On 23-24 February 2021, the All-Atlantic Ocean Youth Ambassadors took part in a virtual Induction Training, an important moment for them to get prepared to kick off their activities. The Induction Training was the second official meeting after the All-Atlantic Ocean Youth Ambassador Welcome meeting back on 20 January 2021, aimed to showcase and present the Atlantic Opportunities for the Young Ambassadors to plan their next steps and their engagements in the wider All-Atlantic Ocean Research Community.
On the first day, the Youth Ambassadors were introduced to the activities of the newly launched Joint Actions under the Horizon 2020 AANChOR-CSA project, focussing on the following topics: Capacity Development; Knowledge Transfer for Ocean Innovation and Economy; Common Standards for Information and Data Sharing; Ocean Citizen Awareness and Literacy; and Convergence and Alignment of R&I Infrastructure Initiatives. They heard from and exchanged with the representatives of each Joint Action and were able to organize themselves to get involved in those actions. The Youth Ambassadors were also pleased by the presence of Sigi Gruber (DG Research and Innovation, European Commission), who gave a talk about Eurocrats.
On the second day, the Youth Ambassadors attended two sessions focused on communications, with presentations from the AANChOR-CSA, the European Commission, and Joanne Sweeney from the Digital Training Institute in Ireland, who led an in-depth social media training. The Youth Ambassadors gained insights on how to promote activities and campaigns, maximize visibility, raise awareness, connect and engage different audiences in different media vehicles. They were also introduced to the UN Ocean Decade and the Virtual Early Career Ocean Professional days and were encouraged to contribute to this event. In the end, the Portuguese Youth Ambassador Raquel Gaião Silva presented the first draft of ideas that Youth Ambassadors have outlined for their involvement in the All-Atlantic R&I for a Sustainable Ocean: Ministerial High-Level & Stakeholders Conference, which will take place in June 2021.
It was a great start! The Youth Ambassadors are eager to start working on the AANChOR projects and are dividing into working subgroups in order to be able to go along and contribute to as many actions as possible!
Follow the inspiring work of the All-Atlantic Youth Ambassadors via their social media:
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All-Atlantic Ocean Youth Ambassador’s Twitter.
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All-Atlantic Ocean Youth Ambassador’s Facebook.
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All-Atlantic Ocean Youth Ambassador’s Instagram.
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Social Media Hashtags: #AtlanticAll #AtlanticYouth
Authors:
Julia Biscaia Zamoner (Youth Ambassador of Brazil)
Othman Cherkaoui Dekkaki (Youth Ambassador of Morocco)