It’s been a big year here at ICON Science. We’ve started new projects, celebrated completed PhDs, attended a variety of conferences and had the pleasure of hosting many visiting researchers. But we’ve had our share of frustrations, and many trying days battling with R code, Reviewer 2 and planetary despair.

But rather than letting the unticked boxes on our overly optimistic yearly to-do lists hang over our heads, we’re going to end the year celebrating our wins! In this blog post we’re taking the opportunity to celebrate our highlights for the year, ranging from accepted articles and theses (!), to the absolute joy of being outside in the field.

Nothing can really top finishing my PhD but also a few research papers came out this year that were the outcomes of fun, long term collaborations on privately protected area research in Australia (Selinske et al. 2019), and prediction in social-ecological systems (Travers et al. 2019). Another highlight was working with Victoria’s Department of Environment, Land, Water, and Planning to start considering how we can better link the outcomes of behaviour change programs to biodiversity impacts. Finally, very pleased and grateful to be starting a postdoctoral research position in the new year! – Matthew S.

The highlight of my year is being back in the field with my trusty camera! Oh, how I love taking photos of plants and insects and I feel eternally grateful that I have a job that actually requires me to go out every two weeks into nature. I am one lucky duck. Below is a teaser of some of the little critters I have encountered this year, but stay tuned for an informative 2020 as we finish fieldwork and begin some proper deskwork time. – Freya

I started the year by walking the Overland Track in perfect weather – what a great way to start 2019! Two major highlights for me were being awarded an ARC Discovery Project with Sarah Bekessy, Andrew Knight and Atte Moilanen, and being appointed to DELWP’s Scientific Reference Group. The Discovery Project will investigate onsets as an alternative to offsets that could deliver on-site benefits and net gains for biodiversity. I’ve also really enjoyed the opportunity to be involved in the ecological planning for the Fishermans Bend Urban Renewal project, and was delighted to see Matthew Selinske become a Dr! – Georgia

Finally publishing my first first-author paper from my Master’s project (Gregg et al. 2019) was definitely a major highlight for me! That paper has been hanging over my head for a while! Receiving a DPIE/ESA Outstanding Outreach Award was also a great moment, and I’m excited to work on a school science project as part of that team for next year. Celebrating the #untweetables on Twitter during the week leading up to Threatened Species Day was also a nice moment to share with the entire ICON team. – Emily

Hello and welcome to the very first day of our #untweetables week! We’re starting off the week with some seriously special snail species, so get ready to show some love for #MolluscMonday! #ThreatenedSpeciesDay #WildOz pic.twitter.com/9JZxe1d3MT

— ICON Science RMIT (@ICON_Science) September 1, 2019

I’m very satisfied with what I accomplished this year. I completed my PhD confirmation milestone and presented part of my research at the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) annual conference, where I also took a training course on Strategic Thinking for Sustainability and met researchers and professionals working on environmental assessment and biodiversity conservation. Hanging with the ICON mates has also been a lot of fun! Outside the PhD, completing a half and a full marathon were great moments in my year – Marco

My ongoing Melbourne Fieldwork this year has brought many interesting sights, sounds and new knowledge on the wonderful creatures inhabiting Melbourne green spaces, and my successful bid for the Green Our Rooftop Grants brings exciting new opportunities to apply what I have learnt in a different context! An additional highlight for me would definitely be having the opportunity to present my research on where native species belong in green space planning to an audience of architects, planners, artists and ecologists at The Nature of Cities Summit in Paris, and become part of the global conversation on how to build cities better for people and nature. – Katie

This year has been fantastic for me. Joined ICON group as a PhD student and now moving into the next year as a PhD candidate. Published 4 research papers as a co-author outside of the PhD project (Rimal et al., 2019), (Rahman et., 2019), (Rimal et al., 2019), (Sharma et a., 2019), further 2 more papers undergoing review. A protocol paper (a chapter for the PhD) is in review. This year was also about making friends, lot of beer drinking and chilling – for a long-term research collaboration. – Roshan

A major highlight of 2019 for me was us hosting a successful (even fun!) workshop to set out the objectives and target species of the Fisherman’s Bend ecology strategy, in which I was responsible for leading a creative storytelling exercise to draw robust objectives from a group of scientists, policymakers and community members. I also enjoyed having the chance to present the findings of a year of analysis to the European Commission in Brussels, outlining new tools and planning processes for greening in our seven partner cities in Europe and beyond. – Thami

On behalf of everyone here at ICON Science, Happy Holidays to all and we’ll see you in the New Year!