Training programme

The WildBotics consortium will recruit and train a total of 12 doctoral candidates (Ph.D. students), equipping them with a unique combination of multidisciplinary skills required to realize innovative sampling and monitoring solutions using drones, vision and AI methods. The PhD students will be based in 11 institutions and will work closely together and participate in joint training sessions and field trips. 

The PhD students will receive a training programme build upon existing international doctoral programs and partner expertise, combining training-by-research with a multidisciplinary approach based on high-quality supervision, complementary and transferable skills training, inter-network and inter-sectoral secondments (in Europe and Africa). This will also include hackathons, summer schools and hand-on practices on robotics, AI, PNT and 3D vision applied to conservation ecology. By exposing its PhD students to private companies and nature conservation end-users via secondments and numerous network-wide events, WildBotics will form the next generation of skilled researchers in the areas of robotics, computer science and ecology. 

The training programme will have an interdisciplinary approach, ensuring that inter-sectorial competences are provided to let researchers understand the needs of each area and provide adequate requirements for successful wildlife conservation. 

The training programme and doctoral schools will admit candidates to a PhD programme compatible with the WildBotics network, integrating PhDs into the local research groups at their host institutions and exploiting the benefits of the network.