Advanced Training Courses focusing on scientific skills

ATC 1: Assessing Flows of Land-based Products

Introduced how land-based products flow between systems via trade and how to capture and measure such flows quantitatively. Topics: footprint analyses; virtual land, water, and biomass trade; socio-ecological metabolism; material and energy flow analysis (MEFA); flow-based sustainability indicators; commodity chain analysis.

Vienna, 17.-19.09.2018

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ATC 2: Place-based Assessments of Land Systems

Explored how local-scale case studies allow for an exploration of underlying causes of land change. ESRs learned how to assess land systems spatially by GIS/remote sensing, ascribe agency and causality via quasi-experimental setups and agent-based models, and combine qualitative and quantitative research. Topics: case studies; place-based sustainability indicators; driver chains & causality; environmental systems; unit of analysis.

Louvain-la-Neuve, 28.-30.11.2018

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ATC 3: Advanced Network Science

Introduced ESRs to different network analyses and how these add to and differ from telecoupling research. This included quantifying network typologies, how they change over time, inter-connectedness in networks, and correlation among sub-networks (e.g. to detect telecoupling) and networks of different kinds (e.g. to detect cause-effect relationships). Topics: Network science and methodologies; trade networks; actor-network theory.

Copenhagen, 03.-05.02.2021

ATC 4: Justice, Governance and Sustainability Analysis

Discussed the concepts of justice, governance and sustainability, and critical thinking on these terms to understand how telecoupled systems include, and emerge from, relations of power, competition, and inequality. ESRs learned how to address unequal distributions of power to obtain social and ecological sustainable land systems. Topics: global justice and governance; political-ecology; social sustainability.

Barcelona, 05.-07.03.2019

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ATC 5: Modelling Telecoupled Land Systems

Introduced spatial modelling of telecoupled land systems, emphasising models dealing with human-environment interactions across scales and sectors. ESRs learned how to incorporate agency in land system models, how to assess displacement explicitly, and how to explore impacts of land change under a range of scenarios. Topics: Land system modelling; multi-agent models; down-scaling techniques; uncertainty; input and boundary choices.

Amsterdam, 26.-27.11.2018

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ATC 11: Qualitative Methods

Knowledge: Positionality, representations, and knowledge production in social science, Methods: Interviews and participant observation, Approaches: Qualitative research in a globalized world: Multi-sited ethnography, case studies, zooming techniques and progressive contextualization, Production and analysis: The 1000-page question – field notes, triangulation and hypothesis testing in the field.

Bern, 27.04.2019

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Advanced Training Courses focusing on transferable skills

ATC 6: Communicating Science

The skills and strategies to effectively communicate research findings to a non-academic audience including policy makers, were presented. Time was reserved for developing individual outreach strategies with guidance by a science journalist.

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ATC 7: Scientific Writing, Open Science and Intellectual Property

Strategies and techniques for drafting scientific texts, pitfalls in scientific writing, self-help techniques, publications outlets, open-science and open-access publishing and Intellectual Property Rights (FP) were discussed. The last three days consisted of a writing retreat. ESRs worked on their manuscript individually and in groups.

19.-21.09.2018

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ATC 8: Proposal Writing

This ATC provided training in writing grant applications, identifying funding sources, developing project ideas and timelines, and structuring proposals. The course provided practical examples of proposals, including exercises.

Online, 26.-28.1.2020

ATC 9: Innovation and Implementation: Societal Entrepreneurship

How can scientists be part of societal entrepreneurship? The ATC focused on transdisciplinarity, bringing research results into practice, improving innovation capabilities, team-based innovation, and innovation management.

Online, 15.-17.05.2020

ATC 10: Management and Leadership

ESRs were trained in entrepreneurial sustainability management and corporate social responsibility (CSR). ESRs learned relevant framework conditions for effective CSR and sustainability management and how sustainability performance in and of companies can be measured.

Online, 15.-17.05.2020