Blue Science & Technology Summer Training (BlueS&T)
Sustainable use of ocean resources, referred to as Blue Economy, has to deal with several societal challenges, such as food security, human health and climate change. Coastal areas worldwide are among the most densely populated, but most vulnerable to the impacts of human- and climate-induced changes. Innovative multidisciplinary solutions are required to mitigate these urgent social challenges while simultaneously providing crucial ecosystem services that (in)directly affect people (e.g. storing carbon, controlling floods, stabilising shorelines, provision of clean air and water, food, fuel, medicines).
The Blue Science & Technology Summer Training (BlueS&T), previously known as the Blue Growth Summer School (BGSS),will tackle these major (global) societal challenges from a interdisciplinary perspective. Focusing on alternative food production and aquaculture at sea and new technology needs to increase productivity and efficiency for renewable energy and smart water (re)use.
BLUES&T is organized as a two-week course with week 1 focusing on marine topics like circular ocean economy, oceans and human health, sustainable seafood, Building with Nature and social innovation. Week 2 focusses on maritime topics covering topics like maritime spatial planning, coastal engineering, renewable energy, robotics and virtual reality. This set-up provides students the option to participate for the full duration of the course or one week.
The objective of this seasonal school is to offer an add-on learning opportunity for participants with a mainly scientific background to be prepared for the rapidly evolving demands of the blue economy sector. During the programme students will:
- Obtain insight into business opportunity development and the commercial realities faced by industry, through guest lectures from blue economy entrepreneurs and site visits
- Learn additional soft skills important for your career
- Be able to communicate with peers, with various stakeholders in blue economy field, and with a general public concerning scientific concepts and research.
- Acquire an advanced scientific problem-solving capacity, design multidisciplinary approaches and collect, analyze and interpret data.
- Be competent to further develop a network in an international and multidisciplinary context and apply this in an integrated problem-solving nature
