In cooperation with the University of Tartu (UT), the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity (iDiv) and the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) organize a summer school in Estonia on pollination ecology. We invite students (Bachelor, Master or PhD level) from Germany and Romania to participate in this exciting event.

The summer school will teach students how to collect data on plant-pollinator networks in the field. The data will be analysed in order to quantify:

• the breeding system of a plant species
• the magnitude by which plant species are pollen limited
• the environmental and plant traits that correlate with pollen limitation
• the identity of the pollinating insects to broad taxonomic groups
• the structure of the plant-pollinator network for a community of co-flowering plant species. 

The summer school will take place near Virtsu, Estonia (58.550556°, 23.601944°).

All statistical analyses and network analyses will be conducted using the programming language R. The language of the summer school is English.

2-6 July 2018 (5 full days)

Prof. Dr. Tiffany Knight (UFZ/MLU/iDiv): expertise in pollination ecology, experimental design

Lena Neuenkamp (UT): expertise in plant community dynamics and plant-soil interactions of biodiverse grasslands

Dr. Reinart Feldmann (UFZ): expertise in entomology

Valentin Stefan (UFZ/iDiv): expertise in statistics, R programming

• Bachelor students (in their final years), MSc students or PhD candidates in the fields of botany, ecology, entomology, or other related field
• Good English skills
• Motivation to learn in an intercultural working environment

Applications for the summer school can be submitted by 16 Febuary 2016.

Prospective participants of the summer school should send their application to Reinart Feldmann (Reinart.Feldmann@ufz.de). Please enclose the following documents in one PDF document: 

- short CV (1 page), including detailed contact information

- statement (max. 1 page) explicitly addressing

• why you want to attend the summer school
• your research interests
• how you expect to benefit from this summer school
• your experience (if any) with statistics using R

- names of two people that can provide references

The summer school committee will select 10 summer school students (5 students each from Germany and Estonia).

extended until 28 February 2018