Due to Covid-19 preventing the planned physical meetings taking place, the Research Meeting (originally attached to the Oslo workshop) and the Mid-Term Meeting (originally attached to the Vigo workshop) will now run online, via Zoom.

Attendees

Attendees

The full SeaChanges Network was invited to attend (except Partner organisations who were not acting in a Supervisory role).

34 people were able to attend, including:

• All 15 ESRs

• 16 Supervisors

• 3 Members of the Supervisory Board

• The full SeaChanges Management Team

• SeaChanges Project Manager: Nell Booker

• SeaChanges Project Coordinator: David Orton

Content

Prior to the meeting the ESRs were issued with a questionnaire to identify what they would like to see covered at the Research Meeting. The Management Team reviewed the feedback and agreed an agenda that aimed to cover as much as possible, in a format appropriate to a Research Meeting.

Introduction: The meeting opened with a brief Introduction from David Orton, the Project Coordinator, welcoming all attendees and introducing the content for the day.

PI Research Presentations: Morten Tange-Olsen (University of Copenhagen), Bastiaan Star (University of Oslo) and James Barrett (University of Cambridge) provided 3 linked presentations around their recent research projects, to provide the ESRs with an example of a real life, collaborative research project.

Imposter Syndrome: Hugo de Boer (University of Oslo) provided a presentation on Imposter Syndrome. Hugo’s presentation highlighted the common effects of Imposter Syndrome and how prevalent it is in society, something that the ESRs themselves will likely experience at some point.

Discussion Groups: ESRs were split into three groups of 5 and each group spent 20 minutes discussing one of three topics before moving on to the next:

• • • Historical Drivers

    • Taphonomy

    • Fisheries Management

Each discussion group was being led by several supervisors with relevant expertise in that topic and ESRs were provided with two relevant chapters for each topic to review before the meeting, to provide a focus for the content of the discussion.

Supervisor Q&A Session: Based on feedback from the ESRs, 4 topics were identified as areas the students had raised queries or concerns about. 4 virtual meeting rooms were available, with Supervisors available in each ‘room’ to answer questions on the following topics:

• • • Practical PhD Issues

    • Ancient DNA Clinic

    • Zooarchaeology Clinic

    • Sampling for Molecular Methods Clinic

ESRs could visit any of the ‘rooms’ for as long as they liked, to ask any relevant questions they may have.

Attendees

39 people attended the SeaChanges Mid Term Meeting. This included:

• All 15 ESRs

• Representatives from 8 Partner organisations

• 14 Supervisors

• The full SeaChanges Management Team

• SeaChanges Project Manager: Nell Booker

• SeaChanges Project Coordinator: David Orton

• Project Officer - European Commission: Isabelle Aires-Pinto

Content

The meeting opened with a brief Introduction from David Orton, the Project Coordinator, welcoming all attendees and thanking them for their time and their engagement with the Network so far.

A Tour de Table then commenced, with introductions from each Beneficiarie's PI, introducing their teams, which ESRs are working with them and an overview of their responsibilities.

Isabelle Aires-Pinto then provided her Project Officer Presentation, covering:

• Objective of the Mid-term check

• Reporting requirements

• Recruitment process & obligations towards Researchers

• Finance

• Success stories

• Useful links

David Orton then provided his Project Coordinator's Report, covering:

• An introduction to the Network

• Recruitment of the ESRs

• The ‘infrastructure’ of the Network: Management Team, Supervisor Board, Supervisors, Partners

• Planned Network Activities & Adjusted Timeline due to Covid-19

• An overview of the Kick Off Meeting & Workshop 1 in January 2020

• How the Network is linked and activities to ensure integration

• An Overview of Deliverables and Milestones

• An overview of Risks

• An overview of Outreach & Dissemination activities

• Impact to date

• Ethics considerations

After a break we then had presentations from each of the 15 ESRs, lasting 5-10 minutes each. The presentations covered:

• An introduction to the ESR and a bit about their background

• An overview of their project and how it has progressed since they started their role

• A summary of where they are now

• A brief overview of the future key milestones for their project (including key research tasks, training activities and secondments)

• How they have interacted with the Network so far on their work - any links they have made with other ESRs / Supervisors / Partners, any overlaps with other projects etc

After the next break followed two Restricted Sessions:

1. A 60 Minute restricted session between the Project Officer and the ESRs, to discuss anything of concern in a private environment.

2. A 15 Minute restricted session between the Project Officer and the Project Coordinator to cover any areas of concern raised throughout the meeting.

After a final short break, the whole group (minus Partners) rejoined the meeting for a summary and final Feedback Session with the Project Officer to hear the Project Officer’s review of the Network based on the discussions and presentations in the meeting. No significant concerns were raised by the Project Officer and on the whole she was pleased with the progress and integration of the Network.