The Office of the Great Barrier Reef institutional assessment was published
Bill Dennison and Simon Costanzo conducted an institutional assessment for the Office of the Great Barrier Reef. In this assessment, five goals were established: cohesive staff, credible science, resilient organization, relevance to stakeholders, and effective outreach. Each goal had its own set of indicators. Scores were generated for the Wet Tropics Waterways, Dry Tropics Partnership for Healthy Waters, Healthy Rivers to Reef Partnership, Fitzroy Partnership for River Health, and Gladstone Healthy Harbour Partnership, as well as an overall report card for the partnership as a whole.
The COAST Card project received a virtual kick-off
Bill Dennison and Vanessa Vargas-Nguyen attended the virtual kick-off meeting for the Belmont Forum projects funded under the Ocean Sustainability Collaborative Research Action (CRA) held on June 17–18. Their project, Coastal Ocean Assessment for Sustainability and Transformation (or COAST Card), is one of the thirteen international consortia of researchers and stakeholders awarded to conduct transdisciplinary research to innovate solutions for the sustainable use of oceans and minimize the effects of global change.
Attending the virtual Science of Team Science conference
Bill Dennison, Heath Kelsey, and Suzi Spitzer attended the Science of Team Science conference, which utilized virtual session formats to highlight cross-disciplinary collaborative research. Bill spoke about IAN's role as a boundary organization that is helping transition academia to environmental problem solving. Suzi presented part of her dissertation on citizen science, featuring IAN's earlier work in developing a volunteer monitoring program for aquatic grasses in the Chesapeake Bay.
IAN provides remote science communication course to IMET summer interns
Annie Carew, Emily Nastase, and Nathan Miller taught an introductory science communication course for this year's IMET summer interns. While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has kept them from coming to IMET for the season, the interns will work together to analyze microbial data specific to Baltimore Harbor. The science communication course included storytelling strategies, designing theme statements, and a crash course in Adobe's Creative Cloud products, providing tools that the interns will use to promote their research this summer.
COMING SOON: RiverDialogue featuring Bill Dennison
The International River Foundation is hosting a RiverDialogue "Rivers on Fire" seminar on July 6–7, featuring IAN's Bill Dennison as a speaker. The second event in the Rivers on Fire series gives participants the opportunity to hear more and delve deeper into the effects of fire on fires, catchments, and their communities. The program will run across two half-days and will bring together experts from government, industry, science, and community with the aim to raise awareness and create a call for action to address the effects of fire on waterways and their surrounding communities.
COMING SOON: online River Academy science communication training course
River Academy, the latest initiative from International River Foundation, is an interactive learning platform designed to teach anyone in river-related topics. Current course offerings include Leadership for River Practitioners, River Resilience, Science Communication, and River Restoration - Form and Function. IAN is developing the introductory course in Science Communication, which will cover topics ranging from storytelling strategies, to color theory, to data visualization. Upon completing a course with River Academy, participants will be issued a digital badge to showcase on their CV/resume.
Due to the global coronavirus pandemic, ISBW14 and WSC2020 are postponed until summer 2022
We will update everyone as we have more information. Please discontinue abstract submission at this time, and stay safe and healthy. Visit the ISBW14 website for more details.