Improving R skills at the ICES headquarters in Copenhagen

The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) is an intergovernmental organization that develops science of the marine environment and its resources and provides advice to competent authorities seeking the sustainable use of the oceans. As part of its mission, ICES offers a Training Programme by high-profile scientists and instructors spreading knowledge and skills for scientific quality assurance.

Last week, from the 21st to the 25th of August 2017, Iratxe attended the ICES Training Course in the R Environment. The course was given by instructors Einar Hjörleifsson and Bjarki Þór Elvarsson, from the Marine Research Institute of Iceland.

During the course, a comprehensive overview of the R Environment was provided to attendants.  How to import, manipulate, explore, summarize and graph data through R by means of fisheries case studies was taught to students. It was also explained how to apply the principle of reproducible analysis and report writing, produce functions and packages in R as well participate in social coding. The course was fantastic, R is definitely a powerful tool for research and it is really useful for Iratxe’s ongoing work.