2022/2023 Opwall Biodiversity Research Opportunities for Students

Operation Wallacea (Opwall) is an international biodiversity and climate research organization (www.opwall.com). For 25 years it has run biodiversity research expeditions in far-flung locations around the world. Each year, thousands of high school and university students join our extensive team of academics to take part in remote fieldwork. Students walk away from their expeditions with a valuable toolkit of hands-on research skills, new connections, and the knowledge that they contributed to data sets leading to high impact publications and real conservation management strategies for local communities. Nearly 600 papers in peer-reviewed journals have been published from these research programs: opwall.com/research-library/. Opwall will shortly be opening positions for our 2022 and 2023 expeditions. These expeditions are especially relevant to those studying biology, geography and environmental science – detailed information can be found on our website: opwall.com/in-field-experiences/. Support from academics working in these fields is integral to our continued research efforts, so we would be extremely grateful if you could help let students know about a series of free virtual presentations we are hosting to highlight the student-powered research model and ways students can get involved in our 2022/23 expeditions (all registration links are listed below or found at https://www.opwall.com/free-webinar/). These presentations are an excellent way to learn about field research in remote locations, success stories and challenges in conservation, as well as specific survey techniques, so they should be of interest to a wide variety of students.

Opportunities to gain fieldwork experience whilst contributing to biodiversity & conservation research      Operation Wallacea has run biodiversity research expeditions for the last 25 years to a series of sites (mainly biodiversity hotspots) worldwide (www.opwall.com), helping university students from around the world gain valuable experience and get their hands dirty with real biodiversity research. From dense jungle and European grasslands to coral reefs and Mediterranean seagrass meadows, our network of more than 200 academics assist in developing and leading cutting edge research projects that help to inform local conservation management strategies.  More than 575 papers including some in high impact journals such as Nature and PNAS have been published from these annual programs, so by joining the field surveys you are guaranteed a high level of academic involvement. By working alongside these academics, students either gain broad experience as research assistants or gather data for their independent research project (thesis). The expeditions vary in length from 1 to 6 weeks during the months of June to August.      Click to view our research assistant sites or  Click to view the topics available for dissertation/masters thesis       Some of our lead academics are hosting a webinar where you can learn about how to join one of these expeditions and how the data collected are being used to help with wildlife conservation measures. To register, click on the time and date below that best fits your schedule. Thursday, October 14th @ 6pm EDT (Register here!) Tuesday, October 19th @ 12pm EDT (Register here!) Monday, October 25th @ 7pm EDT (Register here!) Monday, November 1st @ 3pm EDT (Register here!) Can't make it to any of these presentations? Register anyway and we will send you a recording of the webinar afterwards. For more information on our expeditions click here.       Watch our introductory overview video (view here) which outlines who Opwall are and the fantastic work we do. Want to watch the full version? You can find it here.     For everyone who submits an expression of interest, a bespoke itinerary is created and sent to you, this is based on your interests and career objectives. To submit an expression of interest click here.