AQUA-TNET NEWSLETTER

March 2014

This is a free e-mail news service provided by Aqua-tnet for the Aqua-tnet network and its partners. Aqua-tnet is the European Thematic Network in the field of aquaculture, fisheries and aquatic resources management, funded under the European Commission Lifelong Learning Programme, from 2011 - 2014.

In the newsletter you will find an update of Aqua-tnet and its activities, as well as information from the European Commission related to European education matters.

Please forward this newsletter to your colleagues and students. Please submit any relevant information for dissemination in the newsletter to aquatnet@aquatt.ie 

CONTENTS

AQUA-TNET NEWS

PROGRAMMES, COURSES & PEOPLE

RESEARCH & EDUCATION

OTHER

AQUA-TNET CALENDAR

AQUATT TRAINING NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

PISCESTT JOBS

 

AQUA-TNET NEWS

Last Chance to Register for the Aqua-tnet Annual Event 2014 and ICT Workshop

Registration for the upcoming final Aqua-tnet Annual Event will close on 31 March 2014. The meeting will be held in St. Julian’s, Malta, on Thursday 26 and Friday 27 June 2014. If you have not yet received a registration form, please contact Cori at Aquatnet3@gmail.com

A two-day hands-on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) workshop aimed at teachers will be held in combination with the final Aqua-tnet Annual Event.

The purpose of the workshop is to help teachers to create their own e-learning materials and raise their awareness of innovative e-learning tools. During the workshop, participants will learn how to handle basic ICTs such as podcasts, online polls and social media.

The deadline for registration for this workshop is also 31 March 2014. To register, or if you have any questions or queries at this point, please contact the organiser of the workshop: B. Ueberschär (info@bioserve-deutschland.de). Please see workshop leaflet for more details.

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Aqua-tnet Annual Event Keynote Speaker Anncouncement: Professor Luc François, Gent University 

The keynote speaker at the Aqua-tnet Annual Event 2014 will be Professor Luc François from Gent University who is an expert in the internationalisation of higher education and the EU Bologna-Process etc. He will speak on the past, present and future of European higher education.

Luc François received the medal of honour from the City of Ghent in 1982 and achieved the 20th Jules de Saint-Genois prize for historical publications in 1990. He organised 9 international colloquia between 1987 and 2000, and has been the supervisor of 5 PhD students.

Increasingly, Luc François has been solicited for his expertise in education matters and for his management skills, both within and outside the structures of Ghent University. He has been invited an expert or as a member of the advisory commission for several initiatives, such as the Posthumus Doctoral School, Ons Erfdeel magazine, the Stanley-Commission (King Boudewijn Fund) etc.

François is notably an internationally renowned expert in internationalisation of higher education, the Bologna-process, ECTS and international cooperation. On a national level, he is a Bologna expert, member of the Flemish Education Council (VLOR) and the Flemish Inter-university Council (VLIR), among other things. On an international level, he has led several EU projects (Tempus, Erasmus, Socrates, Alfa, US/Canada programs) and participated in many more.

He has been member of the expert commission of the European Commission’s US/Canada program, played an active role in the Tuning process, and is a member of the Santander group.

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Aqua-tnet Work Package 1 Meeting

Aqua-tnet Work Package 1 on European Masters Cooperation met in Stirling on 25-26 March 2014. The main objective of the meeting was to develop a collaborative online course in European aquaculture, based on the "Aquacase" website.

For more information, visit: www.aquatnet.com/index.php/171/wp1---european-master-cooperation


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PROGRAMMES, COURSES & PEOPLE

To search for PhD, MSc and mobility opportunities and courses and to access information on your colleagues in Aqua-tnet3, please visit the Aqua-tnet Education Gate. If you have any further additions or would like to make changes to your institution's information please contact Marieke Reuver at marieke@aquatt.ie

If you are a graduate and would like to post your request for an internship, or your company is seeking interns, please visit www.aquatnet.com/index.php/167/internships. 

