This course provides an overview of requirements for organizing a Research Cruise within a project and/or submitting a request for ship time. The course takes place mainly in a classroom but includes a visit to a Marine station and a research vessel, where participants will be introduced to sampling equipment and marine research infrastructure used for onboard research, including demonstrations of the use and maintenance of marine sampling equipment, oceanographic (biological, chemical and physical data) sampling, data collection and data management. 

Aims and Objectives

• Promoting organisational skills to enable leading and/or participating in a research cruise
• Provide the tools to ensure cost effective use of ship time
• Promote best practices for data collection and storage

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course, the participant should be able to:

• Develop a proposal for funding for offshore research
• Plan a research cruise, including all activities prior to the start of the cruise, on route/sampling station and data and sampling storage
• Be acquainted with main sampling equipment used onboard for collection of biological, chemical and physical data, including specific maintenance needs
• Awareness of marine sciences research infrastructure available across Europe

Target Audience

The target audience includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Principal Investigators (ocean sciences, marine biology)
• MSc and PhD students (ocean sciences, marine biology)
• Staff of marine research institutes and universities, IODE NODCs and ADUs

 NOTE: Priority will be given to participants originating from Europe and North African countries. UNESCO is committed to promote gender equality. Therefore, applications from women are strongly encouraged.

Course Pre-requisites:

• Background in ocean sciences (including marine biology) or related fields
• Good working knowledge of English
• Need to bring own laptop

 A Certificate of Participation will be issued to all successful students.

The UNESCO/IOC Project Office for IODE is certified as a Learning Services Provider (ISO 29990:2010).

The OceanTeacher Global Academy is a Project of IOC/IODE supported by the Flanders-UNESCOTrust Fund (FUST) of the Government of Flanders, Belgium.

Application process:  

Please read the information on how to apply available on the OceanTeacher Global Academy website (http://bit.ly/2ACZY9r) and fill the online application form on https://otga.wufoo.com/forms/rf9h46w0r9mo6r/ no later than 14 September 2018.

Before starting filling the online application form, please make sure to have available the following:
- a motivation statement (text file) of maximum 300 words;
- your passport number or, in case you are a national of the host country a valid identification/citizen card can be used instead of the passport;
- scan of the endorsement letter (in case you are asking for funding)
- link to your profile on OceanExpert (www.oceanexpert.net); if you don't have one make sure you create one in advance.

The deadline to submit the application closes 14 September 2018. Do not leave for the last minute since the system will close automatically. In case you have any questions please contact the organisers well in advance.

Both full- and co-sponsoring are available for a limited number of participants. For detailed information check the OceanTeacher website (www.oceanteacher.org).

In case of questions please contact:

OTGA Coordinator: Dr. Claudia Delgado (c.delgado@unesco.org) and/or

VLIZ: Ann-Katrien Lescrauwaet (annkatrien.lescrauwaet@vliz.be)

always indicating as subject: 'OTGA / VLIZ Training Course: Research Cruise Planning and Management, 15 – 19 October 2018, Oostende, Belgium'