Pillar 2: Capacity Development

POGO trainings were featured in three articles in the special Capacity Sharing issue of Oceanography Magazine Oceanography 38(1):   All Aboard! Providing Shipboard Technical Skills While Building Capacity in Ocean Observations Developing Capacity for Ocean Science Through Visiting Fellowships SPOTLIGHT • Impact and Insights from the NF–POGO Centre of Excellence in Observational Oceanography: A Trainee Perspective

An international cohort of 25 early-career marine scientists participated in a unique field-based training programme aboard the German research icebreaker RV Polarstern. The voyage, part of the POGO North–South Atlantic Transect (NoSoAT) initiative, was led for the fifth time by Professor Karen Wiltshire of Trinity College Dublin, in partnership with the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI)

POGO established a new partnership with OceanX and OceanQuest to provide training opportunities for Early Career Ocean Professionals aboard the OceanXplorer – one of the most advanced research and exploration vessels in the world – as part of the UN Ocean Decade-endorsed ‘Around Africa Expedition‘ (Jan-Jun 2025).  POGO scholars participated in several legs of the cruise.

Phase IV of the NF-POGO Centre of Excellence in Observational Oceanography (CofE) formally launched on 24 October 2024, hosted by the Ocean Frontier Institute, in partnership by the Faculty of Open Learning and Career Development, Dalhousie University, the Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University, and the Hakai Institute. (click through for image caption)

In August, four miniboats were launched in the Atlantic as part of an outreach project led by POGO, Educational Passages, and AWI. The project involved the NoSoAT 2022 scholars, local partners in Ireland (NUI Galway), Germany (AWI), Spain (CSIC IEO) and South Africa (SAEON), and schools in each of these locations.

The third Atlantic Transect Floating Summer School – the ‘South-North Atlantic Training Transect’ (SoNoAT) cruise – took place on board the  RV Polarstern in June 2019. The training cruise involved 23 young scientists and 15 experts from 25 nations, travelling from Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands to Bremerhaven in Germany over four weeks, and

The Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT) programme (www.amt-uk.org) began in 1995, utilising the passage of the RRS James Clark Ross through the Atlantic Ocean between the UK and the Falkland Islands (50°N to 52°S, a distance of over 13,500 km) southwards in September and northwards in April each year. The transect crosses a range of ecosystems

As of July 2020, POGO has awarded a total of 981 Fellowships in 89 countries. The total number of individuals trained is 905, with several fellows having participated in more than one type of training.

In July 2019 we reached the milestone of 100 scholars trained by the NF-POGO Centre of Excellence. Early career researchers from 42 countries were trained in Observational Oceanography by the NF-POGO CofE at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (40 scholars between 2008-2012) and at the Alfred Wegener Institute (60 scholars between 2013-2019).

The Ocean Training Partnership is an initiative led by POGO in collaboration with the Strategic Marine Alliance for Research and Training (SMART) and the AWI. The project is funded by the Nippon Foundation and hosted by Marinetraining.eu. The objective of the Ocean Training Partnership is to pool infrastruture, resources and expertise to provide marine science graduates with offshore technical skills and

The second “Floating Summer School” took place from Bremerhaven via Las Palmas to Cape Town (South Africa) in November-December 2016. An international group of 25 students was trained in basic techniques of oceanography and remote sensing. The participants learnt how to take samples, how to process them and deal with the accompanying data. The main

After 4 years using the Wikispaces platform, in May 2016 NANO upgraded its website to a more user-friendly, modern looking platform. The new website includes embedded video and photo galleries, allows partial access (members-only) to reports and information and permits alumni to control what is visible to others in their own profile pages. Links to

In 2015, the first NF-POGO shipboard training in the form of the “Floating Summer School” on the North South Atlantic Transect (NoSoAT) cruise provided training during a five week long transit from Bremerhaven (Germany) to Cape Town (South Africa). In total thirty-four post-graduate students were trained in the principles of oceanography and marine biology onboard the RV Polarstern comprising

[Read the POGO Newsletter article here]

The idea of building a Network of Alumni was first suggested by the Nippon Foundation, as a means of keeping track of the career progression of the Alumni and to provide them with further support after their training. The NF and POGO organised a Network Planning Meeting in October 2010, at the Royal Society in

This intensive training course is conducted in conjunction with the Centre of Excellence. It takes place in a different country every year, and is often hosted by an alumnus of the CofE itself. The 2-3 week long training courses have focused on specific topics delivered by experts in these fields. The goals and outcomes of

Beginning of partnership with IOC-IODE for a teaching module on data management at the NF-POGO Centre of Excellence.

The Nippon Foundation-POGO Centre of Excellence (NF-POGO CofE) provides world class education and training in the field of observational oceanography. The Centre offers a 10-month programme of study, at postgraduate level, to 10 students every year. Information on past cohorts of scholars who attended the Centre of Excellence can be accessed by following the links

Photo from the Visiting Professorship to the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), Brazil.

Supported by POGO and IOCCG The Latin-American network of bio-optical oceanographers, called Antares, was founded in July 2003 in a workshop in Mar del Plata (Argentina) held at INIDEP. It was financed by a small grant from IOCCG.  However, the idea was born at a POGO training course in at the University of Concepción (Chile)

The Nippon Foundation-POGO Visiting Professorship Programme was initiated in January 2004 as a partnership between POGO and the Nippon Foundation. The Nippon Foundation supports various philanthropic activities in over 100 countries in areas such as overseas cooperative assistance, maritime development (including international capacity and network building projects) and social welfare. Read more…

The Blue EArth GLobal Expedition (BEAGLE), an international circumpolar cruise in the Southern Hemisphere, was organized by JAMSTEC (Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology) to commemorate the 30th anniversary of its establishment. The expedition took place on board the RV Mirai, one of the largest research vessels in the world. The project was comprised of

The Austral Summer Institute, hosted by the University of Concepcion, Chile, as part of the UNESCO Chair programme, was established in 2001 and was supported by POGO until 2014, and again in 2018. The second ASI focussed on Physical Oceanography, specifically the following topics: Processing of data obtained with a towed stream acoustic profiler Physical

2001 was the first year of the POGO-SCOR fellowship programme, with SCOR and IOC This programme is jointly funded by POGO and the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) and is designed to promote training and capacity building leading towards a global observation scheme for the oceans