Operation Wallacea is a biodiversity and climate research organisation. Weare giving a series of online seminars to talk to students about thebiodiversity field research experience and skills they can gain overthe coming summer by joining one of our expeditions. I was hoping youwould be able to share this information with your students.Below, I have included a link to a PowerPoint slide which has allthe relevant information that could be displayed at the start/end oflectures (or one electronic noticeboards around the department). I havealso attached below an email that can be sent out directly to students,if you are able to do so.PNG image link and PowerPoint link.Operation Wallacea have been running biodiversity research expeditions forthe last 25 years in a series of sites around the world. Each year up to200 academics, postdocs and PhD students join us on expedition to completetheir field research. In this time, the survey teams have publishedover 600 papers in peer reviewed journals from these intensive researchprogrammes. The programmes are funded by students who pay tuition feesto gain field experience, working with teams of scientists or gatheringdata for their dissertation. As well as this, we have professional fundraisers who can direct students on grant and activities that can helpthem reduce or even eliminate the costs of joining our programmes.With the pandemic, our research programmes have been scaled back howeverfor 2023 we are still running our projects in Croatia, South Africa,Mexico, Honduras, Madagascar and Indonesia.If you have any questions, are interested in any of the work we havementioned above or would personally like to get involved with OperationWallacea,please do not hesitate to get in touch. Please do also reply tothis email to let us know if you are able to share this with your students,as this allows us to monitor our outreach.Many thanks in advance for any help you can offer.Dr Tim Coles OBEProject Director and Founder, Operation Wallacea (opwall.com)CEO, rePLANET (replanet.org.uk)Founder and Advisor to the Wallacea Trust (wallaceatrust.org)Opportunities to gain remote fieldwork experience in biodiversity andconservation researchOperation Wallacea has run biodiversity research expeditions for the last25 years to a series of sites (mainly biodiversity hotspots) worldwide(https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.opwall.com%2F&data=05%7C01%7C%7C886f9202e42647be9c1e08dada7af060%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C638062518892970294%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=RiXivjWb%2FuMcSdg9jadHIBlQq5B79RcB3uNvWjSmhPU%3D&reserved=0), helping university students from around the worldgain valuable experience and get their hands dirty with real biodiversityresearch. From dense jungle and European grasslands to coral reefs andMediterranean seagrass meadows, our network of more than 200 academicsassist in developing and leading cutting edge research projects thathelp to inform local conservation management strategies.More than 600 papers including some in high impact journals such asNature and PNAS have been published from these annual programs, so byjoining the field surveys you are guaranteed a high level of academicinvolvement. By working alongside these academics, students either gainbroad experience as research assistants or to gather data for theirindependent research project (thesis). The expeditions vary in lengthfrom 2 to 6 weeks during the month of June to August.Click to view our research assistant sites orClick to view the topics available for dissertation/masters thesisA number of our leading scientists are holding a series of webinars,where you can learn about how to join one of these expeditions, how thedata collected are being used to help with wildlife conservation measuresand what benefits there could be to you and the career path you forge.Click on the time and date below to register for the talk you wouldlike to attend. If for any reason you can’t attend but are interested infinding out more then please emailexpeditions@opwall.comTo register:Tuesday 13th December – 10am(PST)/1pm (EST)Tuesday 13th December – 5pm(PST)/8pm (EST)For more information and to register for the webinars you can alsoclick here.After we successfully returned to a number of our research sites lastyear,we are excited to continue supporting the local communities andresearch needs at our established sites.The expeditions carry a cost and when students sign up we give themsupport in how to fundraise. Most students raise a good percentage oreven all of the funds needed from grants, sponsorship and fundraisingactivities. Many universities provide a good level of financialsupport, we also have professional fund raisers to provide support andadvice. Given the growing public concern about environmental protection,species extinctions and climate change getting support for joining realbiodiversity research expeditions is increasingly possible. However,raising funds takes time and planning which is why we like to introducethe programs to students as soon as possible in the new university year.Watch our introductory overview video(view here)which outlines who Opwallare and the fantastic work we do. Want to watch the full version? Youcan find it here.