# Cryoskills: an inclusive engineering and field skills course for polar scientists

Lisa Craw, Elizabeth Bagshaw, Samuel Doyle, Emma Fisher, Donna Frater, Simon Filhol, Jonathan Hawkins, Larissa van der Laan, Michael Prior-Jones, Emma Smith, et al.

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Lisa Craw, Elizabeth Bagshaw, Samuel Doyle, Emma Fisher, Donna Frater, et al. Cryoskills: an inclusive engineering and field skills course for polar scientists. EGU25-18442, EGU, Apr 2025, Vienna, Austria. 10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18442. hal-05443348

HAL Id: hal-05443348

https://hal.science/hal-05443348v1

Submitted on 6 Jan 2026

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# Cryoskills: an inclusive engineering and field skills course for polar scientists

Lisa Craw<fnref n="1" />, Elizabeth Bagshaw<fnref n="2" />, Samuel Doyle<fnref n="3" />, Emma Fisher<fnref n="4" />, Donna Frater<fnref n="5" />, Simon Filhol<fnref n="6" />, Jonathan Hawkins<fnref n="1" />, Larissa van der Laan<fnref n="7" />, Michael Prior-Jones<fnref n="1" />, Emma Smith<fnref n="8" />, and Tun Jan Young<fnref n="9" />

Research in the polar sciences demands a wide range of practical engineering and field work skills which many early-career researchers (ECRs) do not learn as a part of their formal education. These skills are often learned directly through field experience or from senior colleagues. This perpetuates a culture where only those who are fortunate or judged capable enough by others will gain the skills they need to work safely and effectively in the polar regions, leading to the systematic exclusion of some groups from field-based polar research.

We developed a week-long residential field course, CryoSkills, to provide experience in engineering and fieldwork in cold environments to ECRs, many of whom might not have an opportunity to learn those skills elsewhere. The first iteration of the course took place in Haugastøl, Norway in April 2024, with all costs covered for those selected to attend. The six day course was structured around participants constructing and deploying a bespoke temperature datalogger and deploying it in a snowfield near to the accommodation. To help them achieve this, participants undertook a mix of indoor and outdoor practical exercises covering electronic, mechanical and software engineering, field skills and teamwork. Course materials and design files will be released as open source for use by the community.

We conducted an equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) survey of all applicants, and course participants filled out a comprehensive feedback survey on their experience. Course participants reported improved confidence across all areas covered in the course, and particularly noted the positive impact of the inclusive culture on their learning outcomes and experience. The results of the EDI survey show a narrowing in the diversity of participants compared to applicants, which we attribute to the prioritisation conditions of the course funding. Access to funding remains a major

<footnote n="1">¹Cardiff University, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Cardiff, United Kingdom of Great Britain – England, Scotland, Wales ( crawl@cardiff.ac.uk)</footnote>

<footnote n="2">²School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³Centre for Glaciology, Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵Diversity and Inclusion consultant</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶Centre d'Etudes de la Neige, Grenoble, France</footnote>

<footnote n="7">⁷Neils Bohr Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark</footnote>

<footnote n="8">⁸School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK</footnote>

<footnote n="9">⁹School of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK</footnote>
barrier to disseminating vital engineering and field skills to the wider polar science community.