Sixth network-wide QUICS training event, hosted by University of Coimbra, Portugal 11 th 12 th May 2017

Transcription

1 Sixth network-wide QUICS training event, hosted by University of Coimbra, Portugal 11 th 12 th May 2017 Field visit along the Mondego River, at the headquarters of the irrigation services 1

2 Contents Introduction to the 6 th QUICS network wide training event... 3 Thursday 11 th May Commercial job application and interview requirement... 3 Field visit along the Mondego River... 4 Friday 12 th May... 5 Morning training session: Applying for an academic job... 5 Afternoon session applying for research funding... 6 Acknowledgements

3 Introduction to the 6 th QUICS network wide training event The 6 th network wide QUICS training event was not originally planned in the QUICS proposal, but was decided upon during the PSB meeting held at the University of Delft in January It was noted that there was a very long gap between fellows meeting at Aquafin in June 2016 and the final event in November Both the fellows and supervisors agreed that this gap was not good, hence it was decided to include a new training event to coincide with the Coimbra PSB in May It was also noted during the mid-term review that providing transferable skills training for the fellows would be beneficial. The fellows were asked what the training should cover, the most popular responses were selected and additionally a field visit was proposed as follows: An interactive session on applying for commercial / water industry jobs, focussing on what skills are beneficial A presentation plus an interactive session on applying for academic jobs A presentation plus interactive session on applying for research funding A field visit following the Mondego River from Coimbra to its estuary near Figueira da Foz, which has some complex water quality management issues. All of the fellows employed on QUICS attended the event (except Vivian Camacho (ESR9) who was on maternity leave), Sanda Dejanic (ESR6), whose contract had just ended was also able to attend. Six ESRs attended the PSB meeting held just before the training event. Thursday 11 th May 2017 The PSB meeting was held on the morning of the Thursday the 11 th of May. After lunch there was a one hour session on applying for jobs at commercial companies in the water sector, followed by the field visit. Commercial job application and interview requirement Elliot Gill (CH2M) and Jeroen Langeveld (TUDelft) provided an interactive session on commercial job applications (Fig. 1). They highlighted that transferable skills were gained by the fellows during their research as part of QUICS and the value of these to commercial employers in the water sector. While Jeroen is a member of QUICS through TUDelft, in the Netherlands where academics also work part time in the commercial sector, Jeroen is a founding partner with Partners4UrbanWater and he previously has 10 years of experience working for the consultancy Royal HaskoningDHV. 3

4 Fig. 1. Training session on applying for a commercial job in the water sector Field visit along the Mondego River Coimbra is situated next to the Mondego river, the field visit followed the river downstream towards it s estuary near Figueira da Foz. Several hydraulic structures related to arable irrigation were visited (Figs 2, 3 and 4), and the headquarters of the irrigation services were visited. In Figueira da Foz the MAREFOZ laboratories, which are part of MARE (Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre), were visited. MARE is a centre for research, technological development and innovation, integrating researchers from universities across Portugal. At MAREFOZ a laboratory was visited which was analysing water quality samples. At the estuary of the Mondego river, near the MAREFOZ laboratories the salt pans and salt museum were visited as well as a look at the nearby fish farms. There are interesting water quality management challenges in the area, as water for the salt pans and the fish farms can only be taken in during spring tides twice a month, hence there is only a short opportunity each month to take in clean water, and the salt pans area is of ecological interest. The Mondego river carries with it agricultural pollution from the farmland upstream, as well as the waste water treatment plant in Figueira da Foz which is operating well beyond the equivalent population it was designed for. Also the Mondego river has caused recent flood events in Coimbra as well as the agricultural lands downstream along the river and of the irrigation works. So all in all there was plenty of food for thought about uncertainty and water quality. 4

5 Fig 2. Weir in the irrigation channel near the Mondego River Fig 3. Irrigated paddy rice fields Fig 4. Pumping station part of the irrigation works Friday 12 th May Morning training session: Applying for an academic job Alma Schellart (University of Sheffield) provided a short presentation that was put together with help from Jörg Rieckermann (EAWAG), Simon Tait (University of Sheffield), Miguel Rico-Ramirez (University of Sheffield) and Ullrich Leopold (LIST), about the types of jobs available at universities and research institutes and the process of applying (Fig 5). Before the training session old advertisements for a series of real job vacancies at EAWAG and the Universities of Sheffield and Bradford were circulated among the fellows. The fellows were asked to submit a CV and a covering letter to apply for two of these advertisements. For the first interactive part of the training, groups of fellows were asked to rank CVs for two of the vacancies advertised, they were given approximately 20 minutes to read between 3 and 7 CVs per vacancy and agree on a ranking within the group. This was done to illustrate the often short time that people have available to read a CV, and just how clearly you need to write your CV, making sure the required attributes for the advertised job are very easily spotted. 5

6 After the CV ranking, the second part of the interactive training was a mock interview session, where each fellow was interviewed by a panel of other fellows and a QUICS partner. Each fellow was also part of two interview panels (Fig. 6). Fig. 5. Presentation on the variety of jobs possible at Universities and Research Institutes Fig. 6. Schedule of the mock interviews exercise. Afternoon session applying for research funding Simon Tait (University of Sheffield) provided a presentation that was prepared in collaboration with Rita Carvalho (University of Coimbra) and Ullrich Leopold (LIST). The presentation went through the process of applying for research funding and how research proposals are reviewed by funding bodies. The presentation also highlighted which types of funding would be most appropriate for the fellows to apply for, should they wish to apply for their own postdoc funding, or make a plan on funding applications in order to apply for an academic position. This presentation was followed by an interactive exercise, whereby some successful and unsuccessful research proposals written by researchers from the University of Sheffield and the University of Coimbra were circulated to the fellows. The fellows were asked to review the proposals using forms from EPSRC (one of the UK 6

7 government research funding bodies) and then rank the proposals (Fig 7). At the end of the session the fellows were told which proposals were successfully funded and which were not. Fig. 7. The fellows hard at work reviewing research proposals Acknowledgements This project has received funding from the European Union s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no