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EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT

BECOMING A MARINE KNOWLEDGE BROKER


Do your students enjoy natural sciences classes? Are they fascinated by the ocean and life under the sea? Can they spend hours watching documentaries about sea life? Do they dream to work protecting sea animals and vegetation? They might be on the right path to becoming marine knowledge brokers. Marine knowledge brokers are people passionate about the sea and oceans, who work both with marine researchers and stakeholders who advocate for the protection of sea life. This profile requires good communication skills, great adaptability and resilience, and commitment. Are you curious to know more? Then meet Kate Larkin, a marine knowledge broker.


Interview for the STE(A)M IT Repository of STEM Jobs profiles with Kate Larkin, Marine Knowledge Broker.

SKILLS

Find out about the key skills to become a Marine Knowledge Broker.

Social Skills

To be a Marine Knowledge Broker, “communication with colleagues and externally is crucial as life – including professional life – is all about relationships. I talk to a wide diversity of people from the marine and maritime sectors that may be scientific researchers, industry, or European policymakers.”

Adaptability

Adaptability: “Our day can change in an instant with an urgent unexpected activity, and we have to also look for new funding and write new proposals which take time, energy and does not always result in funding being awarded.”

Curiosity

“It is for me a fundamental skill that has driven me from the start of my research career and keeps me getting up in the morning to do my job. I like to read the wider news or science communication and to attend EU and international meetings when possible to see the bigger picture, and this makes my job count as it is contributing to something bigger, resulting in more motivation and inspiration to continue.”

Presentation Skills

Being a Marine Knowledge Broker requires presentation skills so that “key messages can be communicated, and taken up, by the people you want to influence. I have learned by doing hundreds of presentations and by short courses on presentation and meeting facilitation.”

People Management

“It’s a very important skill since every person is different this takes time and dedication to develop the skills for effective communication, delegation and a collaborative working environment.”

Commitment

Marine Knowledge Brokers are committed to their beliefs. “The knowledge that we are doing a job that contributes to the wider society in terms of knowledge and facts about our planet that people can use for making our society, business and politics greener and more sustainable makes our work worth it.

Meet Kate Larkin,
Marine Knowledge Broker.


Kate Larking is Deputy Head at EMODnet (The European Marine Observation and Data Network), a network of organisations that work together to observe the sea, process the data according to international standards and make that information freely available as interoperable data layers and data products. She originally studied Natural Sciences (Majors in Biology and Geology) at the University of Birmingham, UK. Then, Kate chose to specialise in marine sciences and moved to the University of Southampton, School of Ocean and Earth Sciences where she completed a PhD in deep-sea biogeochemistry. Her career to date has included marine scientific research, field expeditions (research cruises), scientific project management, science communication, knowledge transfer and science-policy-industry-society interfaces.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

In this 16th episode of our STE(A)M IT STEM Careers Podcast, Vanessa James from EUN spoke with Kate Larkin, a Marine Knowledge Broker!

Kate Larking talks about her passion for marine science and how her work consists in connecting marine data and knowledge with people that need it such as industries or policymakers. She also talks about the challenges she faces in her job, and the skills needed to carry it out. Her advice to students interested in pursuing a STEM career is “to give yourself time to explore and read around, there are lots of resources online.” Listen to the podcast to find out more!


CC BY 4.0: all the materials and content presented on this STEM Job profile have been provided by STE(A)M IT, a project funded by the European Union’s ERASMUS+ programme project STE(A)M IT (Grant agreement 612845-EPP-1-2019-1- BE-EPPKA3-PI-FORWARD), coordinated by European Schoolnet (EUN).


Rocío Benito

Rocío Benito

I am a Digital Media Officer in the Science Education Department of European Schoolnet (EUN). I studied mass media, and graphic and web design. I love photography and video editing.