International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences (IPICS) and the future of European ice coring

Ice cores have been a cornerstone of global change research in recent decades. Europe has been at the forefront of this science, particularly through the GRIP and EPICA projects funded by the EU and national agencies. A new international grouping, IPICS, has charted a plan of four priority science projects for the next decade or more of ice core research. These proposed projects would each contribute unique and important data to understanding how the earth works, and to improving the accuracy of forecasts. This paper summarises those projects and discusses some of the organisational and funding issues involved in such ambitious and high-profile projects.