Climate Services Academy and Training (CSAT)

28th February 2018

The NERC-funded CSAT ‘evidence synthesis’ initiative was implemented in January-February 2018. EfD was involved in the management of the project and in producing and delivering course materials.

The programme is designed for PhD students at the point of submission from physical and social sciences. The purpose is to develop their skills in ‘evidence synthesis’, applying theoretical knowledge relating to climate and climate impacts, in real world contexts, and introducing them to work in inter-disciplinary teams. Following two ‘teaching weeks’ in Reading, the 8 students went in pairs to Ghana, Uganda, Malawi and Senegal, for a further two weeks, where they worked within various government departments, and completed a policy-related research task. Whilst in the field, students were paired with counterparts from local universities.

Student feedback on the programme was extremely positive, with the livelihoods component receiving a consistently high rating. There are now plans to devolve the training to African universities.