Funding award to address skills gap in environmental sciences
Funding in the amount of £116,000 has been awarded to the Department by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) for the provision of critical skills training in the environmental sciences and management.
The award has been used to develop training workshops that will enable research scientists, doctoral students, graduates and professionals from across the country in the environmental sciences and management to attend at no cost. The funding also covers accommodation and course materials for the duration of each workshop.
The workshops will focus on priority training areas identified by NERC, in Multivariate Ecological Statistics, Geographical Information Systems and Insect Taxonomy and Field Sampling. The workshops will be held in January, February and March 2014, in Oxford.
'With increasing use of digital and large monitoring data-sets to solve environmental problems it is imperative that we train the next generation of environmental scientists and managers in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software and technology, and how to understand multivariate data analysis,' said Dr Jocelyn Hughes, Academic Director. 'These workshops will provide the skills needed by environmental scientists and managers to critically respond to the key environmental issues that will affect us in the 21st century.'
The workshops will help delegates gain the skills needed to record and monitor different species in their habitats, to better understand the relationship organisms have with their environment, and to identify and classify insects in order to make site assessments and to understand the impact human activity has on biodiversity.
Delegates will use Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment in field work for GIS and will learn how to incorporate their data into specialist software QGIS and R, to analyse and present geospatial information.
An emphasis will be placed on using real data to solve real problems in species and habitat conservation management, and delegates will have access to real data sets related to flooding in Oxford.
Said Dr Hughes, 'We are delighted to work with the University of Oxford Museum of Natural History in insect taxonomy where delegates will be able to access world class collections of invertebrates.' The Museum's collections include samples of beetles, bees, and wasps, and delegates will undertake fieldwork and practical surveying during their visit to Oxford to study insect taxonomy.
Each workshop is designed to provide practical training and problem-solving experience, and will be led by a team of tutors from both academia and industry. The cost to participants is free.
The three new workshops are positioned within the wider range of professional development courses offered by the Department in environmental management and ecology.
Current programmes include graduate-level training in ecological survey techniques and data analysis, led by Dr Jocelyne Hughes, and short-courses in environmental management and climate science.
To find out more about our courses in environmental management and ecology contact us via email at: envman@conted.ox.ac.uk or follow us on Twitter at: @ox_environment to stay up to date.
Published 20 January 2014