| Work package number | Wp5 | Lead beneficiary | IHE Delft Institute for Water Education |
| Title | Communication and dissemination activities | ||
| Start month | 1 (Feb 2020) | End month | 48 (Jan 2024) |
Objectives
This work package aims at developing transfer of knowledge and results to partners and institutions inside and outside the project consortium. It will also promote the outcomes of the project to partners as well as develop and support educational and capacity building activities. Specific objectives of this WP are:
- to ensure an efficient communication by the building of a interoperable platform with a public and private access
- to coordinate dissemination of results to the target audiences through publications, organization of workshop involving stakeholders thereby to positively align research outputs with the needs of stakeholders, political decision-makers and end users
The WP leader – IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, has a long experience in training and dissemination. Indeed, IHE is an academic institution whose mission is to contribute to the capacity development of professionals in the developing world focused on sustainable management of water and the environment. As such, it is perfectly suited to provide expertise in dissemination to be developed in this work package.
The organization of two workshops will provide an opportunity for comprehensive exchanges between the partners representing the different disciplines. Workshops will reinforce the networking activities and the exchange of data, knowledge and secondment feedbacks. They will also be the place to exchange information with stakeholders. Finally, research outputs will be disseminated to stakeholders and policymakers and communicated in primary and secondary schools.
Description of work and role of partners
Task 5.1: Interoperable platform (Lead: Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier University (UT3))
A website (including an interoperable and collaborative platform) will be set up for the INSA project in order to better exchange on knowledge, work progress and results within the consortium. It will also facilitate exchange between WP especially since they are many interconnections between scientific WP 2 to 4. The public site will present the project concept, its participating organizations, its core objectives, N related literature, easy to understand infographics presenting the scientific and societal benefits of the project and especially N implication in the environment, supports from lectures of the workshops, educational materials, links to existing data bases and other relevant websites, projects, networks, conferences, links to videos, reportages and interviews performed during the project.
The website will contain a restricted area for the participating organisations with confidential information (secured password access) and a public area for dissemination and communication purposes. The website will be generated by a technical team of UT3 and maintained by the coordinator and the project manager. Each participating organization will be given web-editor access rights and will be able to edit and modify the content in order to facilitate knowledge transfer and exchange. The “private” area will be used to gather all relevant results, the database, interim reports and the deliverables. Participating organizations will be invited to systematically upload relevant files in this area of the website in order to monitor the progress of the different WP. Information on meetings from agenda and venue to minutes will be uploaded on the website as well. The server will also host the project’s databases which will gather all experimental results.
Task 5.2: Organisation of workshops (Lead: IHE Delft Institute for Water Education)
Two workshops will be organized in Africa (Côte d’Ivoire, July 2021 and Kenya, July 2020). They will include:
- Lectures and seminars on biogeochemical cycles, N cycle, greenhouse gases, climate change and air quality impact, water quality, social impact of N management in agriculture, etc.
- Courses on technical approaches: flux measurement techniques and calculations, laboratory analytical techniques, and estimate of NANI (Net Anthropogenic Nitrogen Input) budget components (see NANI in WP3), data-handling, data quality control of measurements, analysis, modeling
- Courses on transversal thematic: dissemination by APDOC, science/society interactions, developing educational tools and methods, presentation of stakeholders institutions and work
- Visits of experimental sites
- Targeted discussions around specific thematic, between stakeholders and academics
- Discussions on secondment contents and feedbacks between host and seconded staff
Félix-Houphouët-Boigny University (FHBU) will host the first workshop in Côte d’Ivoire. This workshop will focus on emission and deposition of gaseous compounds in rural and urban environments, and impact on regional climate and atmospheric chemistry. Site visits in FHBU will both deal with modelling and experimental approaches, with a visit of the geophysical Lamto station that is an INDAAF experimental station for atmospheric composition and deposition site since 1995 (Atmospheric measurements: aerosol concentrations (dust, carbonaceous), gases (GHG and reactive), rain, deposition, meteorology) and an AERONET site (ACTRIS FR components), representative of the wet savanna ecosystem. The new supercomputing facilities at Bingerville (supported by FHBU and Bull France) will also be visited.
The second workshop in Kenya will focus on site measurement technique deployment, quality control of observations and data-handling, process samples related to hydrological and gaseous fluxes of nitrogen. The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) analytical lab and the Mazingira Centre will be visited. Participants will be informed on N flux measurements representative of different agricultural management and on technical analytical protocols for N chemistry in water for hydrological losses and gaseous losses via N2O. It will benefit from the ILRI campus in Nairobi where accommodations is available. Lectures will also include NANI approach procedure. Training manual for implementing NANI will be made available on the collaborative interoperable platform. European and African expert researchers and early stage researchers will be involved in these workshops to give and listen conferences and lectures. INSA will contribute to build new networks between the next generation of European and African scientists in the view of future potential collaborations between the two continents.
Task 5.3: Educational tools development and training provision for school teachers, young scientists and wide public in Africa and EU (Lead: Les Petits Débrouillards Occitanie (APDOC))
Simplified information in an accessible language to children and teenagers will be processed by APDOC. Based on that, educational materials will be provided for teachers in primary and secondary schools in Africa and Europe. Seconded staff from this organization will participate in the organization of training for teachers and young scientists in Africa. Simplified information of the impact of nitrogen on the environment will be provided in the form of slides, boards and flyers.
Public events such as “Café des sciences” and Science Days in research units, open to a large interested public, will be organized by APDOC during secondments in Africa, and during secondments of the non-EU staff to Europe. Outreach and communication of INSA results to interested public in Europe and Africa is also envisionned.
Task 5.4: Dissemination to stakeholders (Lead: Institute of Agricultural Research & Training in Nigeria (IAR&T))
To efficiently exploit the findings, a dissemination strategy with key stakeholders and policy makers will be developed. Stakeholders have been identified to ensure that they are involved in the development of holistic solutions for good N management. The network of those stakeholders will assess the scientific evidence, identify barriers to implementation of the recommended solutions, and options to overcome them. The network will inform the design of decision support tools, and decision-making tree based on technical and financial consideration. It will also be an opportunity to seek for commitment of the various stakeholders and policy makers to address the challenges and issues based on their ability and professional responsibilities. Deliverables will include: (1) Nitrogen scientific and policy workshops, (2) established network of key stakeholders; and (3) policy brief.
Task 5.5: Data Management Plan (Lead: Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier University (UT3))
A Data Management Plan (DMP) will be established at the beginning of the project and evolve during the lifespan of the project. The DMP will thus be updated at the mid-term and end of the project. It will detail: (1) Data set reference and name, (2) Data set description, (3) Standards and metadata, (4) Data sharing, (5) Archiving and preservation (including storage and backup). This DMP will ensure that data follow the FAIR principles in order to improve and maximize reuse of research data beyond the original purpose of the project for which it was collected.
Description of deliverables
D5.1: Project branding and website (month 2, March 2020)
D5.2: Initial Data Management Plan (month 6, July 2020)
D5.3: First workshop (Côte d’Ivoire) (month 18, July 2021)
D5.4: Second workshop (Kenya) (month 30, July 2022)
D5.5: Policy brief, guidelines for adaptation and mitigation on nitrogen use (month 45, Oct 2023)
D5.6: Final Data Management Plan (month 48, Jan 2024)