Science Events
SCAR SC-HASS Conference 2023: “The Antarctic for a Better World”
Lisbon, June 22nd to 24th
APECS PT attended the 2023 SCAR SC-HASS Biennial Conference.
In addition to the support provided to the organizing staff (G. Sofia and Débora), which welcomed participants from all continents, we had:
– Round table “Importante of a APECS National Committee for a better early career researcher”, with the participation of APECS Portugal representatives (Débora, Céline and Hugo), the President and Vice-President of APECS Brazil (Raphael and Paola) and APECS Argentina (Gabriela).
– Presentation “APECS Portugal: Bringing science to the wider public”, in which the President of APECS Portugal (Joana) spoke of the history and activities developed by our committee.
Portugal in Polar Science: Breaking the Ice
Coimbra, April 19th 2023
The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) organized on April 19th, between 14h and 18h, in the Department of Life Sciences at the University of Coimbra (DCV-UC) the event “Portugal in Polar Science: Breaking the Ice”.
IV Jornadas do Mar (Journeys of the Sea) - Young People and the Poles
Oporto, March 12th 2023

V Centennial of the Circumnavigation of Fernão de Magalhães
Lisbon, September 20th, 2019
Our early career scientists, Hugo Guímaro and Ricardo Matias were present in Pavilhão do Conhecimento – Centro de Ciência Viva to celebrate the V Centennial of the Circumnavigation of Fernão de Magalhães! Among the 700 people present in this event, people of all ages listened to Hugo and Ricardo talking about the polar regions and climate change!
IV meet.Eco Coimbra
Coimbra, December 14th and 15th, 2018
The Biology Students Association from the Academic Association of Coimbra (NEB/AAC), organized the IV Ecology Meeting (meet.Eco Coimbra) in the Life Sciences Department of the Faculty of Science and Technology of University of Coimbra (FCTUC).
This event had the objective of promoting talks and workshops, in order to enrich the curricular formation and to promote the interest of the participants in Ecology.
In this IV edition, there was a fair of associations, in which APECS Portugal was present and talked with 50 participants to explain polar science and the role of APECS has for the young scientists.


Antarctica Day 2018
Coimbra, December 1st, 2018
On December 1st, Antarctica Day was celebrated. This is a commemorative date on which, in 1959, the Antarctic Treaty was signed by several countries, with the intention of being only a place of scientific exploration in an international cooperation regime.
To commemorate this historic day, members of APECS Portugal made some questions to the academic community of the University of Coimbra about polar science. With this flash event similar to a census (lasting only one hour), it was estimated how many students in Coimbra knew the answers to the questions “Why do not polar bears eat penguins?” and “What is krill?”.
Although the number of people who knew the answers remained low, it was noted that the number of people they knew had already been addressed earlier in similar activities. This highlights the positive impact science communication can have!
First APECS World Summit
Sofia, Bulgaria, June 6th-8th, 2015
The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists organized the first world meeting of young polar scientists in Sofia (Bulgaria), together with the XXXVIII Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. For 3 days, around 70 young scientists, representing 23 national committees, shared experiences and discussed the future of APECS, one of the biggest legacies of the 4th International Polar Year (2007-2008). The meeting was structured into 4 workshops:
- Data sharing and open science in polar research;
- The future of polar research;
- Science communication;
- The APECS network and future directions.
APECS Portugal was highly involved in the world summit organization and was represented in Sofia by José Seco, Sara Aparício, Patrícia Azinhaga e Sílvia Lourenço. They presented the different education and outreach projects that the national committee is involved and they coordinated the sessions about the importance of scientific communication in APECS and the role of the national committees in the association’s structure.


APECS Portugal at the National Workshop “From Polar Research to the Classroom”
Oliveira do Bairro, March 1st, 2014
The role of polar scientists in the classroom was the mot to the National Workshop for Education and Science organized by IMAR-CMA (University of Coimbra) and the Education and Citizenship Institute.
Polar researchers from APECS Portugal were present during the scientific and international networking sessions. Scientists showed their works from different research areas and how those themes can be introduced in classrooms. Discussion, networkind and sharing of experiences between scientists and professors was intense and with interesting results at the end of the day, where two main ideas were identified. First of all, taking scientists to the classroom and students to the labs increases the interest of young generations in science. And secondly, by introducing a scientific study to the classroom will increase the critical thinking of both students and the school community.