Teaching and Dissemination
Lead
Mahyar Naseri mahyar.naseri@thuenen.de
Thünen-Institut, Institut für Agrartechnologie
Tentative list of Participants
Ali Mehmandoostkotlar ali.kotlar@edu.vlerick.com
Vlerick Business School
Elisa Bruni ebruni93@gmail.com
LG-ENS (Ecole normale supérieure), Laboratoire de géologie, Paris, France
Tobias Weber tobias.weber@uni-kassel.de
University Kassel, Germany
Mojtaba Zeraatpisheh mojtaba.zeraatpisheh@uvm.edu
University of Vermont, Gund Institute for Environment, Rubenstein school of environment
Bárbara Costa da Silva barbara.silva@ipam.org.br
Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) MapBiomas Network
Rafaella Chiarella r.chiarella@fz-juelich.de
Forschunsgzentrum Jülich GmbH
Lutz Weihermüller l.weihermueller@fz-juelich.de
Forschunsgzentrum Jülich GmbH
Initiative description and main goal
Despite the enormous progress in modelling of soil processes, international inequalities affect the generation and flow of this knowledge within different research groups globally. These inequalities originate from geographical location, language, gender, and financial issues, among others, and could place potential soil modelers on the margins of the training and education system. Attributed funds to encourage researchers from developing countries do not seem sufficient enough to balance the distribution of soil modellers all around the world, which makes career opportunities and development paths less available for those affected by the mentioned inequalities. Visibility is the second challenge for the affected researchers. Although publications might boost their works’ visibility if they can publish in open-access expensive journals, the impact of research is highly affected by provided training, infrastructures, library accessibility, and available funds. Individual researchers probably derive an advantage in their career path from their department, lab, and supervisor reputations. To mitigate the (undesired) effects of mentioned inequalities, the teaching dissemination working group (TD WG) aims to improve the efficiency of the knowledge flow in soil modelling and related fields between research groups. We emphasize mutual learning initiatives, the sharing of information, and inspiring positive changes throughout the soil modelling community. The TDWG is meant to have very engaging and interactive activities group for which experts and science seekers voluntarily commit to our scopes. We strongly consider diversity and inclusiveness not only for the members but also for the actions. Our effort in knowledge transfer is open and transparent to all. A concrete outcome of this working group is the provision of in-person and online platforms for the exchange of scientific information. These actions range from research matchmaking forums to the targeted summer schools and conferences and recorded courses.
What are we trying to accomplish?
The challenge is to support and advance collaborative soil modelling related education with emerging and available ideas for the benefit of potential modelers, especially in situations or regions affected by inequality issues.. A prioritizing goal is to build a reference platform for soil modelling scientists enabling them to find relevant resources and people. We also consider compiling new knowledge generated within the other ISMC working groups and facilitating outreach through targeted engagement. In the long term, this working group will result in increased opportunities for talented people in the area of soil modelling. We pursue fund raising from public (government, scientific societies) or private (NGOs, companies) sources to finance activities by the target group and disseminate the availability of these funds to the target group. Activities to be financed might include (total or partial) funding of participation fees in courses or conferences, funding of publication fees, etc. We also tend to address the flow and exchange of knowledge between academia and industry
Why is it important to reach the community?
The soil modelling community has not seen efforts to disseminate outreach and teaching among less favoured groups. Doing so will increase the number of people involved in soil modelling around the world, increase scientific exchange and opportunities and boost science and knowledge in the area of soil modelling.
Committee Membership
This working group will be coordinated by very motivated early career researchers and should include interested volunteers from different continents and backgrounds and even outside the soil community particularly for fund raising actions. The main focus of TD WG is to form a strong network between young professionals from all continents by organizing early-career-led educational events.
Working group meeting
The working group will meet twice a year and invite all members. As the working group is open to everyone interested in the topic, you can either subscribe as member or visitor by contacting the lead (Ali.Mehmandoostkotlar@ilvo.vlaanderen.be). The minutes of the working group meetings can be found here
