This spring seven new post docs from five different countries started working with funding directly related to REC. The post docs introduced their past research and future plans how to analyse the extensive datasets with focus on ecological change. We shared useful ideas in discussions sessions after the talks and it gave new perspective how to approach the research questions in hand. The research data comes from the University of Helsinki and various research institutes we are closely collaborating with in Finland. These long-term datasets consists of citizen science observations, moth and butterfly monitoring, bird ringing data, forest phenology and forest under vegetation data.
We also introduced our foreign team members to Finnish sports curling. The game was exciting, but the newcomers quickly learned how slippery ice really is so some of us went to sleep in bruises. The next morning we had a relaxing yoga session with quite many animal positions to take home to practice.
Our meeting very successfully brought our team closer together and our research started moving forward with new ideas to evolve.