General information
ArcTrain Graduiertenkolleg
ArcTrain "Processes and impacts of climate change in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Canadian Arctic" is a an International Research Training Group funded from 2013 until 2022 jointly through the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) under its Collaborative Research and Training Experience Program (CREATE) scheme.
Due to a complex set of feedback processes collectively known as “polar amplification”, the Arctic realm is expected to experience a greater-than-average response to global climate forcing. At present, the region is characterized by an accelerating trend of climatic and environmental change. Rising temperatures are associated with loss of sea ice and melting of continental ice masses. The excess meltwater is routed into the North Atlantic, where it may interfere with the formation of deep water and thus affect the global large-scale oceanic circulation. The cascades of feedback processes that connect the Arctic cryosphere, ocean and atmosphere remain incompletely constrained by observations and theory and are difficult to simulate in climate models. Still, state-of-the-art climate models often fail to reproduce observed instrumental trends as well as past regional climate response reconstructed from marine sediment archives.
This is the starting point for the proposed International Research Training Group aiming to educate PhD students in an interdisciplinary environment that combines the strength in marine geosciences and environmental physics in Bremen with complementary skills and expertise in sea-ice and ice-sheet modeling in a consortium of eight Canadian universities. The resulting scientific team with the PhD students in its centre aims to advance the understanding of the variability of the Arctic Ocean and the cryosphere on time scales of decades to millennia, to use these results to benchmark current trends and inform climate models to robustly assess the impact of projected future climate changes on the Arctic.
The qualification program for the PhD students includes joint supervision, mandatory research residences at partner institutions, field courses, annual meetings and training workshops and a challenging structured training in expert skills and transferrable skills. Its aim is to enhance the career prospects and employability of the graduates in a challenging international job market across academic and applied sectors. The structured doctoral program includes among other aspects reciprocal research residences in Canada and Germany, yearly training workshops, Arctic field course, Floating University and Arctic stakeholder workshop. ArcTrain is a collaborative Project led by scientists from MARUM, Faculty of Geosciences and Faculty of Physics/Electrical Engineering at the University of Bremen and colleagues from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven. The german part of the project is designed to continue for nine years and will educate three cohorts of twelve PhD students each. Our Canadian partners comprise a consortium of eight universities led by the GEOTOP cluster at the Université du Québec à Montréal and including Dalhousie University, McGill University, Memorial University of Newfoundland, University of Alberta, University of British Columbia, University of Calgary and Université du Québec à Rimouski.
The ArcTrain project team comprises 27 PhD students, 12 of those in Germany and 15 in Canada, supervised by 23 principal investigators from 11 institutions in both countries plus adminstrative staff.
To obtain more information about the Canadian part of the ArcTrain project visit their website here.
Content
The highlighted icons, represent the fields of education (in compliance with ISCED Classification) engaged during this course/programme.
Venue
Bremen, Germany
Application
Cost:
<p class="rtejustify">The programme offers fully funded places to 12 PhD students every 3 years; participation as associated student in the programme is possible - it incurs no charges but is subject to a successful application.</p>
Prerequisites:
For its funded places, ArcTrain accepts undergraduate students eligible for PhD studies at the University Bremen. Further details are available in the advertisement every three years. Associated PhD students must be already pursuing a PhD degree.
Application Procedure:
All PhD students funded through ArcTrain are automatically members of ArcTrain. In addition, our programme is open to PhD students funded through other programmes, as long as their research is aligned with the aims of ArcTrain and provided that they and their supervisors agree to the requirements set below. To be admitted to ArcTrain as an Associated PhD student, you will need to submit an application as detailed below. The application will be reviewed by ArcTrain coordination team and the results will be communicated to the PhD student and their supervisor(s). Typically, ArcTrain Associated PhD students will be graduating from the University of Bremen, but participation by students from other universities is possible as well. ArcTrain Associated PhDs are expected to follow the ArcTrain curriculum, as far as the specific nature of their PhD projects allow. They will gain access to all ArcTrain activities, including annual training workshops, retreats and floating university. Pending availability, they will be eligible to apply for funding of their qualification programme
Who can apply? PhD students at the University of Bremen, AWI as well as other Universities, who have started their PhD and whose PhD topic is aligned with the research aims of ArcTrain, may apply for admission within the first 6 months of the beginning of their PhD studies.
When and how to apply? You can apply at any time, as long as you are applying within the first 6 months of your PhD. The application should include all the documents listed below. Please combine all documents into one single PDF, not exceeding 5MB, and send it to: arctrain(at)marum.de
How to structure the application? The application should include the following documents. Please make sure to follow the order as listed below:
- Application form (see below) including an indication which parts of the ArcTrain curriculum you will be able to follow
- Curriculum Vitae
- Motivation letter (please include an explanation why you would like to become a member of ArcTrain)
- Description of your PhD project (not exceeding one page)
- Letter from your supervisor confirming that
- the supervisor supports your decision to join ArcTrain,
- is willing to share your supervision with a thesis committee and
- agrees that you are expected to follow the ArcTrain curriculum as detailed in the application form.
Applications are accepted only if submitted within the first 6 months of the PhD project. This 6 months period has been defined to give the PhD students enough time to follow the ArcTrain curriculum and to secure early involvement of a thesis committee. On acceptance both, the PhD student and the supervisor, become members of the respective assemblies of ArcTrain.
