Biodaqua | EU - Canada ExchangeEC/CANADA COOPERATION

BIODAQUA: EU/Canada project No C 6004


An EU/Canada Exchange project funded by the EC/Canada Cooperation Programme concerned with developing educational programmes, including student and staff exchanges, in the field of the sustainable use of aquatic biodiversity.

Un projet d'échange d'EU/Canada financé par le programme de coopération d'EU/Canada ayant pour but le développement des programmes éducatifs, y compris des échanges d'étudiants et d'autre personnel, au sujet de l'utilisation soutenable de la biodiversité aquatique.

Summary of project

box corer Duration: November 1, 2002 - October 31 2005
Total European Budget: 180000 Euros

Over the course of the project, the aim is that 100 students will be exchanged over its 3-year duration, typically for 12 weeks. The development of shared curricula between the European and Canadian partners (see below) will facilitate the exchanges, which will also be aided by means of credit transfers and online language preparation. Biodiversity studies are necessarily multidisciplinary, requiring an inter-disciplinary approach which integrates biology, ecology, water chemistry, fisheries and aquaculture. Such courses, offered in part (as modules) or as entire courses, by the partner universities, will help to strengthen future responses and provide solutions to some of today's urgent concerns: the dramatic decline in capture fisheries, the uncertain health of marine ecosystems, and the growing need for the development of sustainable aquaculture.

Partners

Europe
Greece: Agricultural University of Athens (European Coordinator)
Belgium: University of Gent
Ireland: University of Cork
Italy: University of Ancona
Greece: Institute of Marine Biology of Crete
Ireland: AQUATT, Dublin


Canada
Huntsman Marine Science Centre, St. Andrew's, New Brunswick (Coordinator)
University of New Brunswick
St.Mary's University, Nova Scotia
Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia
University of Guelph, Ontario
Fisheries and Oceans, New Brunswick


Student exchanges

Following exchanges, students will complete their course of study at their home institution where appropriate. In some cases the exchange may be the last part of a student's course of study and involve work professional training and work experience.

Fees

Each partner university has already agreed not to charge tuition fees for visiting students. However, different universities and courses have different costs and in some universities students pay extra fees for certain studies, such as field courses.

Organisation

There will be at least 6 meetings over the 36 project months, in the first year in Athens Greece and St.Andrews, New Brunswick.
The first meeting, held in Athens in February 2002, identified principal curricular components and assigned the components to the most suitable host institution. Mutual accreditation in multi-disciplinary studies, and resulting portability of credits, another main concern of the proposal, was also addressed. It is expected that some course material will be made available online, during the next part of the project. The website has been constructed and maintained by the sole non-academic partner.

Objectives

The main aim of the project is to develop an international joint curriculum in an important scientific area, that of aquatic biodiversity studies, which because of its broad multi-disciplinary scope, does not fall easily within conventional departmental limits.
To conform with inter-disciplinary course requirements at undergraduate and post-graduate levels, the proposal aims to create a network of European and Canadian educational establishments already running courses with biodiversity curricular elements.
Below are cited examples of relevant curriculum topics that require a multi-disciplinary approach to understand and manage.

  1. Addressing the decline in fisheries
    • Impacts of fisheries on marine habitats
    • Fishing down the food chain - impacts of fisheries on food webs
    • Socio-economic effects of fisheries - boom and bust
    • Managing fisheries - tragedy of the commons, community based (self-) management,
    • Effect of climate change on fisheries
    • Case studies - lobsters, herring, cod, Atlantic salmon, deep-sea,
  2. Environmentally sustainable aquaculture
    • Modelling of carrying capacity for finfish, shellfish and seaweed farming
    • Interactions with wild fisheries (escaped fish, disease transfer)
    • Land-based recirculation systems as an energy efficient biosecure alternative to sea cages for finfish
    • Methods for assessment and monitoring of fish farm impacts on the environment
    • Reducing use of anti-biotics and other medicines on finfish farms
    • Development of integrated aquaculture within a broader coastal management framework
  3. Maintaining biodiverse ecosystems
    • How aquatic ecosystems function,
    • Comparisons marine, brackish and freshwater systems
    • Nutrient dynamics and hydrography
    • Phytoplankton blooms and toxins
    • Interactions between water column and sea bed
    • Identification and taxonomy of aquatic organisms

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