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Center for Computational and Theoretical Biology

Plant & Pollen Metabarcoding Summerschool 2016

Plant & Pollen Metabarcoding Summerschool 2016

PollenBoL Mini-Symposium 2016

Overview

We are happy to announce that we will host a summerschool this year on "Plant and Pollen Metabarcoding" together with a Mini-Symposium of the "PollenBoL" group of researchers. The short outline is:

  • Laboratory Workshop: 9-10. May 2016, 9 AM to 6 PM
  • Bioinformatics Workshop: 11-12. May 2016, 9 AM to 6 PM
  • Mini-Symposium: 13. May 2016, 10 AM to 6 PM
  • Registration for each of the three parts is separate due to different space limitations
  • Scholarships: available for students and early postdocs
  • Application closes on 31. January 2016 

Details

Workshop

In recent years, molecular methods have gained great importance in supporting ecological studies. Metabarcoding through high-throughput sequencing devices is an especially useful tool to assess diversity and composition of samples that consist of more than a single species. With these new possibilities, there are also new challenges to be addressed. The intention of the workshop is to transfer the laboratory, bioinformatical and analytical key skills to perform metabarcoding with mixed plant and pollen samples. For this, we will follow the method established in our laboratory and published in this article: Sickel et al. 2015 BMC Ecology.

This workshop is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Thus the major goal of the hands-on workshop is to train especially graduating or recently graduated scientists from abroad with little or no previous knowledge in this area. The number of participants is largely limited, thus a selection will be made to choose those candidates with urgent need and dedicated interest in applying this method in their current or future research. Essential for selection in general is the quality of a short motivation letter (maximum 1.500 characters), where these points should be clearly addressed.

Mini-Symposium

PollenBoL was established as a research network during the "International Barcode of Life Conference 2015" in Guelph, Canada, where first approaches of pollen-metabarcoding were presented by different workgroups in a special session. The rationale for the Mini-Symposium is to keep connected and to introduce new members to this community. It is scheduled for Friday, 13th of May 2016, directly after the hands-on workshop. Workshop attendees are already included in this Symposium, whilst others can register separately.

The Mini-Symposium will host a series of short presentations of applied research projects using meta-barcoding or method development. Scholarship holders are required to give such a short presentation. All other attendees are invited to present their research and how they use or intend to use plant or pollen-metabarcoding for their questions. We are looking forward to a diversity of topics. The Mini-Symposium will also serve the purpose of a forum for interactions and discussions between MetaBarcoders. There will be plenty of time to discuss new opportunities, pitfalls and potential future collaborations. 

Registration for the Mini-Symposium only does not require a motivation letter. Just type in "Mini-Symposium attendance only" in the required field.

Scholarships

Scholarships are provided by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for international students to attend this summerschool. If you match the criteria indicated below, please tick the respective box in the registration form. Scholarship are provided as a financial recompensation of a fixed amount of expenses for travel and accommodation*. The amount is dependent on your country and according to the general DAAD guidelines. Also, the summerschool registration charges will be waived. We will email you after application, to notify you what budget of support is possible according to these regulations.

Criteria are:

  • non-german applicant
  • BSc/MSc/PhD student or early-stage PostDoc (max. 1 year after finishing your degree)
  • Quality of the motivation letter
  • Clear indication of the relevance of attending this summerschool for your current or planned research in the motivation letter

*When ticking the box for the scholarships in your application, you agree that you will provide us with all required original documents of your travel and accommodation expenses during the summerschool.

Gefördert vom DAAD aus Mitteln des Auswärtigen Amts (AA) // Supported by the DAAD with funding by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany