Education

Innovative education & capacity building

Training to contribute to the SDGs

The education & capacity building activities of IHCantabria are proof of its unbreakable commitment to academic excellence and the contribution to sustainable development in the scope of the socioecological systems associated to water.

The core of our training activities focuses on providing the skills to our researchers, experts and managers to face the challenges of sustainable development, including its various environmental, social and economic components. This commitment drives all our initiatives guiding us towards a future where the specialized, high-added value knowledge is key to face the challenges of social, environmental, digital and fair transition.

Training researchers is one of the priority objectives at IHCantabria, at the same time as one of its main strengths. During this period, the IH2O Doctorate Program has registered 42 active Doctorate students from 10 countries and 3 continents. This group represents 5.7% of the students pursuing a doctorate degree at the University of Cantabria and approximately 20% of the ones in the Engineering.

Throughout 2023, 6 new students have defended their Doctorate Theses successfully and therefore joined postdoctoral research positions in various institutions, three of them are based in European countries. As graduates of our program, they will deal with fundamental issues relating to water, resources ecosystems and infrastructures climate research or the risks associated to climate change.

Faculty members at IHCantabria have also continued their leadership in international graduate studies through their implication in the 2nd edition of the Erasmus Mundus COASTHAZAR Master’s Program, gathering students from 10 different countries. The main purpose of this program is educating future researchers and professionals in the understanding and management of risks associated to climate change in coastal areas.

Furthermore, progress has been made in the implementation of the IHCantabria’s Education & Capacity Building Strategy (ECCE-IH), thanks to the opening of new last generation training facilities (multipurpose online training rooms and recording studio); the development of new Education & Capacity Building Portal, where the entire learning offer of IHCantabria will be hosted from 2024 onwards and the creation of new courses.

In the meantime, the lifelong training program has continued through 16 specialized seminars delivered by prestigious researchers from 9 countries, 4 inhouse training courses and 10 online courses. As a novelty, two new training lines −i.e., TRASMARES, on applied tools for sustainable marine ecosystems, and ADAPTA BLUES, on climate change adaptation in estuaries− have been developed. They consist of a successful set of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) that have already contributed to the training of over 1,500 students from various countries thanks to the new digital, open and inclusive education technologies IHCantabria is equipped with.

In summary, all these activities are a demonstration of the ongoing commitment of IHCantabria with training and educating professionals who will lead the way to a sustainable future. We do not only seek to transfer knowledge, but also inspire the next generation of leaders who will have to face the challenges relating to the water cycle and the associated socioecological systems.