On June 9, 2025, Amaelle Landais, Thomas Lauwers, and Niels Dutrievoz took part in the 3rd United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in Nice. At the pavilion dedicated to the cryosphere, they presented two major Antarctic research projects: AWACA and Beyond EPICA.
Their talk, titled “Scientific Research in Antarctica: From Fieldwork to Communicating Results, through the International Collaborative Projects AWACA and Beyond EPICA”, was delivered in the presence of French MP Jimmy Pahun, who is co-lead of the proposed Polar Research Programming Law for 2024–2030.
The presentation highlighted two key projects in Antarctic climate science. After nearly a decade of preparation and field campaigns, the Beyond EPICA project has just completed the drilling of a 2.8-kilometre-deep ice core, which will allow scientists to reconstruct the evolution of climate and atmospheric composition over at least the past 1.5 million years. Meanwhile, the AWACA project focuses on the present-day Antarctic water cycle. It combines field observations, the deployment of innovative instruments housed in autonomous containers, and climate modelling to improve our understanding of polar precipitation and its changes in a warming climate.
These two projects illustrate the complementarity between technological innovation in extreme environments, field measurements, laboratory analysis, and climate modelling. They are part of a long-term research effort that is also mindful of minimizing its environmental footprint.
The presentation also aimed to open a broader discussion on the scientific, logistical, and ethical challenges of contemporary polar research, in the context of upcoming international initiatives such as Antarctica InSync (2027–2030) and the Fifth International Polar Year (2032–2033).
