ECOsystem approach to SUstainable Management

of the Marine Environment and its living Resources

MARIE CURIE TRAINING SITE

RESEARCH TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES FOR EARLY-STAGE RESEARCHERS 2006-2009

WHAT KIND OF PROJECTS ARE AVAILABLE?

GENERAL RULES ABOUT PROJECTS

• Projects must be related to the theme of the training site. We may suggest some specific project titles but normally applicants should write their own project proposals, in consultation with one or more members of staff in the partner institutes.
• Preference may be given to projects based at more than one partner institute. Such projects must have a supervisor in each institute.
• The number of training months originally allocated to each partner institute was approximately the same, with a total of 500 training months available across all the institutes. Details of the number of training months still available appear in the table below.
• Projects may last from 3 to 36 months (but all projects must be completed by 31/12/09).
• Trainees may register for a PhD at one of the host institutions. Note however that the PhD will be funded only for the duration of the training period. Short-stay trainees may register (or already be registered) for a PhD in another institution outside the consortium.
• The training site runs for four years, until 31/12/09. Towards the end of the lifetime of the training site, only short stays will be available.
• Trainees will receive research training specific to their project as well has having access to generic skills training courses. Generic skills training courses will run at least once every year.

NUMBER OF TRAINING MONTHS AVAILABLE (last updated 04/12/08)

Note that a few additional training months may become available in Greece and/or Spain during 2009.

OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH TRAINING SUBJECT AREA

The proposed project will offer training for early-stage researchers in marine biological, physical and economic sciences, within the general theme of an ecosystem-based approach to sustainable exploitation and management of living marine resources. The 1992 Convention on Biological Biodiversity provides the key international framework, defining the ecosystem approach as a strategy for the integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use, where the "ecosystem" refers to the structure, process, functions and interactions among organisms, humans and their environment.

Research opportunities will include topics in deep-ocean research, GIS/remote sensing, molecular genetics, trophic ecology of top predators and interactions with fisheries, fish behaviour and physiology, fish stock assessment, fishery management, oceanography and environmental effects on fisheries, coastal zone management and fisheries economics. Within the biological sciences, approaches range from the ecosystem level to the molecular, with opportunities to carry out both pure and applied research on marine species ranging from phytoplankton to marine mammals. The biological science base is strongly linked to research on oceanographic and biogeochemical processes, as well as engineering and computer sciences, and economic and social sciences. Proposals for multidisciplinary projects are encouraged. To give a single example, Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) mapping is intrinsically multidisciplinary, involving physical and biological oceanographers, fisheries biologists and computer scientists; it has applications in fisheries management and marine conservation, and thereby consequences for stakeholders such as fishermen, which thus brings it into the research domain of economists and social scientists.

The research training offered will draw on an exceptionally wide pool of expertise, including marine biologists, ecologists, fisheries scientists, immunologists, geneticists, statisticians, physicists and economists. Trainees will have access to world-class facilities including research vessels, ROVs, aquaculture facilities and fully-equipped laboratories. The geographical focus extends from Europe to the Southern Ocean and SW Atlantic. Applicants are encouraged to develop projects that utilise expertise and facilities available at more than one partner site. Thus many projects will involve stays at both universities and government research laboratories. The partnership includes a wide range of scientific expertise, including marine biologists, ecologists, fisheries scientists, immunologists, geneticists, statisticians, physical oceanographers, chemists, physicists and economists. Inter-disciplinary projects will be favoured.

All of the partner institutions routinely carry out research in collaboration with industry and the voluntary sectors, and many of these collaborations would provide trainee project opportunities. Such opportunities will be detailed on the project website but would include work with:

• the fisheries sector, e.g. collection of data on board commercial fishing vessels and at fish markets
• the aquaculture sector, e.g. trailing of different feeds, disease treatments etc to improve sustainability
• voluntary networks involved in cetacean sightings surveys and collection of data from stranded cetaceans, e.g. CEMMA in NW Spain, SeaWatch in the UK.

