Supporting interdisciplinary careers for sustainability

Hernandez-Aguilera, Juan; Anderson, Weston; Bridges, Allison; Fernández, María del Pilar; Hansen, Winslow D.; Maurer, Megan; Nébié, Elisabeth Kago Ilboudo; Stock, Andy

doi:10.1038/s41893-020-00679-y

Cited by 27 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Given the societal expectations of ocean science in the context of the UN Ocean Decade, there should be concern about the misalignment between these expectations and the way scientists are evaluated for their work. Many of the skills required for effective collaboration, such as communication skills, community relationship building, and the open-mindedness to constructively debate, are undervalued in academia (e.g., Lubchenco and Rapley, 2020;Hernández-Aguilera et al, 2021). This acts as a disincentive for scientists contemplating participation in coordination activities, and threatens the continuity of the workforce to sustain ocean observing in the future (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2017; Weller et al, 2019).…”

Section: The Challenges Aheadmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ocean Integration: The Needs and Challenges of Effective Coordination Within the Ocean Observing System

et al. 2022

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Understanding and sustainably managing complex environments such as marine ecosystems benefits from an integrated approach to ensure that information about all relevant components and their interactions at multiple and nested spatiotemporal scales are considered. This information is based on a wide range of ocean observations using different systems and approaches. An integrated approach thus requires effective collaboration between areas of expertise in order to improve coordination at each step of the ocean observing value chain, from the design and deployment of multi-platform observations to their analysis and the delivery of products, sometimes through data assimilation in numerical models. Despite significant advances over the last two decades in more cooperation across the ocean observing activities, this integrated approach has not yet been fully realized. The ocean observing system still suffers from organizational silos due to independent and often disconnected initiatives, the strong and sometimes destructive competition across disciplines and among scientists, and the absence of a well-established overall governance framework. Here, we address the need for enhanced organizational integration among all the actors of ocean observing, focusing on the occidental systems. We advocate for a major evolution in the way we collaborate, calling for transformative scientific, cultural, behavioral, and management changes. This is timely because we now have the scientific and technical capabilities as well as urgent societal and political drivers. The ambition of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030) and the various efforts to grow a sustainable ocean economy and effective ocean protection efforts all require a more integrated approach to ocean observing. After analyzing the barriers that currently prevent this full integration within the occidental systems, we suggest nine approaches for breaking down the silos and promoting better coordination and sharing. These recommendations are related to the organizational framework, the ocean science culture, the system of recognition and rewards, the data management system, the ocean governance structure, and the ocean observing drivers and funding. These reflections are intended to provide food for thought for further dialogue between all parties involved and trigger concrete actions to foster a real transformational change in ocean observing.

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Section: The Challenges Aheadmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ocean Integration: The Needs and Challenges of Effective Coordination Within the Ocean Observing System

et al. 2022

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“…The highly competitive academic landscape necessitates individuals frequently working long hours on insecure, and sometimes low-paid, contracts, often leading to enduring work-related stress and ill-health (Teferra 2016;Aarnikoivu et al 2019;Salihu Shinkafi 2020;Hernandez-Aguilera et al 2021). ECAs are encouraged to demonstrate their commitment and capabilities across diverse areas: research (through publishing and delivering impact); lecturing and supervision (often with minimal support, or outside contracted responsibilities in order to gain vital experience); and administration/ managerial work (such as taking on PI responsibilities in managing and coordinating projects and personnel).…”

Section: Precarious Labourmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…and operate across disciplinary boundaries where contrasting identities, research approaches and norms must be negotiated (c.f. Bridle et al 2013;Hein et al 2018;Hernandez-Aguilera et al 2021 on the challenges of interdisciplinary careers for ECAs). This lack of a clear institutional locale makes it difficult for urban ECAs to 'find a disciplinary home' , exchange research ideas with colleagues, establish supportive research networks to enable progression through our desired career pathways, or build solidarity across institutions and disciplines.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Redefining the role of urban studies Early Career Academics in the post-COVID-19 university

Ahmed¹,

Baker²,

Bhattacharya³

et al. 2022

City

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We are an international collective of Early Career Academics (ECAs) who met throughout 2020 to explore the implications of COVID-19 on precarious academics. With this intervention, our aims are to voice commonly shared experiences and concerns and to reflect on the extent to which the pandemic offers opportunities to redefine Higher Education and research institutions, in a context of ongoing precarity and funding cuts. Specifically, we explore avenues to build solidarity across institutions and geographies, to ensure that the conduct of urban research, and support offered to ECAs, allows for more inclusivity, diversity, security and equitability.*The Urban ECA Collective emerged from a workshop series described in this article which intended to foster international solidarity among self-defined early career academics working within urban research.

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“…In their first point, Keeler et al (2017) explicitly address the needs of graduate students who are facing increasingly competitive job markets and a world threatened by environmental catastrophe, and they call for formal training and hybrid skill development to be a part of research programs. This perspective article acknowledges that we, as graduate students, especially those in rigidly disciplinary programs, are often unsupported in working beyond the framing of traditional academic paths and must develop professional skills on our own (Brunson & Baker, 2015; Hernandez‐Aguilera et al, 2021).…”

Section: Recommendations For Institutional Innovationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Graduate student perspectives on transforming academia

Sykora-Bodie

Jones

Hastings

et al. 2021

Conservat Sci and Prac

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Higher education institutions have long played a key role in solving society's most pressing problems. However, as the scale and complexity of socio‐environmental problems has grown, there has been a renewed debate about the role that academic institutions should play in developing solutions and how institutional structures should be redesigned to encourage greater interdisciplinarity. In the following pages, we present a graduate student perspective on this debate. Specifically, we identify challenges facing interdisciplinary graduate student researchers and present a series of recommendations for how institutions can better prepare them to become the next generation of leaders in interdisciplinary, action‐oriented research focused on solving socio‐environmental problems.

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Supporting interdisciplinary careers for sustainability

Cited by 27 publications

References 15 publications

Ocean Integration: The Needs and Challenges of Effective Coordination Within the Ocean Observing System

Ocean Integration: The Needs and Challenges of Effective Coordination Within the Ocean Observing System

Redefining the role of urban studies Early Career Academics in the post-COVID-19 university

Graduate student perspectives on transforming academia

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