FAQ’s

After having paid the deposit for your project on our website, you will be requested to pay the remaining balance by bank transfer using the following account details:

Account Name: EnScope AISBL

IBAN (International Bank Account Number): BE33 0018 3382 8446

SWIFT/BIC (Bank Identifier Code): GEBABEBB

Communication: Order number (provided in your order summary after payment of the deposit)

All payments must be received by the following deadlines (depending on your departure date):

• 90 days from departure: 50% of the total cost of your reservation should be on the EnScope bank account, though you are free to pay the full amount immediately
• 60 days from departure: 100% of the total cost of your reservation should be on the EnScope bank account

If you made your reservation on our website less than 60 days from your departure date, please transfer the remaining balance immediately after having paid the deposit and notify our operations manager, attaching evidence of the transfer.

In case these timelines are challenging or that you see that you will not be able to meet the due dates, please contact us immediately to discuss a payment plan.

In case payments have not been received by the due dates and if we have not heard from you to discuss the causes of this delay, your reservation will be cancelled according to our cancellation and refund policy.

Note: For transfers from outside of the SEPA zone, please account that the transfer time may be quite long (sometimes 2-3 weeks).

This depends on the context of your project:

• On an Enscope-proposed project, EnScope and its local partner(s) own the data, but you would be free to use it for publications or reporting of any non-commercial kind, in accordance with the publication rules provided as part of your pre-departure pack.
• On your own project run at and EnScope field station or in association with an EnScope project, you own the data but EnScope and its local partner(s) reserve the right to use these data for ongoing and future projects. These data are also susceptible to be used for marketing and publication of any kind, after having received your express permission.

Please do! As part of our Alumni community, you will be able to keep in touch with all the people you met during the project, both fellow participants and local staff/communities. Our vision is one of sharing, where the projects benefit both the local communities and project participants, not only through the work that was achieved, but also through the bonds that are developed across distance and time. In addition, we are always looking for ambassadors of our work; should you wish to share your experience with other fellow students or peers, please let us know and we will gladly support.

From the partner selection and project design phase, EnScope ensures that its projects contribute directly or indirectly to the development and/or improvement of management measures for sustainable development or natural resource conservation. As a former EnScope project participant, you will be invited to join the community of alumni. As alumni you will have the opportunity to receive our alumni newsletter through which you will be kept informed of exactly what your work contributed to. Our objective is that all those who got involved have the possibility to know, even years down the line, that their contribution helped develop specific management measures, what benefits these measures yielded on the environment, and on local communities.

Science is about collaboration for the better good. So, while a certain level of independence would generally be expected, our local staff and other scientists on sites will gladly help or advise you whenever you ask.

Depending on the project, our local staff and scientists on site will generally be able to provide some level of advice, help or supervision in the field. In the context of an EnScope project, supervision in the field is considered part of the project support. Should you wish to be (co-)supervised for the work you carry out after getting back from your EnScope project, please enquire here for details. In the context of an independent project, (co-)supervision can be offered as a service or against co-authorship; please mention this while enquiring through the following form.

• Obviously! And we encourage you to do so. We believe, that the person who carries out the work should be credited for it. Of course, it is important to involve/credit/acknowledge all parties that supported you in this venture appropriately. In order to be transparent, we have defined the following rules:
  • EnScope-proposed project for which the participants carry out/contribute to the work, the data analysis and write up –> EnScope (and its local partner(s) if applicable) must be involved as co-author(s). If you are the sole/main contributor you should be first author.
  • EnScope-proposed project for which many participants contribute only to the data generation/collection work –> EnScope (and its local partner(s) if applicable) will be first authors and you will be credited in the acknowledgements
  • Own project carried out at EnScope field station or in association with an EnScope project –> EnScope (and its local partner(s)) must be credited in the acknowledgements

Variations of these rules may exist, but these constitute the guideline. All will be formalised in an agreement that both you and EnScope will sign.

We believe that science and research should be open to ensure that the key priority remains to work towards sustainable development, and not personal gain or achievement. As such, when such data sets exist, they will likely be made available to you.

Much will depend on the type of project you are undertaking, but it is generally recommended to be registered at least 2-3 months before you go on your expedition.

When available, this will be described in the Research and Field work section of the field station page corresponding to your project location. For projects not run from a field station, such information may be available through our Publications & Media page.

