A Workshop to define Social Sciences' Priorities for Polar Regions

^{Participants of the Workshop at the IMAS premises in Hobart, Tasmania} 

A workshop including members of the PPP-SERA (Polar Prediction Project Societal and Economic Research and Applications) task team and the SERA WG (Societal and Economic Research Applications Working Group) of WWRP was held at the Hobart Office of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, from Monday, 17 April to Wednesday, 19 April 2023. The objective of the workshop was to structure the social-science components and key themes of the upcoming PCAPS (Polar Coupled Analysis and Prediction for Services) project, which is part of the new WWRP Implementation Plan (2024-2027). The workshop built on, as a point of departure, the lessons learned during the PPP-SERA activities. 

Local and regional stakeholders operating in the Antarctic were invited to a session at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS). The participating stakeholders represented important weather, water, ice, and climate (WWIC) information users as well as producers and gathered to discuss a series of questions in breakout groups.  

The workshop proceedings highlighted social science research priorities for PCAPS to be largely centered around  

i) Social science for improving WWIC services and,  

ii) Social science for assessing the wider societal implications of improved services. 

These important points will be taken into account when detailing the new polar research project of WWRP to ensure that both physical and social sciences are incorporated into the plans for the future by the Steering Group of the project, which will be formed later in 2023.