striking biodiversity contrast between high- and low-latitude regions in the present day. Is this a relatively recent phenomenon, causally…
This paper presents a physics-based macroscale model for the densification of dry snow which provides for a smooth transition between densification by grain-boundary sliding (stage 1) and densification by power-law…
We use high resolution, ground-based observations of ice displacement to investigate ice deformation across the floating left-lateral shear margin of Priestley Glacier, Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica. Bare ice conditions allow…
Solar radiation regulates most biological activities on Earth. Prolonged exposure to solar UV radiation can cause deleterious effects by inducing two major types of DNA damage, namely cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers…
We assessed fungal diversity in sediments obtained from four lakes in the South Shetland Islands and James Ross Island, Antarctica, using DNA metabarcoding. We detected 218 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs)…
The Southern Hemisphere westerly wind belt (SHWW) is a major feature of Southern Hemisphere, midlatitude climate that is closely linked with the sequestration and release of CO2 in the Southern…
Ice crystals are mechanically and dielectrically anisotropic. They progressively align under cumulative deformation, forming an ice-crystal-orientation fabric that, in turn, impacts ice deformation. However, almost all the observations of ice…
We studied the fungal DNA present in a lake sediment core obtained from Trinity Peninsula, Hope Bay, north-eastern Antarctic Peninsula, using metabarcoding through high-throughput sequencing (HTS). Sequences obtained were assigned…
This report provides concise compiled synopses of current understanding, explicit recommendations for actions to address change, and recommendations for additional research. In most cases, the research recommendations are drawn from…
Antarctica has been isolated and progressively glaciated for over 30 million years, with only approximately 0.3 % of its area currently ice-free and capable of supporting terrestrial ecosystems. As a…
Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids…
Located 1140 km from the South American coastline in the South Atlantic Ocean and with an age of 4 million years, Trindade Island is the most recent volcanic component of…
For more than five decades, research has been conducted at Ny-Ålesund, in Svalbard, Norway, to understand the structure and functioning of High-Arctic ecosystems and the profound impacts on them of…
We assessed the potentially pathogenic fungi in Antarctic permafrost and the overlying active layer on King George, Robert, Livingston and Deception Islands in the South Shetland Islands archipelago, maritime Antarctica.…