During the European Polar Board (EPB) Autumn 2020 Plenary Meeting, held online on the 15th and 16th October, the TUBITAK Marmara Research Center (TUBITAK-MAM) Polar Research Institute (PRI), Turkey was welcomed as a new Member.

PRI’s Representative to the EPB is Institute Director Dr. Burcu Özsoy, with Chief Researcher Dr. Atilla Yılmaz serving as Alternate Representative. PRI was established in 2019 to ensure the coordination and logistics of the future Turkish national polar expeditions.

PRI aims to provide support for R&D and scientific research studies that can be conducted in polar regions, to operate Turkey’s polar research camps and stations, to plan and coordinate logistics, to facilitate communication among relevant organisations, to conduct bilateral international collaborations, to develop and implement the national polar strategy in cooperation with stakeholders, to raise awareness of polar regions at national scale, to materialise national and international scientific diplomacy on polar regions and to increase the competitive power of Turkey in science by representing it in international arena.

The EPB looks forward to working closely with TUBITAK-MAM PRI. More information on PRI can be found here: https://kare.mam.tubitak.gov.tr/en. New Member PRI increases the EPB’s Membership 28 Member organisations from 20 countries.