At this year’s General Assembly there are loads of short courses to choose from for broadening your expertise. You can supercharge your scientific skills, broaden your base in science communication and pick up tips on how to boost your career – be it in academia or outside. There is also a course aimed at making your time at the conference easier – be sure to take part, especially if it is your first time! And, if you do attend the short courses, don’t forget to share your experience with other conference participants on social media using the dedicated hashtag: #EGU18SC. Here’s a small selection of what’s in store at EGU 2018:
Supercharge your science – new techniques and dealing with data
- Geospatial Web Services in action – or how to analyse and process large volumes of data without downloading it (SC1.3)
- Scales and scaling in the climate system (SC1.25/CL6.07/NP8.4)
- Training workshop on OLAM-SOIL (SC1.31)
- The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) as a Statistical Tool for Time-Series Analysis (SC1.35)
Tips and tricks to boost your career
Being able to secure your own funding for research is key to a successful academic career and will give you important skills applicable to industry jobs too, so why not check out these three grant writing courses?
- How to find funding and write a research grant (SC3.12)
- How to apply for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grants Individual Fellowship and European Training Network (SC3.13)
- Funding opportunities: ERC grants (SC3.14)
A selection of short courses focused on career development and improving your chances of landing your dream job. (Photo by Nick Youngson, distributed via Blue Diamond Gallery)
Additionally, you can also improve the chances of landing your dream job by attending these career development sessions.
- Scientific publishing, science integrity and work ethics: short-course on the scientific method and our modern work environment (SC3.9)
- How do you peer-review? (SC3.8)
- Make sense of the mess: how to keep your research project on track for easy reporting (SC3.3)
- Academia is not the only route: exploring alternative career options for Earth scientists (SC3.5)
You can also gain very useful insight from those who have done it before, so why not take part in your Division’s ‘Meet the masters’ session? Here you’ll be able to meet experts in the field who can give you tips on how to get the most out of your career.
- Meet the expert in Hydrology: bridging the gap between hydrological science and practice (SC3.15/HS12.1)
- Meet the experts in land and soil functions: from primary productivity to biodiversity (SC3.16/SSS13.78)
- Meet the experts in Solar-Terrestrial science: the future of Solar-Terrestrial research (SC3.17/ST1.12)
- Meet the experts in Geomorphology (SC3.18/GM12.2)
Science communication skills
With a growing emphasis on engaging the public with science and research, we have many workshops designed to develop your communication skills.
- Connect2Communicate: communicating your message with charisma, clarity and conviction (SC2.13)
- Rhyme your research (SC2.4)
- How to cartoon science (SC2.5)
- Communicating geoscience to the media (SC2.15/CL6.03/CR8.12)
- Science writing: selling your research through press releases and articles (SC2.14)
- Debunking myths and fake news: how can geoscientists fight misinformation and false claims (SC2.12)
The EGU General Assembly is taking place in Vienna, Austria from 8 to 13 April. Check out the full session programme, for a complete list of short courses available, on the General Assembly website.