SELECTED EXAMPLES OF RESEARCH TOPIC AREAS AND KEY PERSONNEL INVOLVED

PROJECT STUCTURE

Registration

At the end of the selection process, the selected trainees will register for the duration of their training periods (3-36 months) with one (or more) of the university partners. Thus training periods at one of the research institute partners will normally supervised by a member of the institute staff and a member of university staff. For long training periods (36 months) the trainees will normally be expected to register for a PhD. Otherwise, it is expected that trainees will normally already be registered for a PhD elsewhere in Europe and will register with one of the university partners as non-graduating research students for the duration of the training period.

Trainees who register for a PhD at a host institution will additionally need to meet all training targets normally applied to PhD programmes, which are broadly compatible with the specific provisions for the training site.

Initial planning phase

All trainees will produce a detailed research and training plan in consultation with their academic supervisor(s). Training requirements will be assessed and trainees will write a full research plan, with milestones and deliverables. Training needs will be reviewed and updated during the first two weeks after registration. Appropriate training courses will then be identified or, if needed, dedicated training provision put in place.

Training courses

Generic and specialised skills training provision is described below. Included in this training will be induction material on the Marie Curie programme in general and the ECOSUMMER project in particular. Trainees will also have the opportunity to take modules from postgraduate taught courses, for example modules in aquaculture, fisheries, GIS and molecular genetics from the taught MRes/MSc programme in Marine & Fisheries Science at UNIABDN, and to participate in specialist subject-specific training courses, e.g. the range of remote sensing and GIS courses taught at HCMR and algal culturing and fieldwork training offered by SAMS.

Ongoing research phase

During the initial phases of the research it is expected that supervisors and trainees will remain in regular contact. Research projects will follow objectives agreed at the start of the programme, although these objectives may be later updated in the light of progress made. For longer-stay trainees, visits to other partner institutions will be encouraged. As far as possible these visits will be built into the trainee's research programme from the beginning but visits to other sites can easily be added to the individual training programme at a later stage.

Six-monthly progress reviews

Consistent with current protocols for monitoring progress in postgraduate research programmes, progress with research progress will be evaluated on a 6-monthly basis, including submission and evaluation of short written reports. 6-monthly reports will include a 1-page publishable summary.

Annual and final reporting

All trainees will provide an annual summary of their work, to be delivered by their supervisor to the Co-ordinator for circulation to the Scientific Committee and inclusion in the Annual Report to the Commission. Since not all trainees will be in phase with the annual reporting by the project as a whole, where necessary the nearest 6-month progress update will be used. Annual reports will include a 1-page publishable summary.

At the end of the training period, trainees will write an additional detailed report (again with a 1-page publishable summary). Trainees who register for a PhD will normally write their thesis in the native language of the country of the host university.

Dissemination

The importance of dissemination will be emphasised during the generic skills training course and supervisors will asked to be pro-active in encouraging trainees to present their results at international conferences and submit work to peer-reviewed scientific journals, as well as to make it available to the general public through talks and press releases.

Trainees will also be expected to give research seminars within the host department, minimally on an annual basis but normally making additional presentations to the host research group.

Career development

All trainees will be required to write a Career Development Plan in consultation with their supervisor, setting their Marie Curie training in the context of their longer-term career plans. Further orientation will be provided during the generic skills training courses and trainees will be encouraged to review and revise the Plan during 3-monthly review meetings with their supervisors. All trainees will have access to ongoing career development advice through the partnership, notably through the universities' careers services.

Longer stay trainees are in receipt of a specified amount of career development funding. In consultation with the academic supervisor this might be used to fund a short industrial placement or attend a relevant conference or meeting of value for the trainee's career development.

Ethical issues

The project has very limited ethical implications and will be fully covered by national and European legislation and good practice on safety and ethical issues. A discussion of general ethical issues in scientific research will be included in the generic skills training course. The project is not expected to involve work with genetically modified or dangerous organisms. Some trainee projects, in the economic and social science fields within the project framework, will make use of social and economic data, including personal data in some cases. Requirements of data protection legislation will be strictly followed. The data will be collected from adults only. Complete confidentiality will be assured and the project will conform to requirements of national/European legislation on data protection. Data collection and storage procedures will ensure that personal social and economic data cannot be associated with particular individuals. The procedures to obtain such data will however imply the consent of persons to whom the information relates.