Yes! At EnScope we like to keep an open mind about new ideas and our team would be thrilled to get in touch with you to discuss how to best support you. You have a general idea of what topic you would like to work on but would like to be supported to turn this idea into a project (e.g. financing, methodology, ideal location for field work). EnScope can leverage the expertise of its team members and its network of partners to support you in that initiative. However, this requires a lot of time and, depending on our current level of involvement in other projects, we cannot guarantee that we will always be able to accommodate such requests.

We are entirely open to welcoming students and researchers who already have their own research project, and we offer support for such projects in many ways (e.g. logisitical, assistance, co-supervision). Please enter the required details through the following page  to get in touch with us.

Being impact-driven, EnScope focuses on projects that will contribute to the improvement of sustainable development and conservation measures. As such, generating tangible outcomes is the idea at the core of all of our projects.

Applying good project management practices, KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are developed and put in place for each project to measure 1) our efficiency to capture relevant data, and 2) the performance of the management measures we implement. These are tracked over time and allow us to make changes if necessary. For example, in the context of a newly implemented no take area protecting fish breeding grounds from overfishing, we would measure the “spillover” effect to see how sexually mature fish are observed in the surrounding area.

The large geographical extent covered by our projects far exceed the capacity of local staff members to conduct comprehensive and regular site visits required to generate the monitoring and research data would not be possible without your support. Further, many tasks involved in our work are fairly straight forward and require minimal (generally maximum two weeks) training to be performed in a reliable fashion. As a volunteer, you will therefore be trained and evaluated on the knowledge and skills required to perform project tasks, and be supervised and supported by our local staff members. As a student however, you arrive with specific knowledge and skills that you need to put to practice/reinforce/extend. Depending on the context of your project (internship vs dissertation/thesis), you will either be taught new skills and/or have an opportunity to apply them

We work directly together with local partners and communities and many project staff members are locals. However, much of the research and conservation work required as part of our projects cannot be subsidised and, as a result, does not offer a valuable livelihood for local community members. Volunteers and students therefore offer time and knowledge on a scale not otherwise manageable. But our projects include capacity building and training programmes with the aim of providing local communities with the knowledge, skills and experience required to carry our work in a sustainable fashion.

At EnScope, we develop partnerships with local organisations whose vision matches that of EnScope in promoting sustainable development and natural resource conservation. We focus exclusively on partnerships focusing on the development of concrete measures that will have a truly beneficial impact in the field. Leveraging our scientific and project management expertise, we help our partners decompose their vision into bespoke projects, tailored specifically to the needs of volunteers / undergraduate or postgraduate students.

Of course! And we encourage you to do so! Where possible, we will even negotiate deals with local agencies to offer discounted rates on tours, visits and activities that you could take part in before or after your project. These will be provided as options during the project reservation process.

A recommended kit list is provided for each of our projects; this will be provided as part of the pre-departure pack that you will receive after initial confirmation of your reservation and payment of the deposit. If you travel to one of our field stations outside of the framework of an EnScope project, please enquire.

Each organisation has its own area of specialisation. EnScope focuses on sustainable development and natural resource conservation, and this is what all our efforts go towards. Travel management takes time and benefits from long standing expertise in order to ensure seamless travels and the best possible cost. We have therefore entrusted all our travel arrangements to STA Travel.

Each participant is responsible for his/her own travel arrangements to the assembly point specified in his/her project description. We recommend booking through STA Travel , our preferred partner for travel arrangements who we have entrusted with all our staff reservation management. For every flight reservation made through them, they will make a 1% donation towards the development of our projects.

Comprehensive travel and medical insurance is mandatory for everyone taking part in an EnScope project or travelling to one of our field stations. It must cover all activities detailed in the description of your EnScope project or foreseen in your personal project (for field stations visitors). We are not an insurance broker and do not offer travel insurance directly, but True Traveller and World Nomads are leading international travel insurance providers acclaimed for the quality of their services.

If your project involves diving, a dedicated diving insurance is also mandatory. We recommend to take an insurance from DAN (Divers Alert Network) as they are widely recognised for their extensive network of local support and vast experience in management of diving emergencies. However if you have subscribed for a True Traveller insurance with the Adventure Pack option, registering for a DAN cover is not compulsory as the Adventure Pack includes many of the benefits provided by a DAN cover and generally not included in other travel insurance packages.

You will find additional information on our travel support page.

