1 December 2018: Registration Deadline!

Land use and the resulting landscape character is the result of complex human–environment interactions. The complexity of these processes increasingly challenges planners, environmental agencies and policy makers. In this summer school the students learn how science can support practitioners in their decisions on sustainable land-use/landscape development.

The requirements are:

• An interest in quantitative and qualitative analysis of complex land systems
• An interest in science-practice interfaces
• basic knowledge in R, ArcGIS
• Motivation letter
• 1-page short CV

PhD students and Postdocs around the world are welcome to register. 24 students will be chosen.

This summer school is organized by the Swiss Federal Institute of Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL in cooperation with the Global Land Programme GLP and University of Berne. The lecturers build a multi-disciplinary group of renowned scientists from WSL, ETH Zurich, Wageningen University, Free University of Amsterdam, and University of Berne. 

3 May 2019: Application Deadline!

This University of Geneva CAS aims at providing attendees with a good understanding and practical skills on the various open source geographic and environmental tools together with approaches to tackle environmental challenges and sustainability. These skills are also transferable and applicable for mountain research.

The objectives of this summer school are:

• Give double competencies to professionals and students in geomatics and environmental fields
• Acquire knowledge on a set of tools linked to Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI), Web mapping (e.g. Geoserver, GeoNode, Geonetwork, MapX) and programming (e.g. Python for geoprocessing, R for geostatistics)
• Acquire specific knowledge on tools available to assess biodiversity, ecosystem services and water resources

Any person interested and/or involved in environmental sustainability and natural capitals: biodiversity, water resources and ecosystem services. This CAS is targeting in particular Swiss and foreign experts in geographic information systems interested in environmental sustainability, young graduates, PhD students, experienced professionals who want to upgrade their knowledge and skills, employees and consultants from international organizations and from national or regional authorities in charge of these topics.

Application Deadline: 30 April 2019

This year’s Summer School will take place from August 20 through August 29, 2019 in Potsdam, Germany. It will address the central topic of connecting science and society.

The 2019 Potsdam Summer School (PSS) will explore the importance of science communication in order to find effective ways of communicating highly relevant topics in the field of sustainability and global change. With its ten-day program, the PSS 2019 will enable participants to create individual as well as organizational communication strategies to various audiences. This includes both the reactive elements of press and media relations as well as the proactive communication via traditional and new media outlets.

Since the sharing of interdisciplinary knowledge and expertise is highly relevant, the following questions will also guide the ten-day programme:

• How can scientists address audiences from other societal areas?
• Can all sustainability topics be communicated equally?
• Should scientists become advocates rather than taking neutral positions only?
• How to deal with incomplete or wrongly presented scientific information?
• How to reduce complexity, without losing the scientific character?
• How to strengthen the credibility of scientific findings?

The aim is to bring together talented early-career scientists and young professionals operating in the private sector, governmental agencies and non-governmental organisations from many different parts of the world to discuss frontier (research) questions on future sustainable development. We also aim to train science communication ambassadors eager to engage with various sectors of the public back in their home countries. Our goal is to improve science awareness and help to develop informed opinions and enhance the transferable skills of current researchers.

15 April 2019: Application Deadline!

The climate community is still faced with large uncertainties in estimating possible climate changes in the coming decades and quantifying the relative role of anthropogenic contribution to climate change. Although most modern climate models are able to reproduce reasonably well global climatologies and patterns of interannual variation, they still struggle with pervasive biases and the representation of some climate phenomena involving the interaction and coupling between the atmosphere, ocean, and marine biogeochemistry. The problem is compounded by limited understanding of some of the physical mechanisms and physical-biological interactions.

Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems (EBUSs) are areas of important biological productivity and large fluxes of energy and matter in the atmosphere, in the ocean and between the two. However, their future responses to intense anthropogenic pressure is uncertain.

This research school aims at summarizing the current state of scientific understanding of EBUSs, including both observational and theoretical aspects of their coupled ocean-atmosphere dynamics and of their marine biogeochemistry.

In particular, while recent regional modelling efforts have shown that it is possible to simulate the ocean-atmosphere dynamics of upwelling, EBUSs remain poorly represented in climate models, and improved observations and theoretical understanding of the main physical and biogeochemical processes that link planetary and basin scales with regional scales are required in order to model the responses and interactions of EBUSs with large-scale forcing.

