GCRF Blue Communities Research Programme -

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17 December 2020

By Dr Beth Roberts, University of Exeter

I joined the Blue Communities project full-time in May 2020 as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Exeter. I am part of Project 6, which is exploring the links between coastal communities’ marine interactions and their health and wellbeing.

Joining an international project in the midst of a global pandemic was less than ideal, especially as I had planned to go out to visit Indonesia and Vietnam in March 2020 with two colleagues from the UK team. This is my experience so far.

Before joining the Blue Communities project, I was working in the European Centre for the Environment and Human Health (ECEHH) as a postdoctoral researcher on the 'Seas, Oceans and Public Health in Europe (SOPHIE)' project with Dr Mat White. Mat told me there was an opportunity for me to accompany him and Prof Karyn Morrissey on a field trip to the Blue Communities teams in Vietnam and Indonesia. I had been to Vietnam before and absolutely loved it, and was excited to explore more and also to visit Indonesia as I had never been.

Hoi An lanterns

The plan for the trip was that we would first visit colleagues from the Hanoi National University of Education (HNUE) in Vietnam before travelling down to Hoi An with Dr Hà and her team to discuss their fieldwork in the Cu Lao Cham case study site. I had visited Hoi An previously on a holiday trip to Vietnam and had fond memories. It is a beautiful town where lanterns hang above the streets, and the bright yellow and blue buildings bring a smile to your face.

After visiting Dr Hà and her colleagues, we had planned to fly to the Indonesian case study site on Selayar to meet up with Dr Praptiwi and her team from the Universitas Nasional (UNAS) in Jakarta, and support early fieldwork data collection for Project 6.

Fast forward to March 2020 and I think you know what happens next. I was due to fly from Heathrow to Vietnam on the 7th March, but with Coronavirus cases across the world slowly rising, we decided to cancel the trip just a few days before we were due to fly. It is probably as well that we did because the numbers of cases in the UK at that time were higher than in either Vietnam or Indonesia. We did not want to be potential carriers of the virus to our friends and colleagues. Initially, we thought we would be able to reschedule for a couple of months later. We didn’t know just how serious the pandemic would turn out to be or how long it would last, and so I had no idea that in a few months I would be employed full-time on the project and unable to meet any of my colleagues!

Starting a new job during a global pandemic has been challenging but the Project 6 team are incredible. Fortunately, three of our colleagues from the Philippines had visited the ECEHH in 2019 and so I have been lucky enough to meet John, Edgar and Joel in person but for now, and most likely for the foreseeable future, I have only been able to meet my colleagues over Zoom.

Since starting full-time on the Blue Communities project, I have attended/organised the following Zoom meetings – which is starting to sound a lot like the '12 days of Christmas' song:

“Since joining Blue Communities virtually in around Mid-May, I have attended/organised: five Project 6 meetings, five Early Carrer Researcher Network (ECRN) pilot project meetings, four training workshops, four data management meetings, four UK partner meetings, three Blue Communities seminars, two cross-project meetings, one annual meeting, one health and safety workshop and been co-awarded funding for an ECRN pilot project with three colleagues from Vietnam and Indonesia.”

Working on the Blue Communities project has been a great experience, but understandably doing all of this online has had its challenges.

The most common challenge with home working for everyone is instable internet connections. The internet in my house regularly drops out or has low signal, especially with three of us working from home. However, the fact that everyone now works online I believe has had some positives too. Now that everyone is used to even more interactions happening online, I think it has strengthened our abilities to communicate and collaborate using these platforms. We have had to adapt to deliver training online, whole conferences have been delivered online and I think overall, it has made those parts of the project much more accessible for everyone.

I am looking forward to another year working on the Blue Communities project, and hope to one day meet my colleagues in person!

To return to Blue Communities News December 2020, please click here.

Zoom Zoom Zoom Zoom, home working in my room

17 December 2020

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