Travel Grants opportunities for the 3rd YES Congress

Dear YES members,

We are pleased to announce that the Geological Society of America and the Geological Society of London are offering travel assistance to African students and early career geoscientists to attend the 3rd YES Congress and the 25th CAG 2014. Funds will be distributed in two parts. Upon notification of receipt of the award the societies will provide 75% of the funds. The remaining 25% may be collected at the conference. Young Earth Scientists (YES) Congress and  Colloquium of African Geology (CAG25) to be held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 11-16 August 2014.

Application Criteria: You must

1. be an African undergraduate, graduate student or early career professional geoscientist (no more than 35 years old);

2. be presenting an oral or poster paper and be able to show that your abstract has been submitted and accepted;

3. attach a brief statement (up to 300 words) describing how attending the YES and CAG conferences will benefit your career development.

Important Dates:

10 April 2014 – Abstract submission deadline

20 April 2014 – Acceptance decided

30 May 2014 – Application deadline for travel grant

30 June – Notification of travel grant award

DFID, ACU and AAS Launch £4.85 million Climate Impacts Research Capacity Building Programme in Africa

Dear Partner ,

The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) and the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) are pleased to invite you and/or your institution to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) for a new fellowship scheme and institutional capacity strengthening programme that will enhance research into the impacts of climate change.

The GBP 4.8m programme titled, Climate Impacts Research Capacity and Leadership Enhancement (CIRCLE), is funded by the UK government and will strengthen both institutional and individual research capacity.  It will fund maximum one-year fellowships for 60 post-Doctoral and 40 post-MSc researchers and concurrently run a programme for strengthening institutional research management and support for early career academics. The fellowships will cover the full cost of a one-year placement at another (host) African institution and will commence in 2014. Full implementation of the programme will be contingent on sufficient interest and commitment being expressed by African institutions to host and nominate fellows and a large enough pool of eligible fellows.

For further information about this programme, please visit CIRCLE Call for Expression of Interest (EOI) or the CIRCLE webpage and read the criteria before submitting your EOI. To submit your EOI as a potential Host and/or Nominating/Home institution or as a Fellow, click on the relevant link below:

EOI for potential Host institutions

EOI for potential Nominating/Home institutions

EOI for potential Fellows

The deadline for submitting an expression of interest is 31 October 2013.

For further assistance please contact Dr Benji Gyampoh, b.gyampoh@aasciemce.org or Ms Jay Kubler,j.kubler@acu.ac.uk. 

You are kindly requested  to assist by forwarding this call to all suitable institutions and/or individuals in your network.   

Yours Sincerely, p

Peter Abwao

For

Prof.Berhanu Abegaz- Executive Director

Dear everyone

We are looking for a YES member in South Africa to be a representative in the South African Women in Engineering event taking place on the 17th October 2013, Johannesburg. The UNESCO finalists for " the Engineer-your-Earth" competition will also be presenting their proposals. If you are interested please send us your details at earthscience.sa@gmail.com 

For information about this event please visit the following link http://www.sawomeng.org.za/events/sawomeng-presents-engineering-africa 

The Southern African Young Scientists Summer Program (SA-YSSP)

The Southern African Young Scientists Summer Program (SA-YSSP) offers doctoral candidates the opportunity to develop research skills in systems analysis and its application to policy and management. The program takes place in South Africa from 24 November 2013 to 22 February 2014. Apply by 1 September 2013. 

The SA-YSSP is a three-month program held during the Southern Hemisphere summer, November to February. Modeled on IIASA’s Young Scientists Summer Program (YSSP), the SA-YSSP is now in its second year. It makes IIASA’s unique research and training opportunities more accessible to young scientists focused on systems approaches to issues facing developing countries, and connects researchers in Southern Africa with IIASA experts and the IIASA global research network.

The program is open to advanced PhD students studying in South Africa, a Southern African Development Community (SADC) nation, or one of IIASA’s 20 National Member Organization (NMO) countries, whose research is compatible with the 19 research themes defined by the supervisory teams in the general areas of Risk & Governance, Energy & Climate Systems, Ecosystems & Water, and Population, Health & Aging.

Funding for travel and living expenses is available.

More information:
On SA-YSSP: www.iiasa.ac.at/sa-yssp
On IIASA: www.iiasa.ac.at
On IIASA's 20 Member Countries: http://www.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/about/nationalmembers/National-Member-Organizations.en.html

Call for the 4th Transdisciplinary Geoengineering Summer School at Harvard University from 5-10 August 2013

The fourth transdisciplinary geoengineering summer school will take place at Harvard University from 5 to 9 August this year.  The full Call for Applications will be distributed soon, but please save the date (and start your applications).

The school, which will focus on solar geoengineering, is open to graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and recently appointed faculty and researchers working in any applicable discipline. The number of participants is limited to 80.  To apply, please submit a short letter (300 words or less) covering your research interests and an explanation of relevance of this summer school to your research. We request a short letter of recommendation from applicants who have not attended a previous geoengineering summer school and whose research is in the early stages (that is Master’s students and PhD candidates in their 1st or 2nd years).