The ICTP-CLIVAR Summer School on “Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems: Assessing and understanding their changes and predicting their future” will be jointly organised by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) and the CLIVAR Eastern Boundary Upwelling System Research Foci, from 15 - 21 July 2019, in Trieste, Italy. The research school will aim at stimulating discussion and new ideas concerning the mechanisms that influence the responses of EBUSs to climate variability and change.

15 April 2019: Application Deadline!

How may human-environment research take an active role in transformative research for and with society? This is the overall question for this summer school, which will be addressed by applying science and technology studies (STS) and political ecology perspectives to participants’ own cases as well as getting first hands-on experience with transdisciplinary research methods.

First, drawing on STS, it will be discussed how human-environment research is co-produced through its historical interplay with culture, politics, economy and technology. The participants will appreciate how any prevalent knowledge could have turned out differently had other cultural, political, economic and technological factors dominated in its production. Second, drawing on political ecology, a discussion will take place on how this prevalent knowledge is always contested, overtly or not, by alternative framings, and how people are implicated by this knowledge that had no say in its production. Recognising this democratic deficit in knowledge production will provide arguments for opening up human-environment research to those different framings, alternative knowledges and implications that exist.

The participants will bring their own cases in the form of posters to the summer school, where the cases will react in structured discussions and exercises with the theories and methods offered by international lecturers of STS, political ecology and transdisciplinary research.

Applications are invited from highly-motivated international doctoral researchers only from outside of Germany.(German nationals and foreign students residing in Germany are not eligible). Applicants will be working in fields such as geography, environmental science, anthropology, development studies, agricultural science, political science, institutional economics and applied philosophy, conducting research on human-environment relations.

The Summer School is free of charge, including materials, lunch and coffee breaks. Accommodation as well as transport to and from Berlin will be paid. Numbers are limited, so recruitment will be by refereed selection. Experience with transdisciplinary/participatory methods is not a selection criterion, but motivation should be visible.

15 March 2019: Application Submission Deadline!

The Postdoc Academy for Transformational Leadership is a unique program that trains the next generation of leaders in sustainability research affiliated with a European research institution. With this year’s focus topic “Scaling Sustainability“, the program provides an intensive training with four seminars in two years that broaden the research competencies of early-career researchers and promote their qualification towards transdisciplinary leadership. The program also offers seed funding to groups of participants planning to initiate research collaborations. Furthermore, an active network of current and former participants of the program will be established.

The Robert Bosch Stiftung invites applications of postdoctoral scholars, who already conduct research on sustainability issues in the broadest sense; who work on inter- and transdisciplinary research or see why this would be useful to address sustainability issues; and who encounter problems of and with scale and scaling within their research.

Applicants should be early-career researchers at an academic institution in one of the following European countries: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Vatican.

The program is an initiative of the Robert Bosch Stiftung and a joint project of the Robert Bosch Stiftung and the four academic centers Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, Leuphana University of Lueneburg, Stockholm Resilience Centre and The Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (DRIFT), Rotterdam.

16 April 2018:  Application deadline

The 2018 Utrecht Winter School on Earth System Governance is designed to function as an incubator for early career researchers (including junior researchers, PhDs and postdocs) working with the new earth system governance research agenda. The programme will cater both for those already familiar with the Earth System Governance Project and those new to the network. At the end of the Winter School, every participant should be able to situate her or his own research in key debates in earth system governance research and build towards the next generation of environmental governance scholarship.

The Winter School will focus on five themes that form the core focus of the new earth system governance research agenda which are Anticipation and Imagination, Adaptiveness and purposeful change, Architecture and Agency, Democracy and Power, Justice and Allocation.

The course fee is 300 euros. Participants will receive a certificate for completing the course. The Winter School is equivalent to 2 credits in the European academic Credit Transfer System. If required, participants should get these credits approved through their own university or graduate school.

27 May 2018: Application deadline

The leading global challenge of today centers around making appropriate decisions that will lead countries and communities towards a safe and sustainable future. Uncertainty about future risk trends plays a central role in whether policy makers and practitioners can make decisions that help society adapt to climate risks and capture the opportunities ahead. The Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) strives to overcome that gap with the Summer Academy on World Risk and Adaption Futures.

