Next Step: Equipping volunteer & citizen scientists to future professions

Don’t miss this joint online workshop between the BES Teaching & Learning and Citizen Science SIGs

The involvement of citizen scientists, paraecologists and volunteers in ecological monitoring has burgeoned. At the same time, the training of professionals versed in practical conservation is becoming even more recognised and valued by employers. It is timely hence to consider whether the skills and experience obtained by the volunteers could be transferred to their future employment in ecological professions.

This workshop invites contributions to share experience and further discuss around key questions on what are/should be the basic core skills that need to be taught to volunteers; and what resources and platforms have previous programmes used to train their volunteers.

Keynote speakers

The keynote speakers will set the background with an expose of their international experience before an opportunity to share experiences among participants. The outputs are expected to be written up as a report and be shared as resource toolbox in an open-access platform.

Our keynote speakers for the event are:

  • Vojtech Novotny, Czech Academy of Sciences and University of Southern Bohemia
  • Ute Schmiedel, Hamburg University
  • Michael K Poulsen, Nordic Agency for Development and Ecology
  • Janice Ansine, The Open University

Programme

You can now access the full programme here.

Registration

Registration has been extended until 13:00 (BST) Monday 4 July.

The registration fees are:

  • £15 for BES student members
  • £20 for non-member students
  • £30 for BES members
  • £40 for non-member, general admission

If you are interested in becoming a BES member to purchase the BES member-rate ticket, you can find out more information and join here. Membership starts from £24, or you can get 12 months free membership if you are an undergraduate, masters, or first year PhD student.

REGISTER HERE

Conference Convenors: Alice Mauchline (University of Reading) Rachel Farrow (University of Lincoln) and Yoseph Araya (The Open University)