Cost
The summer school will cost $300 USD. This includes shared accommodation, all lunches and a banquet dinner.  Single accommodation will be available at a first-come-first serve basis for an additional $21/night. Please indicate on your application if you would like a single room.  Cost of travel is the responsibility of participants. Some scholarships will be available for participants who would otherwise not be able to attend, and a request for support should accompany the application in such circumstances. 

Application deadline
The US Department of State advises that visa applicants from many countries must now apply 3–4 months in advance of their travel date. Please check the U.S.Department of State website for information about travel to the USA and to verify whether you require a visa.  Due to processing times there is an early application deadline for those who need visas of 18 April 2013. The general application deadline is 01 May 2013.

Please contact Hollie Roberts with any questions (hroberts@seas.harvard.edu)

In Addition a message from Andy Parker 

I am helping to organise the school and just wanted to add in a note to everyone about deadlines. Even though the Call for Applications states a deadline of 18 April for those who need visas, we will continue to accept applications after that date. We would not want to miss out on a good candidate for the sake of a few days. The deadline was put in place in part to encourage early application and to draw attention to the long US visa application process.  Also note that experience working on geoengineering is not mandatory, we welcome applications from people working on relevant related disciplines.

Even if you can't make it to the summer school you might be interested in a forthcoming report on a series of meetings on geoengineering run by the African Academy of Sciences, which is due for release soon.

Best wishes,

Andy

Andy Parker

Research Fellow - Science, Technology and Public Policy Program

Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

Harvard Kennedy School

79 John F. Kennedy Street, Box 117

Cambridge, MA 02138

email address: aparker1@gmail.com

YES Session @ EGU: Geoethics and Natural Hazards

Hello everyone

Just a reminder about the YES session that is taking place NOW at the European Geoscience Union General Assembly (EGU), Viena, Austria.  If you're on site, join us in Room G7 and Online via FREE Webinar hosted by the AGI (register now through this link https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/702947129)!. You can follow the YES Network update on twitter @NetworkYES and also on our Facebook page

YES@EGU: FREE Webinar on Geoethics and natural hazards - The role and responsibility of the geoscientists

The YES Network will participate in the EGU 2013 through co-convening the NH9.8 session under the theme “Geoethics and natural hazards: the role and responsibility of the geoscientists”. During this session, an oral presentation will be given by the President of the YES Network, Meng Wang, about the YES perspective on Geoethics.

If you're participating to the EGU this year, feel free to join us in Room G7, on Tuesday 09^th April 2013, if you're not on site, you can join us online through a FREE webinar hosted by the AGI; registration can be done through the following link: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/702947129 .

Below, detailed programme for this session:

======================================================================
Chairperson: Susan Kieffer and Silvia Peppoloni
Geoethical implications in the L'Aquila earthquake case

08:30–08:45 : The L'Aquila trial

Alessandro Amato, Massimo Cocco, Giovanna Cultrera, Fabrizio Galadini, Lucia Margheriti, Concetta Nostro, and Daniela Pantosti

08:45–09:00 : Lessons from the conviction of the L'Aquila seven: The standardprobabilistic earthquake hazard and risk assessment is ineffective (solicited)

Max Wyss

09:00–09:15 : The Role of Geoethics in Geohazards Mitigation: A YES NetworkPerspective

Meng wang, Amel Barich, and Silvia Peppoloni               

09:15–09:30 : The Value, Protocols, and Scientific Ethics of Earthquake Forecasting(solicited)

Thomas H. Jordan

09:30–09:45: Communicatinguncertainty: managing the inherent probabilistic character of hazard estimates

Dario Albarello

09:45–10:00 :The challenge of Risk Communication: an Australian perspective

Valentina Koschatzky, Katharine Haynes, and John McAnene

COFFEE BREAK
Chairperson: Silvia Peppoloni and Janusz Wasowski
Hazards mitigation: a geoethical perspective

10:30–10:45 : Stealth Disasters and Geoethics (solicited)

Susan W. Kieffer

10:45–11:00: Natural Hazards in Earth Science education projects

Elena Ferrero and Alessandra Magagna

11:00–11:15: Theimportance of professional skills alongside scientific and technical excellenceto underpin ethical geoscience practice

Ruth Allington and Isabel Fernandez-Fuentes

11:15–11:30: Warningand prevention based on estimates with large uncertainties: the case oflow-frequency and large-impact events like tsunamis

Stefano Tinti, Alberto Armigliato, Gianluca Pagnoni, and Filippo Zaniboni

11:30–11:45 : Communicating natural hazards. The case of marine extreme events andthe importance of the forecast's errors.

Eduardo Marone and Ricardo Camargo

11:45–12:00: Pitfallsof negationist approach in communicating induced seismicity hazard in Italy

Marco Mucciarelli

For the session link at the EGU please see the following link http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2013/orals/11853