Ada Lovelace Day is collaborating with ecologists from University of York, UK, and DePaul University in Chicago, USA, to study fungi essential to soil health as part of a global collaboration that will also promote inclusivity and the retention of women and minorities in science.

i-COMET, the International Collaboration on Mycorrhizal Ecological Traits, is looking for early career ecologists with an interest in fungal traits related to soil health to design a novel spore trap experiment and a standard operating procedure for identifying mycorrhizal traits. At the end of the workshop, participants will deploy the spore trap in their home country and share data back to the group, creating a data set with global relevance to soil health and with high impact. Very few data sets achieve this reach.

Mycorrhizal fungi are essential to soil health, playing a major role in soil quality, plants nutrient and water uptake, as well as protecting them from pests and pathogens. By investigating the dispersal rates of these spores, we can better understand if and how these fungi spread from area to area – the first step to rebuilding resilience in soils that have degraded due to environmental change, and subsequently strengthening food production and security.

Participants from around the world will attend a week-long workshop from 15th – 21st March 2020, in York, UK, where they will also take part in networking and team building exercises, given training in the suite of digital tools that will be used in the collaboration, as well as in mentoring. The i-COMET team will evaluate the effectiveness of this intervention, through survey and social network analysis, and disseminate what we learn from this to the wider STEM community, so that any group seeking to develop effective communication within diverse groups can use our findings and tools to foster sustainable communications.

Travel and accommodation costs for the workshop will be covered, and we encourage applications from potential participants from all countries. We are particularly keen to hear from women and those from the Global South. Workshop participants and a second group of non-workshop participants will be provided with access to a peer mentoring and knowledge sharing network. We will also be asking a third group of non-workshop participants to complete quarterly surveys as a control group for the study.

For more information visit our website and to apply, please complete the Expression of Interest.

ALD founder, Suw Charman-Anderson, has now become a Visiting Associate at York for the duration of the project and is working with Dr Thorunn Helgason, the project leader, and Dr Pen Holland from York, and Dr Bala Chaudhary from DePaul.

Ada Lovelace Day is teaming up with ecologists from the University of York and DePaul University in Chicago, USA, to run an international ecology workshop and to create a long-lasting and robust professional network amongst participants, who will be drawn predominantly from groups and countries generally underrepresented in STEM.

The collaboration has been awarded a £80,177 grant by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to run the project, which will study fungi essential to soil health as well as promoting inclusivity and the retention of women and minorities in science.

Innovative investigation into crucial fungi

Dr Bala Chaudhary on a green roof experiment in Chicago, installing a spore trap to measure fungal spore dispersal.

An international workshop in York in the summer of 2019 will bring together ecologists from around the world to design a spore trap to be used in locations across the globe to collect samples and shed some light on the airborne dispersal of mycorrhizal fungi spores. Participants will co-design the trap itself, the data collection methods, and implementation, leading to the development of a dynamic, predictive model of mycorrhizal fungi distribution and dispersal networks.

Mycorrhizal fungi are essential to soil health, playing a major role in soil quality, plants’ nutrient and water uptake, as well as protecting them from pests and pathogens. By investigating the dispersal rates of these spores, we can better understand if and how these fungi spread from area to area – the first step to rebuilding resilience in soils that have degraded due to environmental change, and subsequently strengthening food production and security.

Global network to support women and minorities

With support from universities on five continents, the project will also develop participants’ cross-timezone collaboration and professional networking skills to create a sustainable and truly global community. It will particularly focus on recruiting scientists who are diverse in gender, race, geography and culture with support for those from low and middle income countries.

The project will be led by York’s Dr Thorunn Helgason, Senior Lecturer in Ecology, alongside Dr Pen Holland, Lecturer in Ecology. Project partners will include Dr V Bala Chaudhary, Assistant Professor in Environmental Science and Studies at DePaul University and Suw Charman-Anderson, founder of Ada Lovelace Day, an annual international celebration of the achievements of women in STEM.