Our EJWP2 training week is happening from 14 – 18 March at ACTeon Environment headquarters in Colmar, France. Colmar is known for being a beautiful city in the Alsace region. The week includes a field trip to the protected natural area of Petite Camargue Alsacienne with wetlands on the Rhine River. This area has both ancient functional ecosystems and new restored ones, and it was chosen to help initiate dialogue on ecosystem services. The field trip includes a masterclass on the different aspects of ecosystem services and how they provide services like water filtration, as well as the economic and social aspects. “One aquatic ecosystem, but many ways to perceive and benefit from it! To be discussed with the young professionals of the EJWP during their visit to ACTeon in Alsace” said Pierre Strosser, owner of ACTeon.
EJWP2 is also visiting Colmar to experience the historical and cultural elements of the city. Part of the tour is speaking with residents to learn more about the architecture, history, and gastronomy of the area. The tour includes the small water channels of Colmar. Participants are also visiting the renowned vineyards of the region by bike for a wine tasting and dinner to experience life in this part of France first-hand.
EJWP participant from ACTeon, Manon Berge, and her colleagues are presenting the ACTeon’s work, and how fellow participants can engage. The Aquatic Pollutants TransNet (APTN) project with ACTeon Environment is being launched as part of the larger European initiative, Aquatic Pollutants Transfer Project. EJWP’s role is to interview a range of stakeholders, policy, and academics on needs of knowledge transfer on risks related to contaminants of emerging concern and anti-microbial resistance in aquatic ecosystems. To help prepare, participants are taking part in a group training with ACTeon on techniques of conducting interviews, so they can better carry out the project. By the end of the week, participants will be conducting actual interviews. The project will run until mid-June.
“I want to make our EJWP project as useful as possible for the larger project, so that we contribute with solid results. I think we have the right training and processes to do this well. It’s a technical topic and we have technical backgrounds. We will help each other supporting with the human processes of interviewing and communicating the information,” said Manon.
The training week also includes the presentation the EJWP2 project with Nis University in Serbia, including a professor from Nis University who will be in Colmar to provide input. On development, two full days of personal training are taking place with EJWP trainer Jennifer Cronick. And a parallel exercise during the week is for the group to document training, taking photos and notes to create a narrative for sharing on social media for EJWP and for ACTeon as a company. This is essentially an applied communication exercise of observing what is happening through a lens of sharing with audiences.