PhD Courses in Denmark

To ensure all PhD students in Fishing Gear Technology have read upon the basic body of academic work in the field. To support the PhD students skill development towards interdisciplinary research by broadening the horizon of topics and approaches in Fisheries Technology through discussion of novel literature. To train skills in critically reviewing scientific research papers, providing constructive feedbacks and identifying best scientific practices.

A student who has met the objectives of the course will be able to:

• Read, assess, and critically evaluate scientific papers in the field of fisheries technology.
• Expand the knowledge on the field of fisheries technology.
• Present and give constructive feedback on other students’ presentations.
• Gain an overview of the various types of models/analysis and methods used in the field of fisheries technology and the kind of biological, environmental, and operational knowledge required to successfully implement these models.
• Make a well-structured oral presentation on a topic related to fisheries technology (incl. scientific articles and possibly relating the students’ research to the topic).
• Be able to organize a session on a topic related to fisheries technology (e.g. finding relevant literature, preparing and presenting).
• Discuss issues driving the front of fisheries technology research and ability to relate own research to these issues.
• Get inspired from insights in other studies discussed, which make course participants able to incorporate knowledge into their own research projects.

The course consists of presentations and discussions of peer-reviewed scientific articles within the topic of Fisheries technology. The critical review of the articles will focus on both deep knowledge of the information delivered, i.e., general fisheries technology scientific culture, and the way that the information is delivered, i.e., scientific writing. Before each session the students read 2-3 papers selected by the group beforehand on a specific topic. Topics will be selected at the beginning of the course together with the students and will include emerging topics of interest within the field as well as more classical ones. Examples of topics are gear selectivity and environmental impact, sustainability of different fishing methods incl. from a socio-economic perspective, fish behavior in relation to fishing gears, hydrodynamics of fishing gears and consequences on carbon footprint, use of computer vision and emerging technologies in monitoring fish. Each student is provided with a focus point to critically evaluate within and across papers (e.g., how are the research questions formulated and addressed in the material and methods and results sections, how are the results presented, does the choice of literature correctly support the statements of the authors, reflections on ethics statement and data availability statement, does the data support the conclusions). Each student is responsible for one topic, entailing preparing a short introductory presentation to the topic and leading the discussion. During each 2 hours session, the first hour is dedicated to discussing the focus points. The student who is responsible for the session introduces the topic with a short presentation focusing on content and leads the discussion on the focus points, ensuring proper feedback practice (constructive, concrete and clear feedback). The second hour is a discussion on how the topic relates to the students’ own field of interest and explores the possibilities for inter-disciplinary approaches in future research within the group. The course participants are expected to spend 7 hours preparing before each session (i.e., reading articles and preparing focus points for all participants, preparing short presentation for student in charge). We will conduct 8 sessions and to pass each student has to participate actively in 6 of 8 sessions and lead one of them.