Deep Blue stories: Nikola in Spain (remotely)

Deep Blue Storie #9 | Nikola Holodkov is an Italian-Serbian young professional who took part to the online traineeship within the framework of the Deep Blue Project. He applied for the mobility programme but he had to turn his project into an online activity in order to overcome the restriction of the pandemic outbreak in March 2020. He started a three-month collaboration with the Industrial Engineering department of the University of la Laguna, Spain.

The main expectation of his work was about value is to learn how to use science to solve environmental and diplomatic problems in order to explore new frontiers and methods for multidisciplinary and multicultural problem solving. The main goal of his work was to use innovative scientific approaches to solve environmental issues and diplomatic disputes. He says:

"The internship was great given the circumstances. The supervisor was always available, and interaction and support were guaranteed thanks to modern technologies. However, an on-site presence, field experience and social interaction would have given an extra value to the internship. Overall, I am very happy about this experience, I would definitively recommend it!"

Has this experience had an impact on your career? 

“The experience has proven very fruitful to me because I learned about subjects I was not familiar with. However, after familiarizing myself with the subjects I was able to use previously conceived methodologies/techniques and knowledge to come up with interesting and shareable results. Furthermore and most importantly, I created a network of educated and very friendly people to collaborate with in the future.”

Would like to add or share something more? 

“I was very pleased with the overall organization and availability of the organizers and key persons. Given the difficulties of recent times that many organizers were faced with, both professional but also private, it was really positive to have witnessed such a level of professionalism and dedication. I just want to compliment all the people involved.”

Nikola is now based in Trieste (Italy) and works for Area Science Park on the production of strategies and action plans for climate change adaptation within the project "SECAP". More precisely, he produces risk and vulnerability assessments (RVA) and advises on and draft adaptation measures. He would like to develop for the next future a collaboration between the former hosting organization and his present workplace.

So good luck for your next steps Nikola!

Further info about the project on our website ➡️ http://bluegrowth.inogs.it/deepblue
Do you want to hear more Deep Blue stories? ➡️ http://bluegrowth.inogs.it/content/deep-blue-stories-0