MILESTONES AND DELIVERABLES FOR RESEARCH TRAINING PERIODS

PROJECT SUPERVISION

All trainees will have a supervisor at the host institution. Trainees registered for a PhD will have an additional university supervisor if the host is not able to directly register PhD students (this applies to FRS, HCMR, IEO and IIM). The supervisor will be responsible for managing the research project, for day-to-day monitoring of progress, and for identifying (in consultation with the trainee) requirements for specialised training. Additional supervisors may be appointed for interdisciplinary or multi-site projects, and as required by institutional regulations (e.g. all SAMS PhD students will have two supervisors). All trainees will also have an advisor, a member of academic or research staff at the host institution who can provide independent advice when needed.

The academic supervisor will be responsible for:

(a) holding an initial meeting with the trainee to define the work plan, along with agreed targets, communicate the timetable for training courses, assess specialised training needs, carry out risk assessments, etc;
(b) maintaining regular informal contact, with verbal progress reviews normally on a weekly or fortnightly basis, and communicating information regarding conferences etc. It is also expected that trainees will be pro-active in seeking such information, e.g. by joining relevant e-mail discussion lists;
(c) carrying-out 3-monthly and (where relevant) annual reviews of progress;
(d) facilitating production of a Career Development Plan;
(e) assisting with planning of dissemination and publication of the research results.

GENERIC SKILLS TRAINING COURSES

Generic skills training will be co-ordinated by the University of Aberdeen. The project partnership will run a dedicated generic skills training programme on a six-monthly (or yearly, depending on the number of trainees) basis, available to trainees at all partner institutions. It is anticipated that this will draw on contributions from staff from several partner institutions, usually including a representative of the co-ordinator.

The dedicated training course is expected to run over around 10 days and will include seminars, tutorials and practical exercises:
(a) Induction material on the Marie Curie programme, the ECOSUMMER project and the host institutions;
(b) Seminars on the ecosystem approach to marine living resource management, sustainability, the precautionary approach, anthropogenic impacts on the marine environment, and related European and international directives and agreements;
(c) Tutorials on research methodology: philosophy of science, hypothesis testing, experimental design, data management, research ethics, field and laboratory safety, quality control, time management;
(d) Statistical training course: data exploration, univariate analyses including GLM and GAM, introduction to multivariate techniques;
(e) Tutorials on writing skills, communication and presentation skills, criticism and review skills, scientific publishing;
(f) Discussion of intellectual copyright issues, entrepreneurship, career development.

Staff will carry out a course evaluation at the end of each dedicated training course and trainee responses will be used to evolve and improve the content and scope of subsequent training courses. Trainees will also be asked to provide feedback on the quality of research training received. Thus we will ensure that the training provided meets the needs and aspirations of our trainees.

Trainees may additionally or as an alternative (after consultation with the co-ordinator) attend postgraduate induction programmes and skills courses run by the host institution. Ongoing advice on experimental design and statistics will be available.

Where appropriate, trainees will be encouraged to take language courses to ensure that they are able to communicate effectively in the native language of the host institution. Nevertheless, it is expected that the dedicated generic skills training course will normally be delivered in English.

FUNDING

The Marie Curie training site provides several categories of funding:

1. A monthly stipend (salary or grant) paid directly to each trainee. Trainees will normally be employed as Postgraduate Research Assistants (or the equivalent). In some cases, due to financial rules under which some institutions operate, trainees will be registered as non-graduating Postgraduate Students rather than employed as Research Assistants. In both cases, for training periods of 12-36 months, trainees may also register for a higher degree (MSc or PhD).

2. A monthly budget for costs of research materials and research training, paid to the host institution. The use of this component of the budget is to be agreed between the trainee and the supervisors.

3. A one-off payment to the trainee for travel to and from your home country at the start and end of the training period.

4. An additional mobility allowance may be payable to the trainee in some cases.

5. A budget for administration and provision of generic skills training courses, managed by the co-ordinating institution.