Participants from different parts of the world and different thematic backgrounds are invited to discuss the challenge and find solutions. The Academy will bring together a group of young professionals, including academic scholars (at PhD, post-doc and professional level), policy makers and practitioners. Different perspectives are especially important to foster a common understanding.

Focus in 2018:

The key focus in 2018 will be on urbanization, one of the core factors shaping future exposure and vulnerability to environmental and climatic hazards. The 2018 Summer Academy will concentrate on novel approaches to assess the relationships with urbanization and future trends in exposure and vulnerability. It will convene contributions from different conceptual and methodological directions, including, for example, backcasting, quantitative modelling and participatory scenario approaches.

The Summer Academy on World Risk and Adaption Futures 2018 will be hosted by The Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), one of 15 worldwide operating research and training centres and programmes of the United Nations University (UNU) and Munich Re Foundation (MRF), a non-profit foundation established by the Münchener Rückversicherungsgesellschaft Aktiengesellschaft in Munich (“Munich Re”) on the occasion of its 125th anniversary in 2005.

15 May 2018:  Application deadline

Modern pluralistic societies face many challenges. The Summer School will explore the terrestrial earth surface system which is  driven by geological, biological and climatic forces. They form a complex system of closely coupled processes and feedbacks that are not yet sufficiently understood. Knowledge of these interactions is essential since the earth´s surface is the foundation for all human activity. Its dynamics have an impact on all facets of life, habitability and sustainability.

The fifth Potsdam Summer School  will address the following central questions:

• Why is the earth surface system dynamic?
• What are the triggers for dynamic processes?
• What are possible societal adaptation strategies for sustainable land management?

The aim is to bring together talented early-career scientists and young professionals operating in the private sector, governmental agencies and non-governmental organisations from many different parts of the world to discuss frontier (research) questions on future sustainable development. Participants are expected to form part of a new generation of researchers and practitioners with the necessary background and tools to evaluate and mitigate the effects of present-day and future environmental change. In this context, the Potsdam Summer School provides a unique opportunity for all participants to foster international cooperation and an interdisciplinary exchange of ideas.

25 May 2018: Application Deadline

The ECORD Sum­mer School on “Sub-sea­floor fluid trans­port and gas hy­drate dy­nam­ics” 2018 will take place from 3 to 14 Septem­ber 2018 at the MARUM – Cen­ter for Mar­ine En­vir­on­mental Sci­ences, Bre­men Uni­versity, Ger­many.

The ma­jor goal is to bring PhD stu­dents and young Postdocs in touch with IODP at an early stage of their ca­reer, in­form them about the ex­cit­ing re­search within IODP as (I)ODP and DSDP have been proven to be the most suc­cess­ful in­ter­na­tion­ally col­lab­or­at­ive re­search pro­grams in the his­tory of Earth sci­ences, and to pre­pare them for future participation in IODP expeditions. Such train­ing will be achieved by tak­ing the sum­mer school par­ti­cipants on a “virtual ship” where they get fa­mil­i­ar­ized with a wide spec­trum of state-of-the-art ana­lyt­ical tech­no­lo­gies and core de­scrip­tion and scan­ning meth­ods ac­cord­ing to the high stand­ards of IODP ex­ped­i­tions

23 June 2018:  Application deadline

Leuphana University of Lüneburg is pleased to invite you to the 6th Td Summer School in Lüneburg, Germany in September. As a follow up of the ITD Conference 2017 this year’s Td Summer School is focussing on transdisciplinary research at the science | society inteface within an intercultural orientation. It takes place at Leuphana University from September 2-11, 2018.

As a side event they will run a workshop on transdisciplinary research and sustainability from Sep 11-13. The aim is to develop an agenda for continuous collaborative research between different world regions to further develop epistemological and methodological foundations and practices of transdisciplinary research and sustainability.

20 April 2018:  Application deadline

The Summer School is open to young graduate and post-graduate scientists from both within and outside the ALTER-Net network partners, as well as young professionals in related fields. The aim of the Summer School is to create an environment for studying the challenges relating to biodiversity and natural resources in an inter- and trans-disciplinary way.

The summer school is limited to 32 participants, who are selected with the goal of achieving an optimal mix among regions, disciplines and gender. Participants from developing countries are welcome to participate. Please note that adequate English skills are required and all participants are expected to present a poster on their own research. Participants must cover a part of the cost for the school through a registration fee of €850. This includes all local costs including lectures, meals, refreshments, the field trip and accommodation in double rooms with shared bathrooms. A small number of support grants to waive part or the entire fee are available for students from developing countries and countries with economies in transition.

