discussion / AI for Conservation  / 28 April 2021

PhDs (or MSc) in tech + nature conservation ?

I grew interest on a few areas I'd love to carrying out in a PhD :
- mapping sustainability on economics and financial networks (I have a project proposal ready)
- applying numerical models (data-science, machine learning) for decoding animal languages

I am also opened to other proposals, concerning areas using tech for conservation and understanding of animal behaviour.

Could you suggest relevant superviors for PhD in Europe / UK ?
Open also to US and Australia, but having a EU visa and being no more in my early youth might be more difficult.

My priority is a PhD (for it is a paid job) - however, might I need to invest further and acquire an MSc, could you tell if:
- better to invest on a MSc focused on domain knowledge (e.g. nature conservation) and acquire tech skills on going (e.g. machine learning) or

- better to invest on a MSc focused on tech knowledge (e.g. data science and scientific computing) and meanwhile acquire domain knowledge by networking with projects in nature conservations ? 

In the case of MSc:
- could you suggest relevant MSc in nordern Europe (they would be free for being  European) ? 

Could you suggest any organisation that would benefit from my background and value my interest in investing further into education ? 
Self-funding a MSc out of working on a domain of interest would also be a very good option for me.

 

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My situation  - I'm European and here an MSc is required for applying to an PhD. However I do have working experience, and after advices from professionals is to keep on looking for a PhD seems my background is relevant.

My background - In a nutshell, I hold a BSc in International Development (sustainability studies, anthropology, economics of development), a post-degree specialisation in innovation management, and developed data-science and software engineering skills out of working experiences (collaboration with a research institute to map sustainability metrics in global food trade, and tech startups, where I particularly worked on graph analytics and knowledge discovery solutions). In the international development sector, I worked on innovation management side for participatory GIS projects (cybertracker) and other initiatives.
 




If you're not already on Twitter or LinkedIn I'd join both! Really really useful for job or degree searching. And sign up for Wildlabs' biweekly digest (newsletter) if you haven't already, as there are lots of PhD or job positions compiled in those. If you're looking at Europe specifically, searching EURAXESS and filtering by PhD and by topic or keyword should get you a bunch of open applications.

A Master's is not required for a PhD in the US, but might be preferred if you don't have a lot of other work experience, though it seems like you do. I'm on the conservation side of things, and I honestly wish I had done a more tech-focused degree and then focused on particular applications to wildlife and conservation. I think fieldwork is important either way, so if you have experience in international development that would be helpful regardless.

Hi Carly,

thanks for mentioning EURAXESS, did not know that.

Im on linkedin and twitter - although I'm not in a city hub like NYC or others, so sometimes I find difficult to actually make a "real connection", get to know the person, possibly cheers together, and work together. But that may also be my limit with social networks :)

PhD or MSc ?
Oh well, preference all the way for PhD, for it is funded and is a job and prefer a job over being a student - however in the EU a MSc is a requirement (exept UK, and eventually some northern Countries in the EU that may recognise working activities as valid background).

So it will be very precious if, might I need to take the route of MSc, have the possibility to get into collaborations with related works to PhD - e.g. being support for labs ? being exposed to research / contribute to research tasks ? It would be highly beneficial to support studies with jobs related to what I'd like to or freelancing opportunities more or less in the field - even better if I can liaise with smart working, so that I can collaborate people based in the US eventually.

I learnt collaborations with Uni is not that easy, for they have limited funding or have own network, however in a few situation I may offer a competitive advantage, e.g. on prototyping or developing web applications to divulge a work for the public (I can share a portfolio might be of interest).

About fieldwork and tech/non-tech degree.

Would you like to elaborate what kind of tech-focused degree or tech skills you'd have liked (or would like) to acquire, or which one feel most useful in your work as primatologist ?

 

 

 

 

carlybatist, I can help with python. Is there anything you or people in your network may need help? 
About ML  - can you tell 3 main challenges you'd think as priority in conservation, that ML can be helpful ? Also, anything that also small NGOs may struggle to work on, due to limited budget / IT capacity, and so they may benefit from freelancers ? Large NGOs or international agencies will likely work with established companies. I'ìd like to know if there could be a niche were I can interact directly with NGOs and philantropic institutions, both for supporting with services, as well for listening to feedback to project proposals that could benefit from mutual collaborations (e.g. tech pilot + fundraising = startup and product iterations with lower costs).

Also, can you mention a few activities  / roles that may offer both outdoor + analytics / tech skills ? 
Piorirty is outdoor for me. But since I have a few tech skills and management skills, im trying to trade them!