This summer is one of professional workshops – to an unusual extent and spanning an unusual broad range of topics.
It started in Amsterdam in early June, with a social lab on Responsible Research and Innovation in the NewHorrizon project. This was nothing I had planned and in fact when the invitation arrived only a couple of weeks before the event, I had to change my plans to make room for it. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to meet new people and learn about something I know is important and I actually work with – the concept of RRI. The workshop was fantastic in all aspects. Indeed I got to know new people and in a very constructive way, as the organisation was impressive. Within half an hour, we were working in pairs of people who had never met before and talking about important experiences and priorities in our professional activities. I took a lot of ideas about how to help people work well together from this event, and hope to be able to apply them in my own teaching and event coordination. Of course I also learned about RRI. And hope to learn even more, since one of the other workshop participants is already booked to come and co-organize a workshop with me in Porto.
A month later I spent a week in Lisbon for the EMERGENCE digital media science communication hackathon. An entire week of crossdisciplinary creativity is too much to even attempt to cover in a paragraph in a blog post, but have a look here for a glimpse of the week and here for a more formal presentation.
The next workshop I’m signed up for is one on a specific research methodology, infrared thermography to measure animal welfare. This is an Animal Welfare Research Network event to be held at Roslin Institute in Scotland in September, and it promises to be very practical and hands-on. I read between the lines in the registration form that participants will leave with their clothes smelling of pigs!
What about rat tickling? This is indeed also a workshop opportunity, as a pre-conference event before the International Society for Applied Ethology congress on Prince Edward Island nest week. However tempting the workshop sounds, it coincides with the meeting of the ISAE council so I will spend the day talking with fellow ethologists instead.
Animalogues 