The 17^th Session of CLIVAR/IOC-GOOS Indian Ocean Region Panel (IORP-17) held virtually on 28 April 2021. 28 people participated in the meeting, including IORP members and representatives from IORP partners and Early Career Scientists (ECS) communities in the Indian Ocean.

The meeting started with a quick introduction to IORP and updates from co-chairs, including the new direction of WCRP implementation strategy and Lighthouse Activities; the progress of IORP-16 action items and the IORP 2020 annual report and feedback from CLIVAR Scientific Steering Group (SSG). Participants also shared the information on the UN Ocean Decade programmes and projects related to the Indian Ocean that they are involving.

The brief updates from IORP partners were made by the representatives from IOC PPO, IIOE-2, IOGOOS, SIBER, SOLAS-India, WIOMSA, and INCINIDIO, followed by a more focused discussion on IndOOS-2 implementations. Representatives from IRF, RAMA, GO-SHIP, and OOPC made presentations on the progress achieved by the respective programmes in the past year, with a focus on the impacts of COVID-19 on the ocean observations in the Indian Ocean and possible solutions. The IndOOS-2 recommendation tracking will be continued by close cooperation with IRF and IIOE-2, and a progress report of the IndOOS-2 will be prepared.

A discussion dedicated to the involvement of ECS and the ‘Indian Ocean Youth/ECS Ambassadors’ initiative was organised, with the invited participants from existing ECS groups in the Indian Ocean, such as YESS, IIOE-2 ECSN, WIOMSA-ECRN and etc. An ECS network session will be organised at the 2022 International Indian Ocean Science Conference (IIOSC 2022), Goa, India. A separate discussion with ECS groups will be organised by IORP by inviting the representatives from SIBER and ECS groups.

Five Scientific talks were given by IORP and SIBER representatives during the last session of the IORP-17.

Quarterly IORP telecons will be organised with the next one being scheduled for July 2021.