BU Research Blog

A call is open for Early Career Researchers (researchers within 10 years of completing their PhDs) with an interest in the sustainable management of coasts and estuaries to attend a workshop in Brazil aiming to promote research collaborations between the UK and Brazil. The workshop is coordinated by Dr Luciana Esteves in collaboration with Dr Alex Bastos from the Universidade Federal do Espirito Santo and will be held in Vitoria, 25-28 June 2019. All travel and accommodation expenses will be covered by the Newton Researcher Links programme. More details and the application form can be accessed here. The completed application form should be submitted before the deadline on 14th April 2019.  The successful applicants will be notified by the end of April 2019.

Coastal and estuarine ecosystems worldwide are under pressure from population growth, environmental degradation and climate change impacts. It is now widely known that a healthy natural environment is crucial to social welfare and the world’s economy. Ecosystem-based management (EBM) has emerged as an integrated approach for the sustainable management of the trade-offs between socioeconomic development and nature conservation. EBM requires a transdisciplinary understanding of the natural system, nature-human interactions, and how they change through time. Academic research can help gaining this knowledge, which is crucial to inform policies and practical applications. The workshop will bring together researchers from Brazil and the UK from the social and natural sciences and practitioners to create the required combination of expertise to co-construct, advance and share knowledge to support estuarine and coastal EBM. Through inclusive and participatory activities and a field visit, the workshop will promote an in-depth discussion of how EBM can help reduce habitat loss, environmental degradation and depletion of natural resources; thus enabling social and economic development.

Activities will include a mix of scientific and technical discussions to stimulate capacity building opportunities through mentorship and sharing of experiences and knowledge. The workshop will focus on: identifying skills and knowledge required to enable research on EBM; the dissemination of good practice for the development of collaborative research (including equity and diversity in multicultural teams); and sharing information concerning funding opportunities. A key objective is to create long-lasting cross-sector (government-research) and UK-Brazil collaboration that facilitates research impact on policy and decision-making (i.e. to improve environmental health in estuaries and coasts and related economy). It is envisaged that participants, mentors and coordinators will identify opportunities for visiting fellowships, co-supervision and mobility of postgraduate students and stimulate the creation of research collaborations.

This workshop is supported by a Researcher Links grant [ID 2018-RLWK10-10723], under the Newton-CONFAP partnership. The grant is funded by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and FAPES (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Espírito Santo) and delivered by the British Council.