Conservation Research Expeditions & Field Courses

Operation Wallacea is a series of biological and conservation management research programmes that operate in remote locations across the world.  These expeditions are designed with specific wildlife conservation aims in mind – from identifying areas needing protection, through to implementing and assessing conservation management programmes.

Large teams of university academics are concentrated at target study sites giving volunteers participants the opportunity of working on a range of projects. These programmes provide the opportunity to consider science and conservation of key ecosystems from a global perspective and draw upon researchers from a wide range of different disciplines and academic institutions to address major issues related to the sustainable management and conservation of some of the worlds most diverse but threatened environments.

Find out more about what attending an Operation Wallacea expedition is like, together with details of the skills and experience you gain by signing up to a free webinar/presentation or come along to an in person talk at many universities across the UK. You can get further information about our expeditions by clicking here.

Come and celebrate research with us….. Last year we held our first ever Optoberfest scientific mini-conference! Optoberfest is a chance for us to showcase some of the amazing science stories and research results from our global network of field sites, and for you to ask our speaking panel of international scientists questions about their work. In 2025 it will be held on Thursday 9 October and Friday 10 October 2025. Limited in person tickets are available and all lectures will be streamed online. If you are in another time zone recordings of the talks will be sent to all who sign up and you can even ask questions in advance. 
Sign up at opwall.com/optoberfest