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Early Career Researchers’ (ECR) Sustainability Training School (STS) Global

Institute for Global Sustainable Development (IGSD) in partnership with the EUTOPIA consortium

The Early Career Researcher Sustainability Training School – Global (ECR STS) 2.0 will be held on 15-19 April 2024 at the University of Warwick, Scarman Conference Centre. The Training School builds on its last year’s success - ECR STS 1.0 Link opens in a new window held in June 2023.

Set as a key milestone for the Institute for Sustainable Development (IGSD), it pursues the objectives of growing transformational and transdisciplinary research culture at Warwick, to build a platform for enhancing research, impact and networking, for innovative skills training and collaborative research environment – thus, ultimately, investing into a new generation of enthusiastic researchers with transdisciplinary skills tackle existing and emerging challenges of sustainable development.

PROGRAMME AND PARTICIPATION 

The theme of the ECR STS 2.0 is ‘Water Security and Resilience’, and it directly addresses a wide spectrum of challenges urban and regional communities are phasing across the Global South and the Global North. We are looking for contributions that would explore conceptual approaches, tools, models, and case-studies that would focus one or more of the following topics:

· Inequalities related to water security.

· Water for ecosystems and environmental management.

· Water, sanitation, and health (WASH) challenges across the Global South.

· Water-related hazards (i.e. pluvial and fluvial flooding, flash flooding etc).

· Place-based ideas to enhance the resilience of communities in the Global South & North.

· Climate change and the impact on water security and environmental ecosystems.

· Urban and regional adaptation to climate change, with a focus on water security.

· Monitoring and evaluation of climate change adaptation actions.

To this end, we invite interdisciplinary ECRs (PhD students & postdoctoral researchers) to join us for a five-day intense Training School focusing on exchange and co-production of knowledge, skills training, and network-building, to enable us to tackle these global challenges together. The ECR STS will offer an in-depth discussion around the submitted creative projects, to be complemented by skills training sessions, study visits, keynote talks, roundtables, group work and other social activities.

We are inviting prospective participants to submit 1) an extended abstract of their research (max 1,000 words), 2) a brief cover letter and 3) their CV, by filling out this form by 5 January 2024. Successful candidates will be notified by the end of January 2024 and invited to participate a presentation training pre-session, in advance of the STS. Furthermore, all selected candidates will be invited to prepare a 10-minute presentation for the STS to receive in-depth feedback from their peers and senior colleagues. The programme schedule can be found here. Click here to apply now.

SELECTION CRITERIA 

Places are limited, with a maximum of 20 participants, and the selection will be based on the following (but not limited to) criteria for the selection of top candidates:

  • Project's suitability to the Call’s theme
  • Interdisciplinary background of the participant
  • Strong motivation cover letter to explain how the participation would support/ relate to the applicants’ study and research
  • A high command of English, and be at an advanced level of research
  • Gender balance will also be taken into consideration during the selection process

The learning experience

Here's what participants from ECR STS 1.0 had to say about their experience of the programme.

Skills development

Our ECR STS 1.0 programme prioritised participants' growth across various personal and professional fields of interest. For a more interactive version of the programme, see our padlet here! The novelty of ECR STS Global is in its innovative training programme, global outreach, new partnerships, and integration of ECR STS 1.0 as mentors, as part of the ‘train the trainers’ initiative, as well as researchers who continue their collaboration beyond STS 1.0, aiming to grow their research capacity and culture, networks and impact, as well as their future careers. 

Time capsule

Want a sneak peak into the highlights of the week? Look no further...here's a time capsule of the week!