Training Principles • Network-wide Training Measures • Local Training Measures

The network as a whole undertakes to provide about 432 person-months of researchers.

The network's training coordinator will be responsible for coordinating the network-wide training activities, actively soliciting initiatives for new activities, and gathering feedback on the existing training programme, as well as offering a central contact point for all young researchers in matters of training.
Career development plans will be drawn up in collaboration between team leaders and young researchers to engage early-stage and experienced researchers in the design of their own training profile. Plans will comprise several successive stages, tailored to individual needs, and resulting in the progressive transfer of increased responsibility and accountability to the young researcher over the course of the appointment:

• In a first phase of introduction, the focus will be on fast integration with the local team (including the establishment of a trustful working relation between the young researcher and the scientist-in-charge), as well as on the swift and efficient acquisition of knowledge about the background literature salient to the young researcher’s task (including an initial exposure to the methods that are likely to be used).

• In a second phase of introduction, the young researcher and his or her mentor will jointly determine and realize the best ways for furnishing the appointed researcher with the detailed skills required for executing the assigned task with maximal efficiency and success. Reading up on suitable articles and books, visits to one or two other teams offering key expertise, attending external courses, and work on less complex initial task components are likely to be involved in this second phase of training.

• At the start of the second phase, career development plans will be prepared and agreed on. About four weeks into their appointments, each young researcher will visit the network coordinator and/or training coordinator to discuss their draft plans and to be provided with an introduction into the scientific objectives and operational details of the network as a whole.

• As soon as possible, young researchers will then progressively be given executive responsibility for the research task at hand. This process will naturally progress much faster for experienced researchers than for early-stage researchers. The challenge here is to find, for each person, the right middle ground between overwhelming a young researcher and providing an excess of guidance.

• The appointed experienced researchers will soon be introduced to the responsibility of actively coordinating research on their focal task by liaising with the efforts carried out across the different network teams. This will involve a need for familiarizing themselves with the differential expertise offered by each of the teams participating in the work on a specific task, which will best be accomplished through direct exchange during visits and secondments of varying length. In this manner, the experienced researchers will relatively quickly become a hub for the research on one of the network’s tasks and will thus decisively contribute to the transfer of knowledge between teams.

• Both early-stage and experienced researchers will be actively involved in the organization of network workshops, providing opportunities for shaping these events and building experience in coordination and management.

• The many international scientific and managerial networks and working groups that characterize the field of fisheries management at the national, European, and international level provide valuable extra options for training. An appreciation of the practical constraints and pressures under which such applied marine science is typically operating can thus be gleaned. Since most young scientists have only very limited opportunities for regular contact with international scientific working groups at this level, the options naturally offered by the composition of the FishACE network will result in exceptional training at a relatively early career stage.

• After some test runs in local seminars and network meetings, the young researchers will decide jointly with their mentors about presenting their research findings at international symposia and conferences. The earlier this step can be taken, the more the young researchers can benefit from these precious opportunities for enhancing their personal contact networks, a process that is critical for acquiring maximal chances to be recruited at other institutions after concluding their appointment with the Research Training Network.

• In the later part of each appointment, emphasis will gradually shift to training in scientific writing. Publications in international peer-reviewed scientific journals have eminent importance for building a young researcher’s CV. Accordingly, a high priority will be placed by the scientific mentor on aiding the young researcher in the successful completion and submission of such publications.

A variety of means is foreseen to ensure that the training objectives of the FishACE network are reliably met. In particular, the FishACE teams are committed to carefully integrating the following network-wide measures into the career development plans for the individual young researchers to be appointed by the network:

• Secondments of young researchers will be highly encouraged by all teams, to guarantee intensive involvement and training in the complementary expertise that network’s teams provide for each research task. While some tasks will naturally result in more networking than others, it is expected that every young scientist spends at least two weeks annually visiting other network teams.
• Further opportunities for meeting and working with senior scientists from other teams will be offered by the envisaged exchange of senior scientists across all teams of the network. It is expected that all team leaders embark on at least one such visit per year.
• The network-wide workshops will provide suitable platforms for the training of communication skills. Young researchers will be asked to give comprehensive surveys of their research progress. Possible improvements in presentations as well as updates of research plans will then be critically discussed by the group in general and by each team in particular. In addition, team leaders will ensure that young researchers will present their results at a variety of meetings, ranging from local seminars to major scientific conferences. Five annual network-wide workshops will be arranged: in addition to the opening and closing workshops, three workshops are planned to be held about 12, 24, and 36 months after the contract’s start. In particular, the third network-wide workshop will also serve to accommodate the network’s mid-term review meeting.
• Task workshops assume an important role in the training program. Young researchers from all teams will be invited to participate in all the task workshops to be held during the network’s operation. This will ensure their involvement and education in the full range of research problems and methods characteristic for the FishACE network, beyond the more focused activities within their own task’s agenda. It is expected that work on each task will involve two or more task workshops; some task workshops will be arranged jointly, for example when methodological challenges are common.
• Tutorials organized in the context of methods courses will provide necessary background material and practical introductions to specific methods, techniques, and software tools applied across a verity of tasks in the network. While the actual need for and contents of such methods courses can only be assessed after the young scientists have been appointed, it is foreseen that at least three methods courses will be required.
• All draft manuscripts will be circulated to participating teams before submission through a preprint server that the network coordinator will set up. All young researchers will be encouraged to read these papers and to provide the authors with detailed questions and advice. Team leaders are expected to ensure adherence to this scheme, discuss the obtained feedback with the young researchers in their team, and support them in improving their presentations accordingly.