Read the latest updates on the LIAISE Curricula!

The LIAISE training activities

LIAISE aims to stimulate the emergence and durable integration of an Impact Assessment (IA) research community. Dissemination and training activities are perceived as a vital part of this task. Not only in order to spread the results of research activities to the different target groups in the communities of IA researchers and IA users; LIAISE intends to create an identity of a research community and attract new associate partners. Beyond academics, the project aims to address policy makers from both the European and the national level as well. From the business side, consultants will be targeted and invited for a use of the LIAISE infrastructure and facilities.

The training activities are perceived to contribute to capacity building among desk officers and to raise awareness among researchers on the potential contribution to IA. Rather than organising one-off events, the focus will be on the development and testing of curricula for different target groups and training providers.

Training courses for researchers

Within LIAISE we focus on the training and education of young researchers since they constitute the future researchers in the field of impact assessment for sustainable development. Although we focus on doctoral studies in which training and education has a core role, courses are open to all young researchers (e.g. postdocs and young staff) and also more experienced researchers are welcome to attend.

LIAISE will develop specific training curricula for researchers, and test them by using the existing networks and training activities of the partners in LIAISE. The theoretical and methodological activities for researchers will focus on capacity building at all levels on subjects such as: translating IA problems into researchable questions, development and testing of quantitative tools for IA, operational methods to enhance interdisciplinary research, methods for up- and downscaling, methods for uncertainty and post-model analysis.

Such curriculum will be composed of both competence training activities (e.g. methodological courses) as well as in-depth training activities addressing the scientific developments behind specific IA elements. The curricula will be provided by a combination of partners from within and whenever useful outside the LIAISE consortium within the auspices of this NoE.

A recent training event has been the LIAISE Winter School 2012 (January 10-13, 2012) on “Tools and Modelling in Impact Assessment” hosted at LIAISE partner UFZ in Leipzig, Germany with 18 participants from different European countries. This event marked the starting point of a series of bi-annual training events taking up topics related to Impact Assessment.

A forthcoming event of this series will be held in at LIAISE partner CEH in Edinburgh, Scotland. The LIAISE Spring School 2013 will be organized in close cooperation between CEH and UFZ and focus on “Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services”.

Training courses for policy-makers

Trainings for policy-makers focus at desk officers who are conducting IAs, policy-makers who are responsible for the design and overseeing the process of IA systems, consultants that are commissioned to support IA, and practitioners that are interested in assessing their decisions, e.g. on strategies, investments, technologies, etc. regarding SD criteria.

The LIAISE training activities for policy makers and, more generally, practitioners in IA will be interdisciplinary and application-oriented courses, directed at the further education of professionals. The training activities are perceived to contribute to capacity-building among policy-makers and practitioners, and to raise awareness among these actors on the potential contribution of IA to policy-making and political decisions.

In principle, LIAISE envisages different formats of trainings for policy makers at different levels of IA related expertise (beginners/intermediate/advanced level), namely

• Online course (tutorial)
• Seminars and workshops (e.g. two-day events)
• Training series (i.e. a series of seminars/workshops)

LIAISE partner Freie Universtät Berlin (FUB) is currently preparing a first round of training courses for policy makers.

Coordination

The LIAISE Curricula are an outcome of LIAISE Work Package 7 “Dissemination and Training” led by Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) and Freie Universität Berlin (FUB). For further information, please contact Sabine Weiland (sabine.weiland@fu-berlin.de).