Observational Technologies
Forecasted
Observational Technologies supports researchers developing and testing tools to measure glacier and ice-sheet processes, improving data for sea-level forecasts and baselines for potential interventions.
Funder: Arête Glacier Initiative
Due Dates (Anticipated): August 2027 (application deadline)
Funding Amounts: Up to $250,000 over 1–2 years
Summary: Supports early-stage technologies for observing glacier and ice-sheet processes relevant to sea-level rise.
Key Information: This RFP does not fund deployment of existing polar-rated systems or fieldwork.
Description
Arête Glacier Initiative funds the development and testing of observational technologies that can improve measurements of glacier and ice-sheet processes, strengthen sea-level forecasts, and provide baselines for assessing potential ice-sheet interventions. Projects should make observations more precise, durable, widespread, or affordable and produce data useful for modeling and forecasting.
The RFP welcomes approaches to subglacial access and long-term sensing; measurements of seismicity, ice deformation, and thermal change; drone-mounted mapping and compact radar or seismic arrays; improved coverage in difficult places and seasons; and observations beneath ice shelves and at the ice-ocean interface. Other relevant approaches are welcome. Supported projects should advance an emerging technology or adapt an established technology to polar observation.
