It is an event of the Barcelona Ocean Decade Conference. They will share their perspectives as future experts alongside students from universities in Spain, Portugal, and Poland
Researchers from the Marine Research Center of the University of Vigo (CIM) are training students from the Faculty of Marine Sciences to represent the institution at a meeting of outstanding students from the main universities offering undergraduate studies in Marine Sciences in Spain. This event is part of those organized for the Barcelona Ocean Decade Conference, which will bring together the global scientific community to share and evaluate progress and establish joint priorities for the future management of our oceans.
At the event, scheduled for April 9, representatives from the University of Vigo, the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the University of Cádiz, the University of Barcelona, the University of Alicante, and the Catholic University of Valencia, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, University of Gdansk (Poland), and University of Algarve (Portugal) will participate. Under the theme “Challenges of the Ocean Decade – The perspective of the next generation of oceanography experts”, selected individuals will discuss various topics related to the ten challenges identified for the Ocean Decade.
CIM researcher and dean of the Faculty of Marine Sciences, Miguel Ángel Nombela, pointed out that “it is essential to involve the next generation of experts in the protection of our oceans, and this initiative will provide a platform to exchange ideas and innovative solutions”.
The selected students are receiving specific training and preparing the topics to be discussed with the collaboration of CIM professors and researchers, Irene Alejo and Ángela Fontán. The ultimate goal will be to raise awareness about the Ocean Decade among future generations of marine experts, promote interaction among students from different universities, and facilitate dialogue on selected topics within the identified challenges.
Representation of UVigo
From UVigo, Sara Martín Alís and Rita Lorenzo Pérez will attend, who also had the collaboration of master’s student in Oceanography Jakob Ernst, who will not be able to attend the event in person. Sara Martín stated that this initiative “seems to me to be a first contact with the ‘outside’ world that awaits you when you finish your degree. When you study the degree, you are in an academic environment and sometimes it is difficult to see what awaits you when you finish. This type of activities allows you to have a more global vision of what the degree prepares you for”.
During the last few weeks, the selected students have been preparing their participation through virtual meetings with CIM researchers, as well as participating in meetings with the other event participants. UVigo students are documenting themselves on challenge six, aimed at increasing the resilience of communities to coastal risks. In this regard, Sara Martín acknowledged that “researching and working on a topic that may be useful to society in the future and not just something purely theoretical is motivating”.
Likewise, she positively values her participation in the event, since “going as students to this event implies that we are mainly going to learn and gain experience in activities that, although they are important for our training, we have not had the opportunity to develop until now. Having to prepare and present a topic, as well as participating in a debate with other students, is a start to learn how to communicate, convey ideas, and work in a group, which is key to our future professional, whatever it may be”. She also highlights that “we must not forget that this satellite event is held on the eve of the start of the Ocean Decade Conference. This will make Barcelona the epicenter worldwide, at least for a few days, of dialogue and planning for better ocean management. It is exciting to be able to attend something like this as an undergraduate student, whether as an audience member or as a volunteer at the conference”.
