Challenges in management and conservation of the marine environment increasingly call for interdisciplinary and collaborative research.
To this end, ICES Strategic Initiative on the Integration of Early Career Scientists (SIIECS) and Orienting Young ScienTists of EuromaRine (OYSTER) are running InterDis, a joint summer school on Interdisciplinary Ocean Transformation for early-career ocean professionals.
Robert Mussgnug, Wageningen University & Research and member of SIIECS, explains that there is a real need to equip the next generation of marine scientists with interdisciplinary skills, "As early career scientists and ocean professionals move into positions where issues of complex ocean systems are being examined, we may be underprepared in practical, interdisciplinary experience".
Partnering with OYSTER
"OYSTER's track record of supporting early career scientists make them an ideal partner", notes Mussgnug, "EuroMarine also brings its own host of early career scientists, topics of expertise, and talents into the partnership. This way, we easily reach our goal of expanding our "network of networks".
From Monday 29 May–Friday 2 June in Palma, Spain, InterDis will train participants in network building, interdisciplinary methods, and proposal writing through an interactive combination of instructional lectures and hands-on activities.
Practical proposal development
With InterDis, SIIECS and OYSTER want to address two main barriers to early career scientists - first, the lack of a developed cross-discipline network to address multidisciplinary issues and complex systems and second, clear frameworks and experimental designs for addressing complex problems often lack in formal education settings. Mussgnug says, "We will build competencies in these two areas by actively developing an interdisciplinary project proposal that involves multiple expertise while addressing complex issues and key concerns under Sustainable Development Goal 14 and the EU Mission to Restore Ocean and Waters".
Although projects
will be European-focused due to funding obligations, project areas, and network
reach, SIIECS and OYSTER encourage individual international applications.
There are 25 places available at InterDis. Applications should be submitted no later than midnight on 28 February 2023.
Read the full details of InterDis summer school and how to submit your application.
