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Research project focuses on international zoo management training
University of Wolverhampton researchers have secured funding to develop high level training in international zoo management.
Dr Stefano Vaglio (Principal Investigator) & Dr Chris Young (Co-Investigator) from the University’s School of Sciences, have secured European Union Erasmus+ funding of around €220,000 for the research project InterZoo.
Six consortium partners will work together on the research project including the University of Wolverhampton who is taking the consortium lead, the University of Bologna in Italy and the University of Limoges in France. The zoo partners are Twycross Zoo in the UK, Budapest Zoo in Hungary and Parco Natura Viva in Italy.
Associate partners include Dudley Zoo and the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquaria in the UK, Ėcole Nature Recherche in France, Fondazione ARCA in Italy and the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria.
Dr Vaglio said: “The aim of InterZoo is to bring the Higher Education (HE) and zoo sectors together to develop a structured training programme that blends the applied, experience based knowledge of the zoo sector with the rigour of HE-based teaching and research.
“The project will produce a defined training curriculum incorporating three specific training modules that target international zoo welfare and management, international management of zoo-based conservation, and ethical and legal issues with international zoo management.
“The consortium partnership covers significant areas of expertise in teaching, training and research on a national and international level. This expertise is added to by the input from the associate partners which are tied into the same professional and collaborative networks.”
Dr Young said: “Through a mix of partner-focused workshops, a wider multiplier event and a summer school, the consortium will develop and test a suite of training materials that can be used either independently within the context of each training module or as part of a coherent whole.
“Ultimately the aspiration is to develop the modules into a formal international postgraduate degree qualification and to incorporate the material produced into zoo sector professional development programmes, extending the time limit of the project itself.”
Dr Vaglio is pictured with a lemur at Dudley Zoo.
ENDS
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