37 participants from 13 EU countries and 14 non-EU countries followed a one-week summer school in Malta organised by the JERICO-NEXT H2020 pan-European project. The course entitled “Operational Oceanography for Blue Growth” was planned and run by the Physical Oceanography Research Group of the University of Malta, and co-ordinated by Prof. Aldo Drago. The course aimed to empower participants to source, interpret, and merge available environmental data from the coastal area, and to acquire the key skills to transform these data into knowledge and added value products which can be used in the marine and maritime economic sectors and the related services. Beside the good time spent in Malta, all the participants acknowledged the quality of the lectures, and the practical sessions including a mini-hackathon. No doubt that the summer school was a success!
“I want to congratulate you for the summer school that you have perfectly organised. The speakers were very interesting, and I had the honour to meet high level participants with whom I was able to exchange. Despite the short duration of training, I believe that it was great benefit for me.” BENGOUFA Soumia, Doctorante en géoscience marine et littorale, Ecole nationale supérieure des sciences de la mer et de l’aménagement du littoral ENSSMAL (Algeria)
“The work done by the university led by Professor Aldo Drago and the team was excellent and demands recognition. They exhibited high sense of professionalism in operational oceanography and related maritime issues. From the workshop, I have learnt a lot, am ready for action when called upon, in matter related to this maritime, I will be available to honour subsequent training courses that you deem fit for the oceanography advancement, at same time have intention of working together in future as we engage on matters of mutual interest, on maritime issues and beyond”. Emojong Amai Mercy, Environment Inspector, NEMA (Kenya)
“Many thanks for the great summer school. Personally, I found it very informative, extremely useful and I am very impressed by your generous hospitality. Thank you really for all your time and effort. I so enjoyed meeting everyone and exchanging valuable information. I really do appreciate it”. Ghada Neji, marine environment consultancy (Tunisia)
The course was supported by experts engaged by the COPERNICUS Marine Environment Monitoring System (CMEMS), the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet), Bangor University (Wales) and JERICO-NEXT partners. 9 participants from African countries (Djibouti, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, Tanzania) were supported by the Centre of Excellence for Small States (Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade Promotion, Malta).
Prof. Aldo Drago
Faculty of Science, Misda, Malta