 

 

 

 

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RESEARCH & EDUCATION

eLearning Papers: Call for Papers on Learning in Cyber Physical Worlds

This special issue of eLearning Papers seeks to generate debate and bring together critical voices to discuss this fluid and interdisciplinary research area. Submissions are invited for both the In-depth and From the Field sections in the form of theoretical or empirical research, based on (but not restricted to) the following topics:

  • Innovative education in virtual worlds, augmented reality and mobile learning
  • Virtual Worlds, MOOCs and Open Education; Up scaling and opening up virtual world learning
  • Best practices for game-based learning in immersive/augmented reality spaces and serious games.
  • Gamification in virtual immersive/augmented reality environments
  • Storytelling in virtual and mobile learning
  • Social augmented reality education practices
  • 3D Printing and Learning
  • Education in the ‘Internet of Things’ era

The deadline for submission of papers is 27 April 2014. For more information and guidelines for submission, please click HERE. 

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Nominations Now Open for the Boldic Award

The Boldic Award seeks to recognise outstanding organisations and people in the open and distance learning field. The nominations for the 2014 edition of the award are now open. The objective of the Boldic project is to form and deepen partnerships between Nordic and Baltic organisations dealing with distance education, flexible learning and e-learning. The Boldic Award was created in 2005 and has since been awarded to seven organisations. Only nominations from Boldic partner countries are eligible. The winner receives €500 and a trip to the award ceremony. To nominate someone, fill out the online nomination form. The deadline for nominations is 15 September 2014.

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OER Impact Map Now Open for Contributions

The Open Educational Resource Research Hub (OERRH) is creating an Impact Map to show where and how open educational resources are being used and what evidence exists on their impact. The OER Impact Map helps the OER project aggregate and filter data that relates to its research hypotheses. The concept of the Impact Map (formerly called the OERRH Evidence Hub) has been popular with members of the OER community who have identified a need for a place where information about OER impact can be retained and recalled but which also provides a ‘sensemaking’ service which contextualises and compares data across cohorts and in relation to international context. To participate in building a global picture of OER impact, members of the OER community are invited to tell the world about their OER work by: adding evidence; adding projects; adding policies to the Map. Find out how you can contribute to the OER Impact Map HERE.

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New eBook Released: Invasion of the MOOCs

Invasion of the MOOCs: The Promise and Perils of Massive Open Online Courses is a collection of essays written by faculty members and students who have first-hand experience with MOOCs. It is now available for readers to add to their virtual bookshelf! These twenty-one essays reflect the complexity of the very definition of what is (and what might in the near future be) a “MOOC,” along with perspectives and opinions that move far beyond the polarising debate about MOOCs that has occupied the media in previous accounts. The collection is edited by Steven D. Krause and Charles Lowe and can be downloaded HERE. 

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Call for papers: International Journal of Serious Games

The International Journal of Serious Games (IJSG) publishes original papers of significant and lasting value in all areas related to design, development, deployment and assessment of digital Serious Games. A call for papers is now open for the journal's second issue. 

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Call for Contributions: Media & Learning 2014 Conference

The 2014 edition of the Media & Learning Conference takes place on 20-21 November in the Flemish Ministry of Education Brussels. The Media & Learning Conference will combine formal and informal discussion opportunities along with inspiring presentations, practical demonstrations and hands-on workshop opportunities. The organisers plan to utilise a range of innovative as well as traditional techniques to maximise the participation of each and every participant making sure everyone leaves the conference inspired with new ideas and armed with useful information. The call for ideas for the conference programme is open until 31 May 2014. Click HERE for instructions on how to contribute.

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2Fish Project Holds Final Events

The 2Fish project will hold its final conference at the Congress Palace of Bellaria Igea Marina, Italy, on 3 April 2014. The project’s final partner meeting will also be held in Rimini on 2 April.