1 June 2018:  Application deadline

The summer school will take a multidisciplinary and practical perspective, and discuss climate and sustainable development actions, their costs and benefits, as well as related policies and needed governance. It will engage participants in discussions on the prospects and attractiveness of climate technologies and policies, and their relations with sustainable development practices, from environmental, technical, economic, social and institutional points of view. Also the participants will be introduced to the new institutional and governance framework following the Paris Agreement, and review how climate policies to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement are being implemented in developed and developing countries.

The course is designed for professionals and graduate students interested in practical, in-country action on climate change and sustainable development and the SDGs. Requirements are a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field as well as familiarity with the topic.

The course fee is 435 euros. The Summer School is equivalent to 2 credits in the European academic Credit Transfer System. If required, participants should get these credits approved through their own university or graduate school.

20 May 2018:  Application deadline

The “Brilliant Minds for Social-Ecological Transformations” summer school 2018 organized by ISOE's will bridge the gap between disciplinary PhD-programs and transdisciplinary (TD) research practice by introducing new TD approaches such as Real World Laboratories and TD methods. Special attention will be given to knowledge integration as this is one of the major cognitive challenges in TD research.

Building a strong network and exchanging experiences between you, as young scientists, and leading international senior researchers will be the main focus in lectures, workshops and open spaces.

Participants will receive a profound overview and practical training by international scientists on state-of-the-art TD methods and get the chance to enhance their skills in designing, conducting and evaluating TD research projects. They will also be able to reflect their own experiences in inter- and transdisciplinary projects against the other participants’ and senior scientists’ backgrounds and gain practical experience via hands-on sessions. 

15 November 2017:  Application deadline

The SOLAS Summer School is a biennial, international event that brings together over 70 students and 15 world-leading international scientists, in a variety of fields, for a combination of lectures and practical workshops. It aims to teach the skills and knowledge of the many disciplines needed to understand the nature of ocean-atmosphere interactions and how to link ocean-atmosphere interactions with climate and people. It allows doctoral students and early-career researchers to see how their work fits into the broad canvas of SOLAS, and global change research more generally.

1 June 2018:  Application deadline

Institute for Peace & Dialogue, IPD is one of the leading organiser of several successful annual international academic trainings and research programs in Switzerland. IPD covers the field of peacebuilding, conflict transformation, mediation, security, intercultural dialogue, human rights & leadership. Through different events held throughout the year, IPD aims to bring together state, private and public sector representatives.

IPD is proud to announce the next International Summer Programs to be held in Switzerland. Applicants can either choose a 10 or 20 days Summer Academy or 3 Month CAS-Research Program together with the 10-20 Days Training participation depending on the application.

Participants have access to expert knowledge and hands on experience as all our facilitators are specialists with years of experience in their respective fields.

With several frozen or ongoing conflicts between or within states/person all efforts towards a peaceful co-existence needs to be harnessed. Moreover, provided the rapid changes in terms conflict dynamics, particularly those within the field of conflict studies needs to remain abreast with the latest developments. Conflicts differ depending on the context with each facing its own unique challenges. The global threats faced by all nations are long: terrorist acts, non-legal arming of conflict sides, re-determination of borders, establishing new countries in the world map, non-providing territorial integrity, trafficking of arms, drugs and human; disputes on the implementation of transnational energy projects, democratization and false elections, revolution and internal political conflicts, armed guerrilla movements, violation and discrimination by nationalists, world economic crisis, climate change and unsafely biodiversity etc.

28 February 2018: Application deadline!

On behalf of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) the Centre for International Capacity Development at University of Siegen is organizing the International DAAD Alumni Expert Seminar “Diversification of Water Sources and Production Systems towards Climate Smart Agriculture, Sudan”, 15th to 26th of July 2018.

This applied research seminar is the first out of a series of two, which will be implemented in different locations of the Nile Basin in central Sudan (Khartoum, White Nile, North Kordofan, Gezira, Gedaref) in 2018 and 2019. The consequence of two seminars will allow the analysis of two different types of vulnerable farming systems in Sudan, both located close to each other in the Nile Basin, namely traditional rainfed system and traditional irrigation system in its capacity to become climate smart.

