NERC grant to investigate life in Antarctic subglacial lake awarded!

James is Co-Principal Investigator on a new grant awarded by NERC to investigate life in Antarctic Subglacial Lake CECs! The project, SLEDGE (Subglacial Lake Exploration: Diversity, Geochemistry, Ecology), aims to answer the question: What complexity of life, or indeed ecosystem, could be supported by an environment isolated from the atmosphere and ocean for hundreds of thousands of years? The preliminary field season is scheduled for austral summer 2021/22 with anticipated completion of the drilling in 2022/23. The award is for ​£717,500, and the project is led by David Pearce at Northumbria University, with Co-Principal Investigators Arwyn Edwards, Andrew Mitchell and Hazel Davey at Aberystwyth, Matthew Mowlem, Julie Robidart and Susan Evans at National Oceanography Centre, and Charles Cockell  at the University of Edinburgh.