OUR STORY
The Polar Citizen Science Collective was founded in 2017 when a group of polar expedition guides identified a unique opportunity to advance our scientific knowledge by implementing citizen science projects amongst the polar tourism industry.
As some of our founders have scientific backgrounds themselves, they recognized that collectively, scientists, tour operators and guides could work together to formalize citizen science projects that any traveller could participate in.
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Hear from the team how we got started:
HOW WE'RE DIFFERENT
The Polar Collective connects various stakeholders to coordinate the collection of hard-to-obtain data in the polar regions. By facilitating collaboration amongst these groups, we promote education, scientific outreach and standardised data collection, all of which contribute to a greater understanding and protection of these fragile places.
THE POWER OF THE COLLECTIVE
The strength of our network lies in multiple tour operators working together on a shared project. The more operators are involved, the greater the number of voyages, resulting in more extensive data collection. This collective effort not only speeds up the process but also amplifies data gathering capabilities far beyond what a single operator or scientist could achieve alone.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
VISION
We protect the polar regions through collaboration and collective knowledge.
PURPOSE
We use the unrivalled reach of polar tourism to create a unique and unified large-scale data collection network for polar science.
We unite tour operators, scientists, polar guides and travellers to enable research and education through citizen science.
MISSION
OUR COLLECTIVE HISTORY
2024
The Antarctic Snow Algae Study was added as a new project.
2023
Over 500 voyages and 20,000 guests have collected data for projects supported by the Polar Collective.
2022
The South Georgia Big Seaweed Search was added as a new project.
The Training Platform was launched.
2021
2017
The Polar Collective was founded.
