OCEAN:ICE will assess the impacts of key Antarctic Ice Sheet and Southern Ocean processes on Planet Earth, via their influence on sea level rise, deep water formation, ocean circulation and climate. An innovative and ambitious combination of observations and numerical models, including coupled ice sheet-climate model development, will be used to improve predictions of how changes in the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets impact global climate. It will make new circumpolar and Atlantic observations in observational gaps. It will assimilate these and existing data into improved ice sheet boundary conditions and forcing, producing new estimates of ice sheet melt and impacts on ocean circulation, including the Atlantic Meridional Overturning circulation. It will develop, calibrate and assess models used to predict the future evolution of the giant ice sheets. It will reduce the deep uncertainty in the impact of their melt on societally relevant environmental changes on decadal to multi-centennial time scales. OCEAN:ICE will assess the potential for passing ice sheet 'tipping points' and their consequences for ocean circulation and climate. OCEAN:ICE will raise the profile of European research through its extensive network of international collaborators, who provide scientific and logistical support. It will directly contribute to the All-Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance through observations, logistical collaboration and analysis. It will significantly advance the state-of-the-art in coupled ice sheet-climate modelling and directly contribute to international climate assessments such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and World Ocean Assessment. It will link organically to European data centres to disseminate its data, following FAIR and INSPIRE principles. It will deliver improved assessments of European climate impacts from the melting ice sheets, with actionable risk and timescales, to policymakers and the public.

Education quality progress in Ukrainian HEIs is limited by lack of a strong academic integrity culture, which is required for sustainable positive change. Growing such a culture is a complex time consuming task, however we believe it can be effectively approached with appropriate processes and instruments. Academic integrity is based on openness and transparency principles, i.e. acting visibly, understandably and predictably promoting participation and accountability. At the same time Open Science, an international movement aimed at supporting better quality science, is based on the same values and is offering a variety of approaches and mechanisms able to grow change. That is why we trust that adopting and promoting Open Science practices and transparency will lead to academic integrity improvement and, in turn, rise of education quality in the target HEIs. The OS roadmap is diverse. However, introducing Open Peer Review (OPR) has the biggest potential in Ukraine as it brings transparency to the already familiar practice of academic evaluation and provides hands-on learning opportunities for early career researchers (ECRs), helping to build new skills under collective mentorship of international experts. Hence, we plan to develop and implement an online OPR platform for academic conferences (as they provide additional face-to-face promotion opportunities, journals don’t) and build an international virtual community of peer reviewers and researchers on the base of it. Combined with general and subject-specific OS subjects to be introduced in the partner HEIs for Master students and PhD candidates as well as open online course for everyone, our OPR service is intended to give our target universities (and Ukrainian HE system in general) a much needed impetus for change towards openness and integrity. Hence, we consider open practices as a QA process and its technological backbone (the OPR platform and virtual community of experts-reviewers) as a QA mechanism.

Extreme aquatic environments account with a vast and yet largely unexplored biodiversity that holds immense potential for novel active biomolecules with multiple industrial applications. However, the harsh and challenging conditions such as accessibility, environmental hazards, ineffective or inaccurate sampling techniques, and poor bioprospecting pose significant obstacles to their exploration and sampling. Overcoming these challenges is crucial for unlocking the potential of extremophiles to benefit society. The EXPLORA project will depart from two extreme aquatic ecosystems selected such as the acidic Rio Tinto in Spain and the psychrophilic Antarctic Region. By developing innovative, accurate, and sustainable tailor-made sampling methods, employing cutting-edge bioprospecting techniques, and utilising state-of-the-art analytical tools for isolation of bioactive substances, in the EXPLORA project it is expected to find and isolate microorganisms which produce novel antimicrobial and antioxidants compounds, sialylated extracellular polymeric substances and, plastic-degrading acidophilic enzymes which applicability will be validated for pharmaceutical, cosmetic, nutraceutical, and for PET recycling purposes, respectively. Additionally, deeper understanding on the legal frameworks in the planned contexts such as the Nagoya Protocol and Antarctic Treaty Legal Requirements is also envisaged. By achieving these objectives, EXPLORA will contribute to the sustainable exploration of biodiversity hotspot regions, advancing the development of next-generation sampling methods, expanding bioprospecting from the screening for new chemicals into biological function, and contributing to the understanding of potential trade-offs inherent in the exploitation of ocean and other aquatic biodiversity.

The polar regions play a key role in the Earth’s system. They are essential for our climate and are sentinels of climate change, human expansion, and the hunt of new resources. The polar regions are losing ice, and their oceans and land are changing rapidly. The consequences of this polar transition extend to the whole planet and are affecting people in multiple ways. Evidence-based policy recommendations are needed, but the polar regions are difficult to reach, and research infrastructures able to operate in these regions are scarce. To understand and predict key processes in the polar regions and provide evidence-based information, the polar research community needs access to world-class research infrastructure operating in these regions. POLARIN is an international network of polar research infrastructures and their services, aiming at addressing the scientific challenges of the polar regions. The network includes a wide array of complementary and interdisciplinary top level research infrastructures: Arctic and Antarctic research stations, research vessels and icebreakers operating at both poles, observatories, data infrastructures and ice and sediment core repositories. POLARIN will provide integrated, challenge-driven, and combined access to these infrastructures to facilitate interdisciplinary research on complex processes. POLARIN will: 1. Provide challenge-driven transnational access to a large portfolio of research infrastructures. 2. Improve the access to data by improving data availability and interoperability between data infrastructures. 3. Provide virtual access to data and data services. 4. Provide data products for the scientific community and decision makers. 5. Train the young generation of polar researchers in optimally exploiting the infrastructures for their research. 6. Duly advertise the services offered by POLARIN and engage the infrastructure users to share their research outcomes with society.

WISH-OI enhances the existing OCEAN:ICE (O:I) project in Horizon Europe by the addition of the National Antarctic Science Centre (NASC) of Ukraine to the consortium. NASC expertise will add new observations and analysis as well as innovative numerical modelling to ocean and atmospheric processes and regions not presently represented in the project. NASC logistical support will expand existing O:I observations to areas not covered by O:I around Antarctica, allowing us to close the gap and become a truly circum-polar project. WISH-OI focuses on developing collaborations between scientists in Ukraine and internationally as well as leveraging expertise in O:I to develop existing NASC capabilities and new observational and analytic skillsets. The focus on physical oceanography and meteorology builds on existing research programmes in Ukraine and extends them to applications with the new Ukrainian research vessel Noosphera. WISH-OI will also maintain and develop key Antarctic science objectives and ensure a new generation of scientists will remain in research given the difficult environment now faced by Ukraine.