The objective of the 2Fish project was to develop innovative training modules for training of service professionals connected to fisheries and within fishery vocational education and training. Each module is between one and two weeks long, and has been developed and tested by the 2Fish vocational education and training providers in close collaboration with enterprises. Where possible, the new modules will be integrated into the educational programmes of 2Fish vocational education and training schools. The course outlines are available from the project website for download and re-use by other European fishery vocational education and training schools.

For more information about 2Fish, visit: www.2fishproject.eu

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Myfish Partners Share Results

The third Myfish project meeting took place in Nantes (France) from 18-21 March 2013 and was hosted by Ifremer (French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea). The meeting focused on sharing results achieved in the different regional case studies investigated in the project (Baltic Sea; Mediterranean and Black Sea; North Sea; Western Waters; Widely Ranging Fish) and on identifying the challenges to be addressed in the next two years of the project.

Since the project’s commencement in 2012, Myfish partners have put a lot of effort into going beyond the scientific approach to fishery management. Through an enhanced scientist–stakeholder dialogue, Myfish aims to include qualitative experience from stakeholders in the regional fisheries models. This process started with stakeholder consultation meetings held in Vigo in April 2012 where various stakeholders from different EU regions were asked to identify Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) variants and preferred management measures. Since then, regional Decision Support Tables (DSTs) have been developed to allow stakeholders to better identify trade-off in fishery management.

Myfish is an EU Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) funded project involving 31 partners from 12 EU countries. Myfish aims to define an operational framework for the implementation of the MSY concept in European waters. This should lead to recommendations for fisheries management plans in the project's five regional case study areas taking into account the environmental, economic and social constraints that are embedded within the different European and national contexts.

For more information about Myfish, visit: www.myfishproject.eu

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Safe Seafood Project Enters Second Year

Availability of safe and high-quality food is a growing public concern and research plays an important role in ensuring consumer confidence in this sector. The challenge for the ECsafeSEAFOOD project is to assess food safety issues related to priority contaminants present in seafood as a result of environmental contamination and to evaluate their impact on public health. The progress made by the project in its first year was reviewed during its third coordination meeting in Sant Carles de la Ràpita, Spain, from 12-13 February 2014.

ECsafeSEAFOOD is an interdisciplinary project and the meeting brought together members of the project’s consortium which incorporates expertise in a range of food science disciplines, including: ecotoxicology; biochemistry; nutrition; risk assessment; seafood quality; and consumer behaviour and perceptions.

Dr Antonio Marques, ECsafeSEAFOOD project coordinator, said: “There are a lot of scientists behind the ECsafeSEAFOOD project and the coordination meetings are a good opportunity to bring all the project participants together and to unite the efforts being made to achieve the project’s objectives. These two-day meetings are extremely productive and allow the project participants to discuss results in more depth and plan future actions.”

The ECsafeSEAFOOD partners have been working together to identify the main methodologies available to analyse priority contaminants, the effects they may have on seafood, and their potential risks for human consumption. Each of these methodologies requires a specific sampling protocol, and careful coordination is needed to ensure that the correct samples required for the each of the different methods are supplied to the partners in charge of the analyses. The analyses must also be carried out in the correct order to ensure that they can complement each other.

Other recent work carried out as part of ECsafeSEAFOOD includes a consumer survey, designed to help the partnership to understand consumer preferences and concerns with regard to seafood safety. The survey responses have enabled the partners to choose which relevant priority environmental contaminants to study further during the project.

Dr Isabelle Sioen (Ghent University, Belgium), ECsafeSEAFOOD project partner, said: “We have collected nearly 3,000 survey responses from Ireland, Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Apart from helping us to decide the priority contaminants to be studied, the results of the survey will also contribute to defining what kind of information should be disseminated to the general public in order to reduce public health risks from seafood consumption.”

