From 4-6 February 2025, we celebrated the first anniversary of ICEBERG with our Annual General Assembly Meeting, generously hosted by our partner ONIRIS in Nantes, France. This milestone event united consortium members and collaborators, offering a great opportunity to review achievements, receive EU feedback, share updates, and plan for the year ahead.
Here’s a look at the key highlights from our meeting.
We kicked off our General Assembly meeting with updates from each work package, reflected on our collective achievements and aligned on our next steps. A major highlight on Day 1 was the feedback from our EU Project Officer and Policy Officer, and from our Advisory Board members Erik Kielsen and Huld Hafliðadóttir who joined us from Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) and Iceland. Their input was very invaluable as we continue to extend our impact on the ground and to align our work with EU priorities, and all provided us with constructive advice and highlighted key upcoming events where our project could engage.
The day wrapped up with a guided tour of the host laboratory ONIRIS, giving everyone an insightful look at the cutting-edge work taking place there.
ICEBERG's Early Career Researcher Alessandro Nicolai from National Research Council Institute of Polar Sciences (ISP-CNR) giving a presentation on his research.
Day 2 started with a session for Early Career Researcher presentations, showcasing the exciting research from the next generation of scientists in ICEBERG. We had a productive break-out sessions to plan the fieldwork for 2025 with our local coordinators. We also had discussions internal to the project.
On the final day, we focused on enhancing our communication strategies through workshops aimed at improving outreach and engagement. Our consortium members were invited to take part in various activities and follow a performative intervention that brought a unique dimension to our discussions and reflections on research ethics in ways that conventional dialogue often cannot.
Project Scientific Coordinator Thora Herrmann (left) gave a speech to the ICEBERG members during dinner on the last day of the General Assembly. Other people in the photo from left to right: Dennis Booge (GEOMAR), María Murcia-Morales (ONIRIS Nantes), Melanie Mobley (INRAE), Katharina Heinrich (University of Lapland) and Adam Stepien (University of Lapland).
This Annual General Assembly was a resounding success, marking not only the completion of our first ICEBERG year but also setting the stage for the exciting work ahead in ICEBERG. We are incredibly grateful to our host partner ONIRIS for their hospitality, to our Advisory Board members, to our Project Officer and Policy Officer at the European Commission and to all participants of our consortium for their contributions. The valuable feedback, the inspiring presentations, and the productive workshops and planning sessions have given us a clear path forward for 2025 and beyond.
Stay tuned for what comes next!
Thora Herrmann and Élise Lépy
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SubscribeProf. Thora Herrmann
University of Oulu
thora.herrmann@oulu.fi
Dr Élise Lépy
University of Oulu
elise.lepy@oulu.fi
Marika Ahonen
Kaskas
marika.ahonen@kaskas.fi
Innovative Community Engagement for Building Effective Resilience and Arctic Ocean Pollution-control Governance in the Context of Climate Change
ICEBERG has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe Research and innovation funding programme under grant agreement No 101135130
