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Research School in Natural-Disaster Science
Introduction
The establishment of a research school is one good way to achieve multidisciplinarity and collaboration in research studies. Uppsala University has, therefore, decided to start a research school in natural-disaster science and to place it at ISP. Decisions to start the school were taken in late spring 2009 and the school will be established in autumn 2009. The goal is to start activities in 2010. The rationale for this school is to form research studies that tie together all research students from Central America in the project ”Support for research capacity building in nature-induced disaster mitigation in Central America”. The research school also intends to allow admission of Swedish research students. Experiences of such student “twinning” have been quite successful in previous projects.
Research-School Objectives
The research school and the project aim at building a sustainable research capacity that allows analysis and modelling of underlying natural phenomena and combines this knowledge with research findings from social sciences. Monitoring of natural phenomena is presently split among many organisations in Central America and present knowledge is poorly used. A research school that coordinates research students from all of Central America is expected to improve coordination of monitoring and use of existing knowledge. This will allow natural-science knowledge to be implemented into relevant monitoring, management and action plans. The research school will strengthen research studies in natural-disaster science and important parts of its development will be: a) Creation of a critical research mass, b) increased cooperation between disciplines and universities, c) a common identity for the graduates leaving the school, and d) competence that can be used for activities also outside of the universities.
Research-School Organisation
The organisation of research-school activities will be decided in autumn 2009 as a result of discussions between project partners and as delimited by economic possibilities.
The initial ideas are that the research school will build on the eight research areas of the project and their associated universities: a) Sea-coastal degradation, b) Watershed management [Territorial planning], c) Volcanology, d) Environmental and risk management, e) Landslides, f) Meteorology, g) Hydrology, and h) Social sciences. It is suggested that activities of the research school should be grouped into three areas to facilitate cooperation between closely related disciplines and to form a basis for regular courses: a) Air, Water, and Landscape Science, b) Geology, and Geophysics, and c) Social Sciences.
In order to guarantee interaction between and within the three areas, an annual meeting will be arranged in the form of a research-student symposium, possibly in connection to the annual review meeting of the project. The research school will also establish a syllabus of mandatory and common courses. Some of these will be common for the whole research school whereas others will be common for each area. Four common seminar series will be arranged, one for each of the areas and one for the whole school. The school also intends to arrange one or two seminars about research education jointly between Uppsala University and the eight hub universities in Central America.