Arqus Collaboratory 2021 Concluding event
In June the first version of the Arqus Collaboratory Programme was concluded. Students from all seven partner universities met digitally to share experiences and discuss insights after a semester of studying climate risks at the seven different localities.
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Arqus Collaboratory Programme 2021 was on June 18th concluded with a zoom event gathering students from all seven Arqus universities. The Arqus Collaboratory has run in parallel at the seven institutions throughout the Spring semester. The Arqus Collaboratory Programme is part of Arqus Action Line 7 Engaged European Citizens, which is lead by PhD candidate Jakob Grandin at UiB.
The participating students provided a brief presentation of how the Challenge Based Learning programme had been organized at their universities and shared highlights from their project work.
- The intention was to set students in contact with each other, to present an opportunity for sharing their experiences of working in interdisciplinary teams and dealing with a complex research topic. The students engaged enthusiastically in the cross-institutional discussion and delivered insightful and reflexive recommendations, says Helene Nilsen, postdoctoral fellow and part of the AL7 team at UiB.
The students were invited to reflect on their process and outcomes in international mixed groups. The group discussions were loosely organized around questions of lessons learned, how to compare findings across local contexts, identifying differences and commonalities. Lastly the students were invited to present their recommendations for climate risk governance in Europe.
Challenges and benefits of interdisciplinary research such as the experience of learning new methodologies and encountering new perspectives were shared across the institutions. The discussion also opened for exchanging insights about the specific local contexts on policy level as well as on a scientific level.
- We were excited to see the diversity and variation of research topics, approaches and outcomes under the headline of Rethinking Climate Risks, and impressed with what students had been able to achieve in a relatively short semester and taking into account all restrictions following the pandemic, says researcher Scott Bremer, who concluded the event.
This workshop will function as a starting point for further elaboration in a student-led forum to be organized in the fall of 2021.