The next challenge for the ECsafeSEAFOOD project is to define how to monitor the selected priority contaminants and to select the specific seafood species that will be examined under the scope of the project.

A short video has also recently been produced which provides an introduction to the ECsafeSEAFOOD project. The video, which aims to raise awareness of the project, can be viewed via www.vimeo.com/88744560 or by visiting the ECsafeSEAFOOD project website: www.ecsafeseafood.eu

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OTHER

SPAROS Young Researcher Grant for Scientific Dissemination: Aquaculture Europe 2014

Innovation and the generation of scientific knowledge are key elements for shaping a successful growth of the Portuguese society. SPAROS Lda is a start-up company devoted to the development of new products and processes for fish feeding and nutrition. SPAROS is committed to the advancement of the Portuguese scientific research on the area of Fish Nutrition and recognises the importance of attending meetings and conferences. In order to provide more opportunities for young researchers, SPAROS is offering two grants to cover registration and travel expenses associated to the participation in scientific meetings.

For 2014, SPAROS will award two travel grants for attending Aquaculture Europe 2014.

For information about eligibility for application please click HERE. Deadline for submission: 15 June 2014

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Aquaculture Digital Photography Competition - World Aquaculture Adelaide 2014

Photographers of all levels are invited to submit digital photographic work on the theme of Aquaculture and, in particular, the tag line of ‘Create, Nurture, Grow’. Submissions accepted from 5 April – 1 May 2014. Click HERE for more information. 

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Commission Presents New European Strategy to Promote Coastal and Maritime Tourism

On 20 February 2014, the European Commission presented a new strategy to support coastal and maritime tourism in Europe. Recognising the sector's potential for sustainable growth and job creation, the strategy outlines 14 EU actions to help coastal regions and businesses tackle the challenges they face and strengthen the sector's position as a key driver of Europe's blue economy. These concrete actions are accompanied by a break-down of the tasks that Member States, Regions and industry stakeholders can undertake to complement the EU actions. Read more HERE.  

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Norman E. Borlaug Leadership Enhancement in Agriculture Programme Seeking Applications

Applications are requested from sub-Saharan African students conducting research on topics related to USAID's global hunger and food security initiative, FEED THE FUTURE, for the Norman E. Borlaug Leadership Enhancement in Agriculture Programme (LEAP). The deadline is 15 May 2014. The focus region is sub-Saharan Africa. All topics related to agriculture (as defined by Title XII) and the research strategies of the Feed the Future initiative are admissible. The Borlaug LEAP fellowship programme supports engaging a mentor at a US University and at a CGIAR centre to support and enhance the thesis research and mentoring experience.

Awards are made on a competitive basis to students who show strong scientific and leadership potential. Funds are available for one-year and cannot exceed US$20,000.

For more information on eligibility criteria and to download the application, please visit: www.leap.ucdavis.edu

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YOUMARES Award 2014

In 2014 the German Society for Marine Research (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Meeresforschung - DGM) present the fourth YOUMARES Award which is addressed to students of all disciplines of marine research  as well as high school seniors. On the occasion of the YOUMARES 5 Conference “Opportunities and Solutions - Research for our changing oceans” applications are solicited which address the following problems: Population growth and increasing demand for food, metals and energy drives technological developments.

The award consists of a travelling trophy, gratuitous conferenceparticipation, and material prizes (including a dive course on the beautiful island Elba) of a value of about €1,000. The three best papers will be published in the printed newsletter of the German Society for Marine Research (DGM-Mitteilungen) and on the DGM-website. The awards ceremony will take place during the YOUMARES 5 conference in September 2014 in Stralsund.

For more information about eligibility and how to apply, please click HERE. 

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Analysing Strategic Management Measures for Fisheries

The SOCIOEC (Socio Economic Effects of Management Measures of the Future Common Fisheries Policy) project held a meeting from 6-7 March 2014 in Rome, Italy. SOCIOEC is working on solutions for future fisheries management that can be implemented at a regional level. The aim of this meeting was to define how the social and economic effects and impact on commercial fish stock of the management measures identified within the project  will be evaluated.

