Training

SALTGIANT will combine training in the natural and social sciences involving researchers from 11 countries to establish a stable international and multi competences training platform for young researchers. SALTGIANT will give a competitive edge to the Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) in their future job applications with the breadth of view needed to tackle complex environmental issues with a strong societal impact in their future careers.

The overall goals of the SALTGIANT training program are:

Enhance the career perspectives of ESRs;
Train and broaden their research skills bridging multidisciplinarity, intersectorial approach and crossdisciplinarity;
Develop their communication and management skills across disciplines and sectors,
Develop a new workforce for European research on a crucial target for risk-assessment.

To achieve these goals SALTGIANT ESRs will be trained at three levels : local, network-wide and external.

A Local, Individual Training

Each one of the 15 ESRs will take advantage of :

– highest quality training in fundamental theoretical knowledge and technical skills provided by leading researchers in their respective fields;
– state-of-the art research facilities and information resources.

The local training will be ensured by (i) the hosting institution and (ii) the private sector and/or academic partner that will host the ESR during at least one secondment period. During secondments, the ESR will address applied problems and gather knowledge and technical know-how for implementation in their research.

A Network-Wide Training

Network-wide training forms the backbone of SALTGIANT. Network-wide training events will foster intellectual exchanges between ESRs and will establish links between ESR projects and work packages. Altogether, each ESR will benefit from 2.5 months of network-wide training during the life of the network.

Network-wide training provides innovative, hands-on training in the form of :

Field courses

Three field courses are planned during the four years of the SALTGIANT project. These will help the ESRs to acquire a solid practice of key methods that form the basis of fundamental and applied earth and environmental sciences:

SALTGIANT Field Course 1 (April 29th - May, 4th 2019) - Introduction to MSG geology

The purpose of this field course is to introduce all ESRs to the geology of evaporite deposits and the fundamentals of MSG science. This Field course was open to external participants. See agenda of the event.

SALTGIANT Field Course 2 - Drilling training school (to be confirmed)

The purpose of this field course is to: (1) convey basic knowledge on borehole drilling/coring and downhole logging methods; (2) provide hands-on experience on core data description and logging data acquisition, processing and interpretation.

SALTGIANT Field Course 3 - Dead Sea hypersaline environments

The aim of this field course is to give ESRs direct access to one of Earth’s largest hypersaline systems, where numerous chemical and physical processes relevant to MSG science presently occur.

Short courses

Five short courses are planned during the four years of the SALTGIANT project. During these classes the ESRs will receive in-depth theoretical training in leading-edge scientific topics and techniques relevant to SALTGIANT research.

SALTGIANT Short Course 1 (November, 25th to 29th 2019) - Modern and ancient oceans

The purpose of this short course is to train SALTGIANT ESRs in the concepts and techniques used by geoscientists to reconstruct palaeoenvironments and palaeoceanographic processes by studying sediments and sedimentary rocks. For more information, see our post about the event.

SALTGIANT Short Course 2 (June 17th to 19th 2019) - Seismic data acquisition, processing, interpretation

The aim of this short course is to enable SALTGIANT ESRs to understand the principles of seismic data survey planning, acquisition and processing, and the principles of stratigraphic analysis and seismic-to-well-logs correlation. For more information, see our post about the Trieste events.

SALTGIANT Short Course 3 (October, 7th to 10th 2019) - Numerical and analogue modelling in the Earth Sciences

This short course gave to the ESRs an insight into the philosophy, methods, and applications of numerical and analogue modelling in the Earth Sciences. The event was open to external participants. For more information, see our post about the short course.

SALTGIANT Short course 4 (May 2020) - Social Sciences

This workshop will focus on economic, social, historical, and philosophical aspects of MSG science.

SALTGIANT Short course 5 – Pre-history and history of salt use

This workshop will focus on prehistory, history, anthropology, ethnology and social aspects of salt and salt use.

Transferable skills training events

Four Transferable skills training events, organized by SALTGIANT partner SISSA Medialab, are planned during the four years of the SALTGIANT project:

Transferable skills training 1 (November 28th - 29th 2018) - Communicating research and Scientific writing

This course was held during the 1st SaltGiant workshop in Palermo (Sicily). The focus was on communication skills as part of the research activity and provided tools and techniques to transform research into a story that awakens the interest of the audience for which it was conceived.

Transferable skills training 2 - Communicating current research to various audiences

This course will offer participants a panorama of science communication challenges and best practices in formats such as public talks, radio interviews, policy briefs and news writing.

Transferable skills training 3 (June, 20th - 21st 2019) - Managing research

This course will provide ESRs with the following training: Marketing (Marketing in Research/Projects, Social Media & Personal Branding, Marketing Strategy, Learning to Interview, Basics of Design Thinking), Leadership development (What is leadership and what is not, Leadership styles, Leadership in scientific environment) and Finance and budget (Accounting basics, Financial statements, Cash flow, Financial plans, Metrics definition, Tips and tricks for practical use).

Transferable skills training 4 – Developing successful exhibitions

This interactive course will present and discuss the state-of-the-art of science exhibition development with particular focus on the possible different design approaches, helping participants to reflect on the relationship between the different media, contents and visitors’ experience.