Grant Opportunities:
For fully funded places at the University of Bremen or AWI – see information on ArcTrain website provided every three years. For associated PhD students – see application documents provided on the ArcTrain website.
Qualification
ArcTrain "Processes and impacts of climate change in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Canadian Arctic" is a an International Research Training Group funded from 2013 until 2022 jointly through the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) under its Collaborative Research and Training Experience Program (CREATE) scheme.
Due to a complex set of feedback processes collectively known as “polar amplification”, the Arctic realm is expected to experience a greater-than-average response to global climate forcing. At present, the region is characterized by an accelerating trend of climatic and environmental change. Rising temperatures are associated with loss of sea ice and melting of continental ice masses. The excess meltwater is routed into the North Atlantic, where it may interfere with the formation of deep water and thus affect the global large-scale oceanic circulation. The cascades of feedback processes that connect the Arctic cryosphere, ocean and atmosphere remain incompletely constrained by observations and theory and are difficult to simulate in climate models. Still, state-of-the-art climate models often fail to reproduce observed instrumental trends as well as past regional climate response reconstructed from marine sediment archives.
This is the starting point for the proposed International Research Training Group aiming to educate PhD students in an interdisciplinary environment that combines the strength in marine geosciences and environmental physics in Bremen with complementary skills and expertise in sea-ice and ice-sheet modeling in a consortium of eight Canadian universities. The resulting scientific team with the PhD students in its centre aims to advance the understanding of the variability of the Arctic Ocean and the cryosphere on time scales of decades to millennia, to use these results to benchmark current trends and inform climate models to robustly assess the impact of projected future climate changes on the Arctic.
The qualification program for the PhD students includes joint supervision, mandatory research residences at partner institutions, field courses, annual meetings and training workshops and a challenging structured training in expert skills and transferrable skills. Its aim is to enhance the career prospects and employability of the graduates in a challenging international job market across academic and applied sectors. The structured doctoral program includes among other aspects reciprocal research residences in Canada and Germany, yearly training workshops, Arctic field course, Floating University and Arctic stakeholder workshop. ArcTrain is a collaborative Project led by scientists from MARUM, Faculty of Geosciences and Faculty of Physics/Electrical Engineering at the University of Bremen and colleagues from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven. The german part of the project is designed to continue for nine years and will educate three cohorts of twelve PhD students each. Our Canadian partners comprise a consortium of eight universities led by the GEOTOP cluster at the Université du Québec à Montréal and including Dalhousie University, McGill University, Memorial University of Newfoundland, University of Alberta, University of British Columbia, University of Calgary and Université du Québec à Rimouski.
The ArcTrain project team comprises 27 PhD students, 12 of those in Germany and 15 in Canada, supervised by 23 principal investigators from 11 institutions in both countries plus adminstrative staff.
To obtain more information about the Canadian part of the ArcTrain project visit their website here.
All PhD students funded through ArcTrain are automatically members of ArcTrain. In addition, our programme is open to PhD students funded through other programmes, as long as their research is aligned with the aims of ArcTrain and provided that they and their supervisors agree to the requirements set below. To be admitted to ArcTrain as an Associated PhD student, you will need to submit an application as detailed below. The application will be reviewed by ArcTrain coordination team and the results will be communicated to the PhD student and their supervisor(s). Typically, ArcTrain Associated PhD students will be graduating from the University of Bremen, but participation by students from other universities is possible as well. ArcTrain Associated PhDs are expected to follow the ArcTrain curriculum, as far as the specific nature of their PhD projects allow. They will gain access to all ArcTrain activities, including annual training workshops, retreats and floating university. Pending availability, they will be eligible to apply for funding of their qualification programme
Who can apply? PhD students at the University of Bremen, AWI as well as other Universities, who have started their PhD and whose PhD topic is aligned with the research aims of ArcTrain, may apply for admission within the first 6 months of the beginning of their PhD studies.
When and how to apply? You can apply at any time, as long as you are applying within the first 6 months of your PhD. The application should include all the documents listed below. Please combine all documents into one single PDF, not exceeding 5MB, and send it to: arctrain(at)marum.de
How to structure the application? The application should include the following documents. Please make sure to follow the order as listed below:
- Application form (see below) including an indication which parts of the ArcTrain curriculum you will be able to follow
- Curriculum Vitae
- Motivation letter (please include an explanation why you would like to become a member of ArcTrain)
- Description of your PhD project (not exceeding one page)
- Letter from your supervisor confirming that
- the supervisor supports your decision to join ArcTrain,
- is willing to share your supervision with a thesis committee and
- agrees that you are expected to follow the ArcTrain curriculum as detailed in the application form.
Applications are accepted only if submitted within the first 6 months of the PhD project. This 6 months period has been defined to give the PhD students enough time to follow the ArcTrain curriculum and to secure early involvement of a thesis committee. On acceptance both, the PhD student and the supervisor, become members of the respective assemblies of ArcTrain.
For its funded places, ArcTrain accepts undergraduate students eligible for PhD studies at the University Bremen. Further details are available in the advertisement every three years. Associated PhD students must be already pursuing a PhD degree.