SOCIOEC is an interdisciplinary project bringing fisheries economists, social scientists and biologists together with industry partners and other key stakeholders and the meeting also provided an opportunity for the partners to present and discuss their progress and expected outputs as the project nears its expected endpoint in February 2015.

Dr Ralf Döring, the SOCIOEC project coordinator, said: “We are facing a busy period between now and the end of the project. Partners have been doing excellent work analysing the different management measures applied in each of the specific case study areas considered in the project. They have been examining how these governance methods can be changed to facilitate self- and co-management of the different fisheries. The next step will be to evaluate the impacts of the proposed management measures in terms of their ability to achieve the general and specific ecological objectives of the new Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and other EU directives.”

Dr Loretta Malvarosa, who will lead the impact assessment of the different management measures, said: “We will analyse the effectiveness, efficiency and coherence of the different management measures. As part of this assessment we will consider their potential socioeconomic impact, taking into account different uncertainties and external factors such as, for example, changes in oil or fish market prices.”

The SOCIOEC project has analysed several fisheries in six different case study areas: the Baltic Sea case study has focused on the small scale fisheries in Natura 2000 sites; the North Sea case study focuses on flatfish, nephrops and cod fisheries; the Pelagic case study focuses on European Pelagic Fisheries and the migration of stocks in relation to the relative stability key and negotiations within EU countries as well as non-EU countries based on different migration scenarios; the western waters case study focuses on different fisheries in the Bay of Biscay, the English Channel, and ICES sub areas VI and VII; the Mediterranean case study focuses on the Black Sea Turkish anchovy fisheries, the Aegean trawl fishery, the demersal Tyrrhenian fishery and the Italian clam fishery in the Adriatic Sea; and finally, the Non-EU case study focuses on Icelandic fisheries.

For more information visit the SOCIOEC webpage www.socioec.eu.

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AQUA-TNET CALENDER

Please check the Aqua-tnet calendar for a live update of upcoming events, courses and workshops.


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AQUATT TRAINING NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

AquaTT's Training News is a free monthly e-newsletter. With the latest news from the European education community, opportunities for collaboration, announcements and a student corner, Training News is an important dissemination channel for education and training opportunities for the aquaculture and related sectors. CLICK HERE for the latest edition.

Please email news@aquatt.ie to submit your news which will reach more than 5,000 international subscribers.

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PISCESTT JOBS

PiscesTT Jobs is a free online recruitment service used by over 300 companies globally in Aquaculture, Fisheries and Marine Science. At the moment there are 10 interesting jobs/study opportunities. If you are interested in viewing or posting a vacancy please go to www.piscesttjobs.com or contact aquatt@aquatt.ie. Subscribe at www.piscesttjobs.com/feeds for live RSS updates.  

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About Aqua-tnet

This update is published by the Aqua-tnet Secretariat. For further information e-mail aquatnet@aquatt.ie Previous editions are archived on www.aquatnet.com. Aqua-tnet welcomes any feedback regarding content, presentation and user-friendliness of the newsletter. If you would like to post a news item or event details on the next issue of the Aqua-tnet Newsletter or on the Aqua-tnet website, please send details to Marieke Reuver at marieke@aquatt.ie or aquatnet@aquatt.ie.

DISCLAIMER: AQUA-TNET provides this newsletter as a free service to its partners. Most of the information is provided by AQUA-TNET. Where it is not, the source of the news is provided in the text of the news brief or else AQUA-TNET attributes the news to the coordinating body as the "Data Source Provider". In no way does this newsletter intend to wrongly or inappropriately claim projects, news, etc. as its own nor is it responsible for incorrect information provided from other sources. The AQUA-TNET Newsletter is a dissemination tool and forum for both AQUA-TNET and its partners.