METIER · Methods in interdisciplinary environmental research
FP6 — Marie Curie Actions (Human Resources and Mobility)
- Duration
- 2006-02-01 → 2010-01-31
- EU contribution
- €370,990
- Participants
- 8
- Scheme
- SCF
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Results in brief
Final Activity Report Summary - METIER (Methods in interdisciplinary environmental research)
The Marie Curie Series of Events METIER consisted of seven graduate training courses and one final conference. It was organised by the PEER network of seven large European centres of environmental research: Joint Research Centre - Institute for Environment and Sustainability (JRC-IES, European Commission), Cemagref (F), Alterra Wageningen UR (NL), Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) and Univ. of Leicester (UK), National Environmental Research Institute (NERI, DK), Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE, FIN), and Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ, D). The series focused on cutting-edge methods of interdisciplinary environmental research with emphasis on data collection and analysis such as remote sensing in the context of atmosphere (Course 1), hydrosphere (Course 6), and land surface (Course 3), environmental information management (Course 2), geovisualisation (Course 4), environmental (especially ecological) modelling (Course 5), and environmental scenario development and analysis (Course 7). All courses followed the same didactic concept that was developed by the METIER steering committee consisting of the course leaders. Streamlining was done with the aim to provide clearly structured stand-alone courses and, in parallel, make the overall series coherent and consistent. This was motivated by the wish to contribute to a European graduate curriculum for methods in environmental research that is missing so far. All courses consisted of a mixture of lectures on central concepts and approaches for the methods addressed, talks on the potential of their application to real world problems, practical work, presentations of the course attendees on their own research, visits of labs, and place for social interaction and cooperation among the course attendees and with the course lecturers. In all courses, international experts in the field served as lecturers. The methodologies were applied to important topics of European environmental policy: climate, water, land use, and biodiversity. The final conference provided a platform for bringing together the attendees of the former courses with other young scientists, presenting the METIER methods and their potential to a broader audience, bringing together young researchers with both internationally renowned scientists and policy makers, and promoting the exchange between science and policy. Courses and final conference were attended by early stage researchers from all over the world (Europe and overseas). The training material of the entire series is published on the METIER website: http://www.peer.eu/projects/metier_training_courses/, representing a comprehensive step towards a curriculum for methods in environmental research.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The solution of complex environmental problems is challenging: it does not only require a profound disciplinary background, but also a wide range of interdisciplinary skills. While disciplinary knowledge is usually trained lecture-based e.g. at universities, interdisciplinary skills are trained on the job, e.g. in interdisciplinary research projects.The series of events METIER is scheduled to combine these approaches and to train profound methodological skills together with interdisciplinary understanding of complex environmental problems. For that reason, the proposed Series of Events offers a training programme of seven courses that will bridge the existing gap combining both disciplinary knowledge and interdisciplinary understanding by training in cutting-edge methods in selected interdisciplinary key areas.A final conference will serve to present an overview of the selected methods and to discuss how these methodologies can support European policies. The proposal combines coherently training courses on the following key methods needed in environmental research: Remote Sensing for Atmosphere, Hydrosphere and Land Surface, Information Management, GIS and Geo-visualization, Ecological Modelling and Scenario Development and Forecasting.Each course will be hosted by a different European centre of excellence in environmental research; each course will be lectured by well-known key scientists, thus bringing together early-stage and advanced researchers from different parts of Europe. This co-operation will enable early-stage scientists to learn interdisciplinary skills needed to face environmental challenges around the globe, being at the same time of high relevance for their professional careers inside and outside science.The cross-linking of different key methods/instruments in environmental research within a Pan-European scope will contribute significantly to the structuring of training activities in the European Research Area.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UFZ - UMWELTFORSCHUNGSZENTRUM LEIPZIG - HALLE GMBH · LEIPZIGCoordinatorGermany
- CENTRE D'ÉTUDE DU MACHINISME AGRICOLE, DU GÉNIE RURAL, DES EAUX ET FORÊTS · ANTONYCity levelFrance
- DANMARKS MILJØUNDERSØGELSER · ROSKILDECity levelDenmark
- EUROPEAN COMMISSION, DIRECTORATE GENERAL JOINT RESEARCH CENTRE · ISPRAItaly
- NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL · SWINDON, WILTSCountry levelUnited Kingdom
- SUOMEN YMPÄRISTÖKESKUS · HELSINKIFinland
- UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER · LEICESTERUnited Kingdom
- WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY · WAGENINGENNetherlands
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union