On your project you are likely to be part of a highly international team with participants coming from all over the world, and courses/lectures will therefore generally be provided in English. But a conversational level of English is generally considered sufficient. If you managed to navigate through our English website you would generally be fine, but please enquire if you have questions.

Each participant is responsible for obtaining all required VISAs prior to departure. In some cases, EnScope can support with the process; in case of an EnScope project this will be detailed in your EnScope pre-departure pack; in other cases, please enquire at info@enscope.org

You can of course withdraw at any time. However, because (late) cancellations directly put the sustainability of our projects and partners in jeopardy (remember, as opposed to many competitors, we are a not-for-profit), we need to retain varying percentages of the amount paid depending on how close your cancellation is to your departure date. Your travel insurance will often refund these as long as the reasons for cancellation are within their policy. This is one of the reasons why we strongly encourage all participants to take the cancellation option when purchasing travel insurance. Amounts retained go as follows (days based on calendar days and CET timezone); for cancellations:

• >90 days from departure: 90 % refund – only the 10% deposit will be retained in order to cover the costs engaged in planning your trip with our partner
• Between 90 and 61 days from departure: 50% refund – 50% of the full amount will be retained to cover all administrative costs engaged in planning your trip with our partner along with advance payments made to guarantee logistical readiness by the time you arrive
• Between 60 and 31 days from departure: 10% refund – at this stage your trip is in the final stages of planning with our local partner, and all but few payments have been made.
• Within 30 days or less from departure: no refund possible – it is practically impossible for us to find a replacement for you within 30 days from departure and all payments in preparation of your visit have been made. A cancellation at this stage directly threatens the financial sustainability of our projects/partners.

This generally depends on the project. Generally it will be possible to enlist in additional training and courses (e.g. PADI Rescue Diver) and to take part in local visits and activities. Some of these will be included in the original basis fee while others will require additional payment. Pre-booking is available for selected courses and options at discounted rates (compared to the fee once on site). Please check available options while booking. Options can sometimes be added after confirming your reservation; please check in your personal page[1]after booking for details.

The main exclusions (non-exhaustive) from our fees are international travel, travel and medical insurance. Once on site, while it is not essential, foreseeing a little pocket money can allow for additional treats and comfort. You will also have the opportunity to take part in specific optional courses, activities and/or visits before/during/after your project. Some of these options are eligible for pre-booking at discounted rates, and pre-booked options generally require no further payment once on site (please refer to the option description for details).

Fees generally cover board (3 meals a day), accommodation, local transport, training and activities planned by EnScope as defined in your selected project description, but this may vary from project to project. Please check your selected project page for details.

EnScope provides projects for all levels of skills and experience; some will be open to volunteers straight out of secondary school and will begin with all required training, while others may require specific knowledge or experience. More details are provided in the project description pages.

• Impact. While our venture is only in its initial steps, in alignment with our vision, all EnScope initiatives will be impact-driven, ensuring that all projects address local conservation, and sustainable development and management priorities. With this in mind, EnScope will ensure that everyone who takes part in one of our projects will be kept updated on the impact that the project has on local conservation and environmental management measures that are developed.
• Alumni. Become a friend of EnScope and stay up to date with all the latest developments in our research projects and initiatives. Be one of the first to know when we launch new research projects and when we publish results, findings of our ongoing projects and the management and conservation measures they helped develop. Our Alumni is designed to allow people the opportunity to remain connected and involved, sharing information and data should they wish, whether they have been part of one of our research projects or not. We offer several different levels of ‘friendship’ depending on the level of engagement you wish. Receive discounts on future bookings and even the opportunity to be an ‘early tester’ of new research projects at a special rate.
• Transparency. It is important to us that people know where their money is being spent, whether it is developing new research projects to tackle specific conservation objectives or supporting specific local partners in their ongoing projects. We think this is key to ensuring people are fully engaged with the work we do and which we support. This idea of transparency extends to our partners. When discussing new research projects and partnerships we maintain this commitment to transparency to ensure that we have strong and reliable partnerships based on trust.
• Quality assessment from start to finish. With any scientific research projects collecting data, the robustness of the method, data collection and subsequent analyses are critical to ensuring the usability and reliability of the information. EnScope commits to ensuring that all data will be collected in a scientifically robust manner, thereby guaranteeing their reliability and usability for their intended objectives.
• Financial support. In order to ensure the accessibility of our projects and initiatives, EnScope endeavours to offer a number of partly and/or fully funded opportunities to anyone passionate about making a difference in this world.