Grant: Collaborative Research and Training Experience

Canada harbours tens of thousands of lakes and many of the world's largest rivers. These ecosystems are facing increasing pressures, particularly through resource exploitation, the intensification of agriculture and climate change. The widespread presence of these stressors has brought about a sustained demand for highly qualified personnel in aquatic ecology. Although employers recognize that candidates who graduate from our universities are highly competent in freshwater science, they lack knowledge vis-à-vis the realities of the working environment. In this context, the CREATE training program in Lake and Fluvial Ecology (ÉcoLac) meets a strategic demand. Furthermore, the proposed program directly falls within the NSERC target area ""Environmental science and technologies"". This program will be unique because the targeted ecosystems are not the object of any other CREATE program. ÉcoLac will be a bilingual program and will allow for more than 110 candidates to receive training complementary to their scientific eductation, through 10 major initiatives: course on ethical conduct and project management (initiative 1); courses on writing (initiative 2) and oral communication (initiative 3); paid internships in the professional environment (initiative 4); summer field courses on Boreal lakes (initiative 5) and fluvial ecology (initiative 6); workshops on state-of-the-art techniques (initiative 7); annual symposium on realities of the working environment with people from industry and government (initiative 8); fellowships for national and international internships (initiative 9) and for interdisciplinary training (initiative 10). ÉcoLac will involve the Groupe de recherche interuniversitaire en limnologie et en environnement aquatique (GRIL; 8 universities from Québec), the Canadian Rivers Institute (University of New Brunswick) and the Cooperative Freshwater Ecology Unit (Laurentian University). By developing a synergy among the three main freshwater research centres in Eastern Canada, we will create an outstanding training program.