This week (14-20 April) the University of Warwick welcomes a cohort of early career researchers (ECRs) to its Sustainability Training School.
The school has been created by the University’s (IGSD) in partnership with Eutopia, a university alliance that brings together 10 European universities, and with the support of the Enhancing Research Culture Fund.
The event follows the first ever ECR Sustainability Training School, hosted at Warwick last year. It aims to invest in a new generation of enthusiastic researchers with transdisciplinary skills to help tackle the existing and emerging challenges of sustainable development.
PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from across the world have already signed up to the event – from various academic disciplines and countries including the UK, India, Nepal, South Africa and Germany.
The five-day training school will provide participants the unique opportunity to network and build a platform for collaborative climate change research. Transformational and transdisciplinary research culture will be at the heart of the event.
The theme this year is ‘Water Security and Resilience’ – addressing a wide spectrum of challenges communities are facing around the world.
This will include topics such as flash flooding, the impact of climate change on water security and urban adaptation.
The training school will offer in-depth discussion, complemented by skills training sessions, study visits, keynote talks, roundtables, group work and other social activities.
Professor Elena Korosteleva, Director of the IGSD, said: “Following on from the success of last year’s Sustainability Training School, we want to continue investing into a new generation of planet-conscious and committed researchers working on sustainable development.
“The event will be truly global, bringing together ECRs from 18 countries and five continents. The training is unique, bringing together different learning methods developed by Warwick researchers – from film-making to computer games.
“We will also build on the support and engagement from the EUTOPIA consortium, as well as our new partnership with led by our own IGSD researchers. It will celebrate collaborative research, promoting dialogue between regional, national and EU policy-makers, practitioners and young researchers. In this sense, the training school is unique to the UK, and also proudly Warwick’s.”