MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

BAS confirmed as world’s leading center for Antarctic and Southern Ocean research

Professor Dame Jane Francis (Director of BAS) and Oliver Darke (Director of Operations, Engineering and Infrastructure) representing the UK at ATCM in Japan

A major new analysis has confirmed the UK’s British Antarctic Survey (BAS) as the world’s leading center for Antarctic and Southern Ocean research. This was revealed during the Antarctic treaty Consultive Meeting, ATCM, recent May meeting in Japan that convened Antarctic Leaders and government official from across the world.

 In effect the Antarctic Research Trends Report 2025, which analyzed scientific publications indexed in the Scopus database between 2016 and 2024, found that BAS produced more Antarctic-related research papers than any other single institution globally. The paper also shows that in 2022-24, BAS led the world in publishing in high-quality journals, and that across 2016-2023 the UK had the highest field-weighted citation impact of any nation.

The findings reinforce BAS’ institutional standing as a global leader in polar and climate science at a pivotal moment for Antarctic governance, as nations debate environmental protection, climate policy and scientific cooperation across the continent.

The report also highlights a changing international research landscape. China has overtaken the United States as the world’s most prolific nation in generating Antarctic and Southern Ocean research, surpassing the US in overall publication output in 2022 and in high-impact publications in 2024. Researchers say the shift reflects growing geopolitical investment in Antarctica as the region experiences accelerating climate pressures, including rapid warming in West Antarctica and destabilising ice shelves.

Despite China’s rapid rise, driven by contributions across a number of institutions, BAS remained the highest-performing single polar research institution worldwide between 2022 and 2024.

The report found BAS not only led in total scientific output, but also produced the greatest number of Antarctic papers published in the world’s most prestigious journals (‘top-quartile’ scientific journals), including high-quality titles such as Nature and Science.

ATCM coordinates annually Antarctic science, environmental protection, diplomacy and peaceful international cooperation.