The University of Southampton SARTRAC* team is delighted to be part of the UK / Australia Season 2021, a collaboration between the British Council and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. SARTAC will be organising and running a workshop series on the theme of “Managing Climate Change Adaptation at the Coast through More than Maps” in collaboration with researchers from The University of Western Australia, The University of Sydney, the University of Ghana, and Mona GeoInformatics Institute (University of the West Indies).
Dr John Duncan, Research Fellow at The University of Western Australia School of Agriculture and Environment, looks forward to the month ahead: “It will be fascinating to learn about climate change related challenges facing coastal regions across the globe and the range of techniques this team is using to better understand these issues. Collaborating with this team to build student’s capacity to grapple with these complex and pressing issues will be important and exciting work.”
The UK / Australia Season is a major new cultural exchange with a diverse programme spanning theatre, film, visual arts, dance, design, architecture, music, literature, higher education and a public engagement programme.
“More than Maps” focuses on disseminating the knowledge and methods developed through coastal climate change adaptation research taking place across the involved universities. More than Maps will strengthen understanding and skills of secondary school students across Australia, the UK, Ghana and Jamaica and empower them to make evidence-based contributions to adaptation discourse. The project focuses on developing the skills of Early Career Researchers across participating institutions to deliver direct impact from ongoing research.
Combining the skills and expertise available across the partner institutions, we will engage secondary school students to learn basic spatial analysis and social science skills to support their understanding of climate change adaptation on the coast, across the UK, Australia, Ghana and Jamaica. We hope to facilitate new relationships between the UK, Australian, Ghanaian and Jamaican institutions in climate change research in the coastal context, leading to future research and public engagement collaboration.
Dr Philip-Neri Jayson-Quashigah, Research Fellow at the University of Ghana, summarises: “More than Maps for us presents a great opportunity to collaborate and reach out especially Senior high students. We look for forward to a time of learning and sharing of knowledge.”
Visit www.sartrac.org to find out more about the SARTRAC project, and also keep an eye on this website for further information on the workshop series. And visit www.ukaustraliaseason.com
*SARTRAC, “Teleconnected SARgassum risks across the Atlantic: building capacity for TRansformational Adaptation in the Caribbean and West Africa”, PI Prof Emma Tompkins. This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [grant number ES/T002964/1].