For our second ForMovFluid Summer School we all travelled to Scotland where we were hosted by the School of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of St Andrews.
An extensive programme was organized with the theme “A Picture of Success”, which included sessions on career options, writing scientific publications and white papers, outreach via traditional and social media, training on field mapping and the sharing of data, as well as several wellbeing sessions.
Throughout the week, posters by the Doctoral Candidates (DCs) were displayed on the walls of our venue, and each DC also presented a brief update on their work in dedicated DC Forum sessions. This formed a basis for discussions about their work with any supervisor or with their peers.
Several mornings we started with a yoga and meditation session kindly led by Daniel Koehn.
After being welcomed to St Andrews and its university by our host Will McCarthy, we started off with a panel discussion by geologists who followed different career paths. The panel consisted of Dave McCarthy (BGS), Tobias Hermansson (Boliden), Sampriti Basak (Boliden), Leanne Staddon (St Andrews), Erin Thompson (Aberdeen Minerals) and Fraser Gardiner (Aberdeen Minerals). Afterwards, there was an opportunity to speak in smaller groups about more detailed aspects, after which each group was tasked with creating a fictitious career path and presenting it.
A session on “Data Management and Sharing of Data” introduced us to digital field mapping and collecting and organising data with the intent to share it.
On Day 2 we set off along the coast path to Maiden Rock, a brilliant coastal location outside St Andrews, to put our newly learned digital mapping skills to the test. Despite some unfortunate issues with the tablets, a great time was had and lots of data were gathered.
On the morning of Day 3 we focused on wellbeing with a talk by the Student Services team from the University of St Andrews, while it was a pleasure to host our EU Project Officer Sandrine Jacobs for our Midterm Meeting in the afternoon.
Day 4 was a field day, visiting the “Rock and Spindle” formation, the “Witches Cauldron” at St Monan’s and surrounding coastal formations, including a “bomb” and fossil-containing rocks. And yes, geologically there is a link with Ireland!
The next day (day 5) was focused on outreach and communication. We hosted The Scottish Geologist (Luisa Hendry) who gave a workshop on using social media as an outreach platform. She was followed by Ruth Sanderson, who gave an insight into outreach using more traditional media such as newspapers or radio/TV. In the afternoon Fer Gomollón-Bel from Agata presented a workshop on writing a white paper. The barbecue in the gardens that evening was a great opportunity for more informal communication!
On our last day Pat Meere and Daniel Pastor-Galán presented an introduction to writing a scientific paper, followed by group presentations of the digital mapping results.
That evening we gathered for a last drink before we all left the next day to make our way home or onto further travels.
We look back on a week of training and learning, sharing meals, drinks and experiences, walking along coastal geological features and generally strengthening the ForMovFluid Network, as well as enjoying ourselves in good company!
Follow along with our ongoing activities on Instagram, LinkedIn and here on our website. We plan to do it all over again next year at a new location!