The Nippon Foundation-POGO Centre of Excellence (NF-POGO CofE) provides world class education and training courses in the field of observational oceanography, since 2008. Starting in 2013, the NF-POGO CofE has been hosted by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany's foremost polar and marine research institution. The next training programme (NF-POGO cofE Phase III) will start in autumn 2018.
The Centre of Excellence is seen as the beginning of a long-term, sustained effort at capacity building in observational oceanography on a global scale. The activities of the trainees will be monitored for some years after the completion of the course. It is also anticipated that the strongest participants will have further opportunities for advanced training and scientific exchange with POGO member institutions in other locations around the world. Participants will be expected to join NANO, the NF-POGO scholars alumni. NANO provides many networking, education, and research activities for its members. In total, it is expected that the legacy of the Centre of Excellence will endure far into the future.
The training will promote excellence in integrated, multidisciplinary oceanography at a global scale. Scholars will receive ten months of training to include one month of formal introductory training, followed by more detailed courses emphasizing core skills (e.g. writing, scientific presentations, statistics and experimental design) and specialised scientific topics such as modelling, remote sensing, ocean-atmosphere interactions. Scholars will also receive training in instrumentation, sample collection and analytical protocols. Each scholar will conduct an independent research project during the programme. The scientific staff of AWI can mentor research projects in numerous fields as it is large in number and diverse, with strength in many areas of Observational Oceanography; the scientists on Helgoland and Sylt have unique expertise in biology, ecology, time-series work and coastal processes.
LINKS:
https://www.awi.de/en/about-us/sites/helgoland/visiting-scientists/centre-of-excellence-nf-pogo.html
