InvaPact III – Barcelona
Our current research project aims at standardising the ecological effects of biological invasions with a quantification, so that they can then be compiled accros IAS, invaded regions, ecosystems and habitats, and analysed globally and according to various drivers. In the past two years, we had two workshops Invapact I and II to develop the concepts and the database. A brief history of this project is available here.
Now, we are preparing InvaPact III, a workshop specifically designed to analyse collectively the database. The workshop will be held the first week of November in Northern Spain (near Barcelona) in an extremely nice venue.
What we will do :
This time, we will collectively analyze the database, and make a bank of scripts for any possible analyses and figures, to be used collectively for the studies of each group of participants. Like for the previous four workshops, the idea is to work collectively to help each other achieve the highest quality studies, in particular by sharing scripts. Each participant will have the opportunity to lead a study on their own preferred topics, and participate to others previously started. The main objective of the workshop to finish the first draft of analyses and figures for the papers of the participants. Papers per se will be written after the workshop.
To achieve this, my objective is to host experts of all major taxonomic groups and regions represented and various key topics. During InvaPact II, many ideas were proposed for studies to be published, and we have this unique opportunity to work together on them and even more!
How we will work
Unlike previous workshops, we don’t plan to have many brainstorming or conceptual sessions, our focus is on data analyses within small groups. We will alternate global sessions and group/solo working sessions. The InvaCost/InvaPact philosophy is to work in a benevolent, friendly, collaborative consortium, whereby more experienced researchers help newcomers on the scene to reach their full potential. We aim at cooperating on many papers together. Each participant will have the possibility to lead one paper at least, and to co-authorship others, but genuine participation and active collaborations are expected to co-sign papers. Nothing will please us more than to see you progressively become strong collaborators to each other in your future careers. The InvaCost and InvaPact groups (largely overlapping) are concrete proof that collaboration and benevolence are more powerful in academia than competition.
Participant profile:
As for the other workshops, I am focusing on Early Career Researcher (ECR), not only to provide them with a strong collaborative networks (and papers) for the start of their career. Because we are aiming at data analysis, code-friendly and quantitative oriented ECR would be most fitting. You don’t have to be a movie-like code wizard though, but you need to be able to handle ecological datasets and good knowledge on statistics. In addition to people in love with data, and perhaps large scales (i.e., macroecology, large taxonomic groups), we would like to give priority to women and ECR from under represented groups/regions. We will aim at having as wide a geographic representation as possible, insisting on colleagues from countries that are classically less represented in invasion biology. We will also select candidates according to their taxonomic group of expertise, if any, to minimize knowledge overlaps and gaps.
Remember, the imposter syndrome may be your enemy. You can check the truth of that in our comic book on the InvaCost adventure. In case of doubt about your adequation to our ideal profile, please do not hesitate – I repeat: do not hesitate – to contact me.
How much will this cost?
Everything has a cost, and I will this time unfortunately only be able to cover the expenses of a few ECR from underfunded regions. We are covering for everyone the majority of the cost of the 6 nights accommodation/meals/coffee breaks/social events, but there remains a participation fee of 750€ for a double room (1500€ for a single room). People will have to specify whether they want a single or double room asap (since the number of single rooms will limit the number of participants, and the number of available rooms is declining quite fast). If you are an Early Career Researcher, fit the profile, want to come but have no funding, please do not hesitate to contact me.
If you are interested, and available [01/11-07-11] and then after to work on the studies, please send a CV and information on your study topics to franck.courchamp@cnrs.fr (please CC to invapact@gmail.com) and a motivation letter.
This is undoubtedly the most exciting project of my career, and I genuinely hope your group can be part of it.
Franck
