PhD students - opportunity to engage with Systems at IFSA 2016

The IFSA 2016: PhD Course has just been announced. 

Please circulate the announcement to anyone who might be interested.

Systems Thinking in Practice(STiP) in PhD Research: appreciating and effecting transformations with farming systems research (4 ECTS - Subject to Approval)

This PhD course will run throughout the period of the IFSA 2016 Symposium at Harper Adams University from Sunday 10th July to Saturday 16th July 2016. It will focus on the main theme of the IFSA Symposium and consider how research plays a key role in appreciating how purposeful transformations are realized in different parts of the world, related to farming, food, rural areas and environment. It will consider the increasingly multifaceted complexity of issues of sustainability, water, food and soil security and climate change in relation to food and fibre production and consumption, in addition to the maintenance or enhancement of ecosystems services and the concomitant enhancement of rural livelihoods.

The purpose of this course is to help you, the PhD student, develop your STiP skills in contextualizing your research, to make connections among issues using systems thinking and to so improve your ability to work both strategically and purposefully in relation to transformations. The course is also designed to help you build on what other researchers have previously undertaken. The course will be delivered by Dr Chris Blackmore, Professor Ray Ison, and Professor Dr. Nadarajah Sriskandarajah. Full details of the course can be found here.