Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/M006212/1
Systematic review and meta-analysis for environmental sciences
Training Grant Award
- Lead Supervisor:
- Professor J Koricheva, Royal Holloway, Univ of London, Biological Sciences
- Grant held at:
- Royal Holloway, Univ of London, Biological Sciences
- Science Area:
- Atmospheric
- Earth
- Freshwater
- Marine
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Atmospheric
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Environmental Risks and Hazards
- Global Change
- Natural Resource Management
- Pollution and Waste
- Science Topics:
- Climate & Climate Change
- Community Ecology
- Conservation Ecology
- Population Ecology
- Statistical Ecology
- Statistics & Appl. Probability
- Environmental Statistics
- Abstract:
- Environmental scientists are under the growing pressure to provide accurate quantitative assessments, predictions and practical solutions for pressing environmental issues (e.g. biodiversity losses, global climate change). In order to address these questions, environmental scientists need to be able to summarize the available evidence from research already conducted on the topic. The proposed course will provide training in methods of systematic review and meta-analysis which allow much more powerful, informative and objective way for summarizing the results of studies on the same topic than do narrative reviewing and vote counting approaches traditionally used in ecology and environmental sciences. Training in the above methods is seldom included into the syllabuses of standard statistical courses and therefore is currently not readily available to environmental scientists. This course aims at filling this gap and seeks to promote and facilitate the thoughtful and critical use of systematic reviews and meta-analysis for research synthesis in environmental sciences. The proposed course on systematic review and meta-analysis for environmental sciences will take five days and will consist of 4 modules: (1) introduction to systematic reviews; (2) introduction to meta-analysis: statistically combining effect sizes; (3) exploring heterogeneity and dealing with biases; (4) interpreting and reporting the results of meta-analysis. The course will involve combination of lectures and practical sessions where students will practice conducting meta-analysis using worked examples in metafor package in R. In addition, students will conduct their own mini-meta-analyses by working in pairs on an assigned environmental topic with 8-10 primary research papers provided per topic. Students would need to decide on effect size metric to use and inclusion criteria, extract the data from the primary studies, design the extraction spreadsheet, conduct meta-analysis and prepare presentation of their results. Therefore, the course will provide students with first-hand experience in question formulation, data extraction, database design, use of statistical software for meta-analysis and report preparation. The course will combine expertise in systematic reviews at the Centre for EvidenceBased Conservation (Andrew Pullin, Bangor University) with expertise in statistical approaches to meta-analysis (Elena Kulinskaya, UEA) and applications of meta-analysis to ecological and environmental data (Julia Koricheva, RHUL). All three applicants have extensive experience in teaching short courses on systematic reviews and meta-analysis in the UK and abroad. The proposed course is highly relevant for two of the NERC Training Priority Areas: statistics (statistical methods for handling, analysing and interpreting large data sets for the environmental sciences) and data & information management (environmental sciences data assimilation, visualisation and analysis). There are currently no similar courses available to PhD students in the UK. Training in systematic review and meta-analysis is not covered by any of the 2013/14 advanced training courses funded by NERC. While the Centre for Evidence-Based Conservation (CEBC) runs regular training workshops in systematic reviews, these do not cover statistical methods of meta-analysis. The uniqueness of the course is in what it will offer training in both systematic reviews and in meta-analysis. The proposed course will provide 20 young UK environmental scientists with training which will enable them to quantitatively assess evidence base for a number of urgent and important research questions within the remit of NERC, e.g. quantifying impact of environmental change and biodiversity loss on ecosystems, assessing the risks of natural hazards, evaluating the relative effectiveness of different management and conservation strategies, as well as using omic and big data for addressing environmental questions.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/M006212/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Doctoral Training
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Advanced Training
This training grant award has a total value of £27,167
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Other Costs |
|---|
| £27,167 |
If you need further help, please read the user guide.