Speaker
Description
In order to maintain European nuclear operations, expertise in nuclear and radiochemistry (NRC) is of strategic relevance. NRC contains key knowledge and techniques needed by a modern society and is certainly needed in addressing many societal challenges.1 The MEET-CINCH project is the third CINCH-based project aiming on cooperation in education in nuclear chemistry and radiochemistry. In the first two projects, CINCH and CINCH-II, status quo in NRC education at European universities was assessed, minimum requirements for bachelor, master and postgraduate programs to achieve approved NRC curricula were defined, and a number of theoretical and practical courses were developed using hands-on and e-learning approaches and platforms. The third consecutive project is designed to address the end-users in a more focused way offering platforms for immediate practical value. Building on the results of the previous projects, MEET-CINCH will counteract the massive lack of NRC expertise by three actions. A teaching package for high schools and a MOOC on NRC for the general public are built in order to attract young persons to the NRC field and convey them its fascination and relevance. Two additional actions focus on vocational training and (university) education. MEET-CINCH will develop new education and training approaches based on remote teaching and the flipped classroom concept further developing material generated in the previous projects, such as the NucWik platform (https://nucwik.wikispaces.com/) and the remote controlled RoboLab experiments (https://nucwik.wikispaces.com/RoboLab+Exercises). MEET-CINCH will provide ECVET course modules in an e-Shop adapted to the needs of end-users. After the end of MEET-CINCH the e-shop will be continuously operated by The European Network on Nuclear and Radiochemistry Education and Training (NRC-network, http://nrc-network.org/) as part of a sustainable European Fission Training Scheme (EFTS).
The consortium includes 13 partners from ten European member states; both academia and nuclear laboratories are represented. Networking on national and European level will be an important part of the project, facilitated by having ENEN (European Nuclear Education Network) as one of the partners and by having structural links with other European associations such as the EuCheMS Nuclear and Radiochemistry Division and the NRC-Network.
To meet the objectives of the project, the proposed activities have been organised into three technical and two managerial work-packages that closely copy the project pillars listed above. Each of the work-packages is further subdivided into several Tasks. The technical WPs are:
• WP1: Nuclear Awareness and Dissemination
• WP2: Sustainability and Evolutionary Development of VET tools
• WP3: Novel Education and Training Approaches (Flipped Classroom)
These activities are supported by Euratom under a Horizon 2020 project No. 754972 (Call NFRP 2016-2017-1).
- C. WALTHER, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 55, 9102 (2016).
