Progress report for
Achievement at a glance
Since 2012 the IAEA OA-ICC has created over 850 capacity building opportunities for more than 700 scientists from 100 countries. In our role as coordinator and facilitator we have organised dozens of cooperation and technical meetings, including most recently a combined virtual and in-person event in Monrovia, Liberia on January 8th 2021, planned in partnership with the OA Africa Network. Our OA bibliography currently totals over 8000 OA-related publications, more than 1,100 of which are available on our separate online biological data portal created in collaboration with Xiamen University in China and hosted on PANGEA. The bibliographic databases are complimented by the OA-ICC newsstream, sharing the latest publications and news on OA science, which reaches hundreds of daily readers and has more than 400,000 views to date. Our mission is aligned with the goals and objectives of the Ocean Decade and is focused on SDG 14.3 which addresses ocean acidification.
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<br>The Global COVID-19 Pandemic caused the postponement of events and other challenges that prevented us from attaining some of our deliverables in 2020, since trainings could not be held and conferences like the 5th Annual Symposium on Oceans in a High CO2 World were postponed. However, we did all that was possible to complete those deliverables and remain committed to supporting the postponed conferences and trainings. During the pandemic the OA-ICC has adapted, organizing and participating in many online events, and planning virtual trainings to take place in 2021. We were able to attract generous financial support from the governments of the United States and Sweden, and created 10 home-based assignments for ocean acidification scientists to develop research papers and evaluate past training efforts. The OA-ICC also continues as an integral member of the Global Ocean Acidification Obervation Network (GOA-ON) and is closely allied with the many regional GOA-ON Hubs.
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Challenges faced in implementation
The Global COVID-19 Pandemic prevented us from conducting in person technical trainings and from supporting the 5th Symposium on the Oceans in a High-CO2 World, among many other activities. Many coordination meetings such as our technical advisory committee that were planned also had to be postponed indefinitely. COVID 19-related restrictions also meant the disruption of our office workflow and personnel, and difficulties working with our partners.\r\n\r\nThese challenges have led us to refocus our efforts on building regional capacity and collaboration via online communication platforms and digital learning. Connectivity issues and low digital literacy, especially in the developing world caused early difficulties with online work. However, in the course of 2020 we have seen digital literacy increase as more scientists adapt to the online environment, which has allowed us to overcome some of the earlier challenges. \r\n\r\nWe continued to meet regularly with our partners and received generous contributions from the United States and Sweden to continue our mission. This has allowed us to target regions with low OA capacity such as in India and West Africa, and to evaluate our past programs to offer better support and services in the coming decade. \r\n
Beneficiaries
Scientists studying ocean acidification in developing IAEA Member States and beyond\r\n Students, policy makers, and administrators seeking to address issues related to ocean acidification
Actions
Technical training and online resources available for scientists and educators\r\n Funding for international research collaborations\r\n Facilitating networking and remote collaboration\r\n Support for regional meetings and projects\r\n Development of best practices and approaches for the community
