COBRA Master Class: Providing deep-sea expedition leadership training to accelerate early career advancement
Type | Article | ||||||||||||
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Date | 2023-10 | ||||||||||||
Language | English | ||||||||||||
Author(s) | Rotjan Randi D.1, Bell Katherine L.C.2, Huber Julie A.3, Wheat Charles Goeffrey4, Fisher Andrew T.5, Sylvan Rosalynn Lee6, McManus James6, Bigham Katharine T.7, 8, Cambronero-Solano Sergio9, 10, Cordier Tristan11, Goode Savannah7, 8, Leonard Juliana12, Murdock Sheryl13, Paula Fabiana S.14, Ponsoni Leandro15, Roa-Varon Adela16, Seabrook Sarah8, Shomberg Russell17, Van Audenhaege Loic18, Orcutt Beth N.6 | ||||||||||||
Affiliation(s) | 1 : Department of Biology, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States 2 : Ocean Discovery League, Saunderstown, RI, United States 3 : Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, United States 4 : College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, United States 5 : Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, United States 6 : Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, East Boothbay, ME, United States 7 : School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand 8 : National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Wellington, New Zealand 9 : Department of Physics, Universidad Nacional, Heredia, Costa Rica 10 : Research and Development Department, Colectivo Internacional Pelagos Okeanos, San José, Costa Rica 11 : NORCE Norwegian Research Centre, Bergen, Norway 12 : Department of Microbial Ecology, University of Vienna, Wien, Austria 13 : Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, St.George's, Bermuda 14 : Department of Biological Oceanography, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil 15 : Marine Robotics Centre, Flanders Marine Institute, Ostend, Belgium 16 : National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, United States 17 : Department of Ocean Engineering, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI, United States 18 : Univ Brest, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), Ifremer, UMR6197, Biologie et Ecologie des Ecosystèmes marins Profonds (BEEP), Plouzané, France |
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Source | Frontiers In Marine Science (2296-7745) (Frontiers Media SA), 2023-10 , Vol. 10 , P. 1223197. (11p.) | ||||||||||||
DOI | 10.3389/fmars.2023.1223197 | ||||||||||||
WOS© Times Cited | 1 | ||||||||||||
Keyword(s) | deep-sea, capacity building, education, ECR, exploration | ||||||||||||
Abstract | Leading deep-sea research expeditions requires a breadth of training and experience, and the opportunities for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) to obtain focused mentorship on expedition leadership are scarce. To address the need for leadership training in deep-sea expeditionary science, the Crustal Ocean Biosphere Research Accelerator (COBRA) launched a 14-week virtual Master Class with both synchronous and asynchronous components to empower students with the skills and tools to successfully design, propose, and execute deep-sea oceanographic field research. The Master Class offered customized and distributed training approaches and created an open-access syllabus with resources, including reading material, lectures, and on-line resources freely-available on the Master Class website (cobra.pubpub.org). All students were Early Career Researchers (ECRs, defined here as advanced graduate students, postdoctoral scientists, early career faculty, or individuals with substantial industry, government, or NGO experience) and designated throughout as COBRA Fellows. Fellows engaged in topics related to choosing the appropriate deep-sea research asset for their Capstone “dream cruise” project, learning about funding sources and how to tailor proposals to meet those source requirements, and working through an essential checklist of pre-expedition planning and operations. The Master Class covered leading an expedition at sea, at-sea operations, and ship-board etiquette, and the strengths and challenges of telepresence. It also included post-expedition training on data management strategies and report preparation and outputs. Throughout the Master Class, Fellows also discussed education and outreach, international ocean law and policy, and the importance and challenges of team science. Fellows further learned about how to develop concepts respectfully with regard to geographic and cultural considerations of their intended study sites. An assessment of initial outcomes from the first iteration of the COBRA Master Class reinforces the need for such training and shows great promise with one-quarter of the Fellows having submitted a research proposal to national funding agencies within six months of the end of the class. As deep-sea research continues to accelerate in scope and speed, providing equitable access to expedition training is a top priority to enable the next generation of deep-sea science leadership. |
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