Participants in the 2013 IAEA/ICTP Nuclear Knowledge Management School arrived very well prepared, thanks to the Cyber Learning Platform for Nuclear Education and Training (CLP4NET), managed by the IAEA's Nuclear Knowledge Management Section.
The annual School of Nuclear Knowledge Management (NKM), jointly organized by the IAEA and the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), took place last week at the worldwide renowned ICTP Institute, close to the picturesque town of Trieste, Italy. The intensive one week course was directed at young professionals from the nuclear field that are, or may be in the near future, in charge of managing nuclear knowledge. The IAEA's technical cooperation programme supported the participation of 13 of the 40 participants.
The School, which attracts applications from all over the world, welcomed a total of 40 professionals from more than 30 different countries. Twenty-two male and 18 female participants from both public and private sector backgrounds - nuclear power plant operating organizations, research and development organizations, regulators and universities - attended.
Of the 140 applicants to this year's School, 100 young professionals were preselected for an online pre-training course, hosted on the Cyber Learning Platform (CLP4NET). The pre-training course was introduced last year and proved to be a useful tool to ensure that all selected participants would have the same level of understanding of nuclear knowledge management when arriving at the school. This in turn allowed participants to use their time at the NKM School to the fullest extent, and to focus on sharing experiences and participating actively in group projects.
The NKM School provided participants with a unique opportunity to benefit from high quality, intensive training on the implementation of nuclear knowledge management. The teaching staff is composed of highly-regarded specialists in the NKM field, and participation in the School offers students the opportunity to share views and experience on essential aspects of nuclear knowledge management, both with experts and international peers, in a studious but friendly atmosphere.
The School focuses on methodologies and practices for NKM, including aspects such as processes and organizational culture, information technology, and human resource development and its impact on NKM implementation. The School also presents good practices and lessons learned from programmes implemented in academia, technical support organizations, industry, regulatory bodies and other governmental entities.
The next NKM School will take place in the last week of August 2014, celebrating 10 years of successful cooperation between IAEA and ICTP in Knowledge Management topics, and 50 years of the existence of ICTP.
