Capacity sharing

BRIDGES supports and funds the capacity sharing and research training of a future generation of researchers and decision-makers in the South-West Indian Ocean with 3 components:

1- Training through research

This includes master’s courses, PhD theses and post-doctoral fellows, opportunities in the various targeted projects, organising meetings and conferences during the programme.

Calls for thesis clusters will be a core element for this segment. The aim will be to enlarge the community that was initially identified and involved in the construction of BRIDGES. These will involve groups of PhD students and post-doctoral fellows from complementary disciplines applying a variety of approaches, methods and data to a chosen theme and/or complex shared issue.

2- Strengthening and building masters

One of the objectives of BRIDGES is to support the emergence and development of courses in response to the training requirements of academic research, professional sectors that depend on marine resources, decision-makers and administrators in the South-West Indian Ocean. The program is coordinating with universities to bolster and construct master’s courses that encourage multi- and trans-disciplinary approaches to social-ecological systems. This includes:

• Setting up a Indian Ocean regional Master’s degree constructed in collaboration with the University of Réunion and the University of Mayotte and involving teaching, work experience and fieldwork divided between these two territories.
• Funding excellence M1 and M2 scholarships for students in the SWIO.
• Reinforcing the Master’s degree in ‘Environmental resource management and sustainable development’ on the Patsy Campus at the University of Comoros by financing teaching assignments for academics.

This component relies on the collaboration with:

• The BEST-ALI master’s degree at the University of Réunion
• The Life Sciences degree (licence) at the Université de Mayotte
• The master’s degree in Environmental Resource Management and Sustainable Development on the Patsy Campus at the University of Comoros.

3- BRIDGES schools and field schools

The program is organising summer schools and field schools in collaboration with and intended for the researchers involved in BRIDGES and the many regional partners such as students, young researchers, parks, and reserves and administrations. The aim for these interdisciplinary events is to jointly design and implement solutions and also to promote science in society.