While the overarching themes of the seminars are water and food security related to appropriate Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) technologies and practices in the context of the chosen case studies, the seminars will also tackle related and interlinked topics of effectiveness of institutional policies and organizations, socioeconomic questions, and the regional context of watershed management and transboundary water management in the Nile Basin.

Eligible for participation are German Alumni from East and Northeast African countries, working in the field of water management, irrigation, agriculture or similar disciplines, and acting as multipliers, e.g. people who are decision makers or people who are in a position to disseminate the acquired knowledge.

15 Oktober 2017: Bewerbungsfrist

Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) startet die zweite Nachwuchsakademie zum Thema "Agrarökosystemforschung und Pflanzenproduktion". Mit der Nachwuchsakademie sollen besonders qualifizierte junge Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler aus zum Beispiel den Bodenwissenschaften, der Rhizosphärenforschung, dem Pflanzenbau, der Pflanzenernährung, -physiologie und -züchtung, der Agrartechnik, der Phytomedizin, der (Agrar-) Systemmodellierung und Statistik, der Agrarökologie, -soziologie und -ökonomie oder der Agrarlandschaftsforschung für die Ausarbeitung von grundlagenorientierten Forschungsanträgen mit einer in der Regel zweijährigen Laufzeit gewonnen werden.

Initiiert von Mitgliedern der DFG-Senatskommission für Agrarökosystemforschung bietet die Nachwuchsakademie diesem Personenkreis die Chance, durch erfahrene Expertinnen und Experten aus den oben genannten Fachgebieten als Mentoren auf die spezifischen Anforderungen einer ersten eigenen Drittmitteleinwerbung vorbereitet zu werden. In einem weiteren Schritt werden die Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer an die eigenständige Durchführung von in der Regel zweijährigen Forschungsprojekten und an die erste Projektleitung herangeführt. Ziel der Nachwuchsakademie ist auch die Netzwerkbildung innerhalb der eigenen Community und mit etablierten Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern. Sie bietet die Möglichkeit zum Informationsaustausch über das eigene Fachgebiet hinaus, um disziplinäre Anträge in einen interdisziplinären Kontext zu setzen. Darüber hinaus besteht die Möglichkeit, über die Förder- und Karrieremöglichkeiten und die Arbeit der DFG informiert zu werden.

29 October 2017:  Application deadline

Under the leadership of the Sentinel North strategy of Université Laval (Quebec City, Canada), the International Arctic Field School (IAFS) provides international students with a unique opportunity to interact with high-profile scientists, northerners and managers as part of a transdisciplinary training program that addresses the complex and interrelated scientific and socio-economic issues linked to the changing Arctic cryosphere.

Taking place in Iqaluit, capital of Nunavut, Canada, the school will focus on an integrative, transdisciplinary and innovative training program supported by internationally renowned professors and local experts. Under the overarching theme of a changing arctic cryosphere, participants will get hands-on experience with a wide range of disciplines such as optics/photonics, arctic ecology, chemistry, geology and human health. Participants will also be provided tools allowing them to think outside the box and harness new aspects of the changing arctic cryosphere, both scientifically and culturally.

30 June 2017:  Application deadline

The sixth Life Cycle Summer School is an opportunity for professionals and regional managers to become familiar with expanded LCA approaches to sustainable development at regional level.  The objective is to encourage a greater degree of life cycle thinking by influential social partners who wish to enhance the effectiveness of their sustainability programmes, and who have not so far employed these techniques extensively.  The Summer School is aimed at administrators in regional institutions, academics, and consultants as well as industry managers and associations and other partners that have an interest in promoting regional sustainability.

The Summer School aims to develop familiarity with, and insights into, life cycle management approaches that can contribute to regional sustainability.  It expands the managerial toolbox currently employed for the promotion of, for example, circular economy, maintaining a vibrant SME industrial sector, developing local resource-based economies, and in gaining a better understanding of waste and pollution challenges in regional communities. Life cycle approaches can also assist in enhancing landscape and natural resource management.

This year’s Summer School is linked with the International Conference on Life Cycle Management 2017, in Luxembourg which takes place from 3-6 September 2017. Applicants to the Summer School may wish to continue their exposure to LCM by participating also in this conference.