Courses open for registration

While much of statistics focusses on associations between variables and making predictions, the aim of structural equation modelling is to establish causal relationships between variables. The focus will be on classical structural equation models with a small number of (latent) variables, but we will also give an introduction to recent developments on methodology for high-dimensional data.

The aim of this course is to provide an introduction to R and R Studio. It introduces the participants to R language syntax, to enable them to write their own R code. They will also learn about R data-types and data-structures, and they will be taught how to explore the data and produce plots. The course will be a combination of lectures and practicals.

In this workshop, participants will learn the principle of tidy data, how to transform and combine datasets using the tools from the tidyverse and how to generate advanced visualization with the ggplot2 package. The course will be a combination of lectures and practicals.

The central theme of this course is the development of resilient seed systems (RSS) with participatory breeding programs (PPB) that are responsive to the needs of farmers and society as a whole. The focus is on longer-term solutions for sustainable, agro-ecological agriculture in the broad sense, departing from the underlying question: how to move food systems forward in the South and the North?

The purpose of this course is to familiarize participants with statistical methods to analyse uncertainty propagation in spatial modelling, such that they can apply these methods to their own models and data. Both attribute and positional errors are considered. Attention is also given to the effects of spatial auto- and cross-correlations on the results of an uncertainty propagation analysis. Computer practicals make use of the R language for statistical computing.

The design and analysis of experiments, using plants, animals, or humans, are an important part of the scientific process. Proper design of an experiment, apart from its proper analysis and interpretation, is important to convince a researcher that your results are valid and that your conclusions are meaningful.

The course aims at assisting steps towards a holistic understanding of the complex social-ecological landscape that is the northern Maloti-Drakensberg. Centered on the Bergville/Mont-aux-Sources/Royal Natal National Park area, the course will provide an opportunity for an in-depth study of the ecological and social processes that drive change (for good or bad) in this region.

This is a course on the soils of the world and their assessment. It will provide an introduction to the soils of the world and their diversity, their main forming factors, classification and management. The course will include lectures and hands-on exercises. It will make use of the facilities of the World Soil Museum.

This course introduces methods and software for management, analysis and mapping of soil type and soil properties within the R environment for statistical computing. The course alternates between lectures and computer exercises and covers a variety of subjects, such as geostatistics, machine learning for soil mapping, soil functional mapping, proximal soil sensing, quantification of uncertainty, sampling for mapping and soil map validation.

Modelling is a crucial part of today's science. Among other things, models are used for assessing sensitivity of systems to disturbances or changes in external factors, and for predictions of future system states. This course provides an introduction to modelling with a focus on systems analysis using dynamic simulation models.

In this third edition of the European Forestry course, organised under the flag of the Euro League for Life Sciences (ELLS), we aim to shed light on the current management strategies of European forests, and how to adjust these to become climate-smart. There is much variation in forest management across Europe, at least in part based on differences in ecology, economics, social perceptions, ethics and morality towards forests and the resources and services they provide. The idea of this course is to bring PhD candidates and postdocs from various countries and cultural backgrounds, and working in different scientific disciplines but related to European forests, together in a professional on-site training course. The course will be organised at the BOKU training centre “Traunkirchen” in Austria. This venue is perfect for this course, as it sits in a location that is surrounded by forests that are managed in a varied way, so as to provide excellent learning experiences for the participants. A travel subsidy is available for PE&RC PhD candidates.