ForBio Annual Meeting at NTNU - the Norwegian University of Science and Technology starting soon! 8-10 April, 2019
We will be more than 70 participants attending 4 keynote talks, 37 oral presentations, and 14 posters with lightning presentations.
Social program will include organ concert at Nidaros cathedral, icebreaker at Mikrobryggeriet and reception at the exhibitions of the NTNU University Museum, Gunnerushuset.
DEST and ForBio course: Zoological Nomenclature June 3-7, 2019, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris DEST is relaunched and organizing its Zoological Nomenclature course again!
This training will provide an overview of the history and epistemology of biological nomenclature, and a discussion of the relationships between phylogeny, taxonomy and nomenclature. The zoological code will be presented in detail, the other codes (including the botanical one) more briefly. The recent problems and projects of nomenclature, including alternative systems, will be discussed. Application deadline is April 1st, 2019
ForBio and UiB Dead Wood Course 2019 June 24-28, 2019, Voronezhsky State Nature Biosphere Reserve, Russia The intensive five-day course program is comprised by lectures, workshops, excursions, and an obligatory book exam. The target group is advanced master and PhD students. It is recommended that students have taken basic courses in entomology, mycology, and ecology. The aim of the course is to familiarize students with various aspects ofthe habitat, organism groups and ecological processes in dead wood. Dead wood experts will provide deeper coverage of their fields and research and will give examples of case studies and the workshop sessions. We will go through a broad range of topics, such as biodiversity in dead wood in boreal and temperate environments, biodiversity conservation and restoration, and of course all kinds of lignicolous organisms: fungi, insects, and more. Application deadline extended for ForBio associates from Russia until March 31st, 2019
ForBio field course: Northern Biodiversity Hotspots, Plants and Insects of Skibotn July 29 - August 3, 2019, Skibotn field station of the University of Tromsø, Storfjord, Troms, North Norway This course will include two options running in parallel groups. One provides training in identification of Boreal and Arctic groups of flowering plants and another is in collection and identification of main groups of insects with a focus on Diptera. The course will take place in Skibotn area with remarkably high species number for such northern latitudes (68-69 degrees N) challenging the general concept that species richness decreases as latitude increases. Daily excursions to both lowland and mountain habitats will be combined with practical work in the class to identify the collected materials using the identification keys and learn diagnostic characters of plant and insect taxa. Application deadline is June 1st, 2019
After introducing statistical approaches in model-based inferences, participants willapply pipelines for single-species demographic inferences using Approximate Bayesian Computation, Supervised Machine Learning and composite likelihood methods for model comparison using the ABLE package and the PipeMaster r-package. Then, the workshop will cover multi-taxa demographic inferences using hierarchical models in the R packages multi-DICE and PipeMaster. Finally, novel community population genetic models which integrates both abundances, the phylogeny and comparative phylogeographic data will be introduced. These methods which capitalize on the widespread use of DNA barcoding and meta-barcoding approaches will be implemented in the pipeline gimmeSAD/MESS.
Application deadline is May 1st, 2019
Systematics, Morphology and Evolution of Marine Molluscs September 17-27, 2019, Marine Biological Station "Vostok", Primorsky Krai, Russia In this course, we aim to provide participants with a unique opportunity to get state of the art knowledge in various aspects of molluscan biology as well as hands-on experience in the field and laboratory work on marine molluscs. The course will cover a wide range of taxa including aplacophorans, polylplacophorans, gastropods, bivalves, cephalopods, and scaphopods. The lectures will address various theoretical questions in molluscan biology, morphology and systematics. Major hypotheses on the phylogenetic relationships between the main molluscan clades will be addressed and evolutionary adaptations to various, sometime extreme, marine biotopes will be discussed. During the lab work we will study external and internal morphology of selected mollusc taxa and perform anatomical dissections. Application deadline is April 1st, 2019
ForBio course: Biosystematics of water bears (phylum Tardigrada) September 18-20, 2019, Schøninghuset, NTNU University Museum, Trondheim This course will give an overview of current classification and phylogeny of tardigrades, go through morphological characteristics important in tardigrade taxonomy, and provide practice in sampling, extraction, preparation and identification of the most commonly encountered taxa. The course will also include a section on DNA barcoding of tardigrades and other small, multicellular animals, and demonstrate how skills in molecular analysis is beneficial for our understanding of the diversity of such organisms. Application deadline is June 1st, 2019
DEST and ForBio course: Basics of Taxonomy - describing, illustrating and communicating biodiversity October 28 - November 8, 2019, Marine Biological Research Station, Drøbak, Norway This two week course gives a comprehensive theoretical overview and hands-on experience about different methodologies on how to describe, illustrate and communicate biodiversity. The course covers the following topics, each taught by an expert in the matter: • Digital drawing, • Scientific illustration, • Scientific writing and communication, • e-Taxonomy and biodiversity informatics tools and workflows, • DELTA (DEscription Language for TAxonomy). Application deadline is August 1st, 2019
ForBio and Transmitting Science: CT Scanning and Post-Processing December 2-6, 2019, Natural History Museum, University of Oslo The course gives a practical introduction to microfocus X-ray tomography (CT scanning) and post-processing of volume data, as used in zoology, botany, paleontology, geology and archaeology. A Nikon Metrology XT H 225 ST instrument will be available to participants throughout the course. This flexible instrument can scan objects from about 2 mm to 20 cm across, with densities ranging from soft tissues to rocks, allowing demonstration of a range of applications and scanning parameters. Visualization and post-processing of data will be based on the advanced software Avizo. We will also give a short overview to data analysis methods such as volumetric and texture analysis and geometric morphometrics. Application deadline is September 30th, 2019
Funding opportunities
ForBio travel grants We have changed our travel grants rules. ForBio offers both incoming and outgoing travel grants to fund collaborations between ForBio members based in Norway and taxonomic experts up to NOK 14,000. Grants are given for taxonomic training with relevance to the main research project of the applicant, and aim to allow the student to do taxonomic research with specific experts, work with particular collections, or learn new preparation techniques directly from experts. Participation in external courses, conferences, fieldwork or other kinds of activities which are not classified as expert-in-training visits are no longer eligible for support. There are two application deadlines: March 1stand September 1st each year.
ForBio & Transmitting Science ForBio organises some courses together with Transmitting Science (announced in the ForBio website). For these courses, ForBio will cover the registration fee for all accepted ForBio members. In addition, ForBio will cover travel and accommodation for ForBio members affiliated to Norwegian institutions. In order to benefit from this agreement, you need to indicate you are a ForBio member when registering through the transmitting Science website. A 30% confirmation fee may be required when registering; this will be reimbursed to ForBio members after the course.
ForBio members and associates also get a 20% discount on ALL Transmitting Science courses. You just need to indicateyour ForBio affiliation when registering.
TIP: Lots of interesting jobs and other opportunities are published on the Evolution Directory (EvolDir) mailing list, and not all of them make it to the ForBio newsletter! You can subscribe to EvolDir or check out the recent postings here.
cation of main groups of insects with a focus on Diptera. The course will take place in Skibotn area with remarkably high species number for such northern latitudes (68-69 degrees N) challenging the general concept that species richness decreases as latitude increases. Daily excursions to both lowland and mountain habitats will be combined with practical work in the class to identify the collected materials using the identification keys and learn diagnostic characters of plant and insect taxa.
