Ship-Time
Application

Process

Ship-Time Application process

Amundsen Science aims to enable leading-edge, multidisciplinary and international research in Canada’s northern seas to inform environmental, societal and economic issues of strategic importance to Canada.

The research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen is designed to accommodate a wide range of oceanographic research targeting the atmosphere, sea ice, marine, and seabed environment. Scientists from the academia, government, or private sector, whose work is related to the Arctic or sub-Arctic, can get access to the vessel. A typical science contingent participating in a given segment (or Leg) of the expedition is composed of graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and researchers/professors. Joint projects with the industry may involve consultants and engineers. Media, documentarists, and artists may also be present depending on berth availability. More information on the Ship Time Application for Media are available in the Media Guidelines.

Every year the CCGS Amundsen operates for 4-5 months with a maximum of 40 scientific participants in support of Canadian research programs and collaborations with industry and international partners. More information on the research programs that have used the Amundsen over the years is available here.

Because of the high demand for ship time and the short window of operations in northern seas, the Amundsen’s schedule must be carefully planned several months in advance.

How to apply?

Science programs requesting access to the CCGS Amundsen are required to submit a formal Ship Time Application. Programs submitting a request should already have secured or anticipated funding for ship time from a funding agency (e.g. NSERC in Canada) and have undergone a scientific review process that confirms the scientific excellence of the proposed program. Eligible programs submitting a Ship Time Application can also apply for financial support from the Amundsen Science Ship Time Fund to supplement their secured/anticipated ship time funding.

The official deadline to submit an application for your research program is September 30th of any given year to join the Amundsen Expedition of the following year.

Primary programs requesting a significant number of berths (>5) on board and/or a significant amount of dedicated ship time, should preferably submit their request at least 18 months prior to their anticipated expedition dates for efficient planning purposes. Secondary programs requesting a minimal number of berths (<5) should submit their request at the latest on September 30th of any given year to join the Amundsen Expedition the following year. This Primary and Secondary user procedure is aimed at facilitating the scheduling process for the Amundsen by providing sufficient lead time to plan user access. It also provides small programs with a “last-minute” option to join the Amundsen Expedition (e.g., following funding confirmation).

Apply for Ship-Time

Ship Time Application Review

Allocation of access to the CCGS Amundsen for science is decided upon an impartial process that reviews Ship Time Application applications and selects the participating research programs. All Ship Time Applications for a given year are reviewed by the Amundsen Science User Advisory Committee which evaluates and ranks the competing programs’ applications, selects the participating programs, and establishes a preliminary deployment schedule for the Annual Amundsen Expedition.

Note that final timing, duration, exact location of the research sites, and the schedule and sequence of operations will ultimately be dictated by the feasibility of integrating the needs of the different programs (at the Users Committee meeting) and from the overarching constraints determined by the annual expedition Plan (e.g., timing and locations of crew changes). Finalization of the overall expedition goals and entire cruise track will be undertaken at a planning workshop gathering the Canadian Coast Guard and all user programs allocated ship-time for a given expedition. This workshop is usually held every year in February in Quebec City and is mandatory for all user programs. The workshop facilitates synergies and collaborations between the different programs to optimize operations at sea and to reduce costs.

For more information on the Ship Time Application process, please contact info@as.ulaval.ca

Our data are also available for your research projects

Since 2003, the Canadian research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen has been sailing the Arctic waters to enable scientists to study various elements this region. As a result, we have developed extensive datasets that can be useful for your research projects. Here’s a map of all the sampling stations for which we’ve collected varied data over the past 20 years.

Explore the data