Applications are now open for seven (7) internship opportunities for candidates from developing States, Members of the International Seabed Authority (ISA). The placements are provided by the Institut français de recherche pour l’exploitation de la mer (Ifremer) in accordance with its obligations under its contracts for exploration for polymetallic nodules (PMN) and polymetallic sulphides (PMS) with ISA.
Under its PMN exploration contract, Ifremer is offering one (1) internship in Environmental Studies. The internship will take place within its deep-sea ecosystems studies laboratory, in Brest (France), for a duration of two months (approximately from mid-October to mid-December 2022). Candidates should hold a bachelor’s degree-level education (preferably in natural sciences) and should be enrolled in a first master’s level course (or equivalent) in biology, preferably in marine biology, biodiversity and ecology or molecular biosciences. Fluency in French or English is required.
The internship will focus on taxonomic identification of meiofauna via innovative imaging tools to improve techniques for investigating deep-sea marine biodiversity. The candidate will be trained in meiofauna taxonomy and in particular benthic foraminifera, as well as in binocular imaging and high-resolution digital acquisition techniques. The intern will also receive training in artificial intelligence and contribute to developing innovative tools to improve taxonomic knowledge for marine biodiversity.
Under the contract for PMS exploration, Ifremer is offering six (6) internships for candidates to participate in the 4th Marine Imaging Workshop in 2022. This training will be held over a five-day period in Brest (France) from 3 to 7 of October 2022.
The international Marine Imaging Workshops assemble around 100 scientists and engineers from different disciplines to push the boundaries of marine imaging. Biologists, ecologists, computer scientists, end-users and stakeholders discuss the methods and procedures for optimising the ways information is harvested through images. Topics cover everything from the start to finish of marine image analysis: acquisition planning, image collection, processing of images prior to annotation, still/video annotation, the future of annotation, FAIR image data management and much more.
Interested candidates should possess a bachelor’s/master’s degree of science in the relevant field of biology, geology, geochemistry, geophysics, oceanography or have an equivalent educational background. Fluency in English is required.
One of the Voluntary Commitments made by the ISA at the UN Ocean Conference 2017 was “Enhancing the role of Women in Deep-Sea Research through capacity building” – we therefore strongly encourage suitably qualified females to apply for these training opportunities.
Please visit this link (PMN) and this link (PMS) for more information and to apply. Applications by qualified candidates should be received no later than 30 June 2022.
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All contractors with ISA have a legal obligation to provide and fund training opportunities for personnel from developing States and those of ISA.
The legal basis for the requirement stems from the provisions of UNCLOS and the 1994 Agreement and is set out in the standard terms of contracts. Its purpose is to ensure that personnel from developing States are provided with appropriate operational expertise to enable them to participate in deep-seabed mining.
Please visit this page to know more about the Contractor Training Programme.
For additional information, please contact:
Ms. Annekah Mason, Training Coordinator, ISA, training@isa.org.jm
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For more information visit our website www.isa.org.jm or follow us on Twitter @ISBAHQ