Dates: 24 November – 5 December 2025
Location: IAEA Marine Environment Laboratories, Monaco.
Deadline for receipt of application from the nominating national authority: 15 September 2025
The course is organized by the IAEA OA-ICC in partnership with the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation through the OACIS Initiative (Ocean Acidification and other ocean Changes – Impacts and Solutions).
Introduction
Ocean acidification is a global environmental stressor that threatens marine life and the livelihoods of coastal communities. Ocean acidification is caused by increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide being absorbed by the ocean, resulting in changes to seawater carbonate chemistry, including a drop in pH. Due to global concerns about its consequences, ocean acidification is included in international policies such as Target 3 of UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 and Target 8 of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).
The IAEA’s Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre (OA-ICC) supports IAEA Member States to minimize and adapt to OA and report towards SDG 14.3 and the GBF, with a strong focus on building capacity to study ocean acidification and related stressors and promoting international collaboration and coordination.
Ocean acidification is not happening in isolation, but in combination with other human-driven pressures, including pollution, warming, and oxygen loss. The impact of multiple ocean stressors on marine life and ecosystem function is not well understood, yet this information is crucial to inform adaptation strategies that might minimize negative effects on organisms, ecosystems, and associated
socioeconomic benefits.
The Third Winter School on Ocean Acidification and Multiple Stressors is part of the capacity building program of the OA-ICC. This two-week training course will provide participating scientists with a thorough understanding about key concepts and experimental design used to study the impacts of ocean acidification in the context of additional stressors.
Objectives
The aim of the Winter School is to train early-career scientists who already have experience researching ocean acidification on how to study acidification in the context of other co-occurring stressors. Through lectures and practical exercises in the laboratory, the students will gain understanding of key concepts in multiple-stressor research (e.g., What is a stressor? What is a mode of action? What is an interaction?), purposeful experimental design, and analysis of complex datasets. During the course, participants will collaborate on a joint laboratory experiment to elucidate the effects of three simultaneous drivers on marine organisms, with the objective to publish the results in a collective article after the training.
Target Audience
The course is open to 10-12 trainees. Priority will be given to early-career scientists with experience in marine environmental change with a focus on ocean acidification; a background in biological sciences is preferred. At least one publication in the field of marine environmental change is required.
Working Language: English
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Participation and Registration
All persons wishing to participate in the event have to be designated by an IAEA Member State or should be members of organizations that have been invited to attend.
In order to be designated by an IAEA Member State, participants are requested to send the Participation Form (Form A) to their competent national authority (e.g. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Permanent Mission to the IAEA or National Atomic Energy Authority) for onward transmission to the IAEA by 15 September 2025. Participants who are members of an organization invited to attend are requested to send the Participation Form (Form A) through their organization to the IAEA by the above deadline.
Selected participants will be informed in due course on the procedures to be followed with regard to administrative and financial matters.
Participants are hereby informed that the personal data they submit will be processed in line with the Agency’s Personal Data and Privacy Policy and is collected solely for the purpose(s) of reviewing and assessing the application and to complete logistical arrangements where required. The IAEA may also use the contact details of Applicants to inform them of the IAEA’s scientific and technical publications, or the latest employment opportunities and current open vacancies at the IAEA. These secondary purposes are consistent with the IAEA’s mandate.
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Additional Requirements
Participants should have a university degree in marine chemistry, biology, oceanography or a related scientific field, and should be currently involved in or planning to study the ecological impact of multiple stressors, including ocean acidification. Experience in R is strongly encouraged.
Selection will be based on merit and interest. Applications should include:
- A motivation letter with a short description of the candidate’s research interests and how the course would benefit the applicant’s current or future research on ocean acidification and multiple stressors (max one A4 page)
- CV with publication list
IAEA / OA-ICC, 27 June 2025. More information.
