International project SeaChanges receives four million Euros in funding

The European Commission has awarded seven higher education and research institutions four million Euros in funding to train 15 PhDs to research past human impact on marine vertebrates. The University of Groningen has received the largest share, one million Euros to train four PhD candidates; two PhD candidates at the Faculty of Arts (FA), one at the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE) and a fourth both at FA and FSE. The projects will begin in October.

The world’s oceans are crucial to the European economy, identity, and food security. European societies have relied heavily upon the exploitation of marine resources for millennia, with large impacts on the marine environment. SeaChanges provides state-of-the-art training of a new generation of interdisciplinary researchers. A total of 15 PhDs in will work across seven leading institutions to be trained in archaeology, zoology, marine ecology, genomics and conservation biology; all united by the desire for innovation in the study of our oceans.

The scientific coordinator for the University of Groningen (UG) is Dr. Canan Çakırlar, who works in the field of zooarchaeology. The four UG PhD candidates will conduct researchin archaeology, anthropology, ecology and genomics to map and assess the impacts of the past exploitation of marine fishes, sea turtles, walruses and whales in order to establish baselines for conservation and management to aid sustainable exploitation.

Other UG researchers include Prof. Dr. Per Palsbøll (GELIFES), Prof. Dr. Peter Jordan and Dr. Sean Desjardins (Arctic Centre of GIA), and Prof. Dr. Daan Raemaekers (GIA).

Additional institutions taking part in SeaChanges include the University of Oslo, the Spanish National Research Council, the University of Cambridge, the University of York, the University of Copenhagen, and the University of Bologna.

For more information and updates, follow SeaChanges and the UG on Twitter.