Summer School on Assisted Migration 2025
From 28th July to 1 August 2025 the 3rd Summer School on Adapting Forests to Climate Change: Operationalizing of Assisted Migration will be held at the Forestry Training Centre of the Austrian Research Centre for Forests – FAST Traunkirchen, Austria.
Application is open until June 30, 2025!
Find more information and application below.
Building on the success of its inaugural edition in 2023 the Austrian Research Centre for Forests (BFW), the Czech University of Life Sciences (CZU), and EVOLTREE will collaboratively host the third Summer School on Assisted Migration in 2025.
Who can participate?
Are you a master’s student, doctoral candidate, early postdoctoral researcher, or practitioner passionate about adapting forests to climate change while utilizing and conserving genetic variation within tree species? Then this is for you.
What are the Topics?
This summer school aims to provide in-depth insight into the Assisted Migration of forests in climate change with a focus on models to guide decision support. Specific topics are:
- Practical training for developing models to identify and spatially map adapted and maladapted populations of forest tree species in climate change using Machine Learning.
- Quantitative genetic mechanisms of local adaptation and, through visits to forest provenance trials, understand why it may be insufficient for rapid climate change.
- Integration of assisted migration with forest tree breeding, and the primary delivery systems of adapted forest reproductive material, including seed orchards and forest nurseries.
- Digital Innovation Technologies in Forestry: high-throughput phenotyping for analyzing biotic and abiotic stressors under controlled conditions and much more
Lectures and excursions will be held in English. Elementary knowledge of statistics and R programming is expected. Please bring your laptop.
How to apply?
Please complete the registration form. After receiving your registration request, we will review all the applications and if selected we will send you an invoice with details of payment. Successful applicants will be notified then.
Application is open until June 30, 2025.
Registration fee: 1300 €. The registration fee will cover room rent and food (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) during the summer school. The registration fee will also cover the cost of the excursion.
Payment Instructions:
Please use the following details for the bank transfer.
Payment reference: „Summerschool 2025 Traunkirchen“
Account Number: 96050844
Payee: Bundesforschungs- und Ausbildungszentrum für Wald, Naturgefahren und Landschaft
Bank: BAWAG PSK
National Bank Code: BAWAATWW
IBAN: AT09 6000 0000 9605 0844
BIC : BAWAATWW
UID-Number: ATU 61289616
Participants from EVOLTREE member institutions can receive limited partial reimbursement of the registration fee. Please read the details here.
Please note that the registration fee needs to be paid in full before the course starts and any reimbursement claim has to be settled with EVOLTREE individually by the eligible participant.
ECTS:
University students who complete the course will be eligible to receive ECTS credits through the Czech University of Life Sciences. If you are interested in this option, please send an inquiry to Prof. Milan Lstiburek.
Location:
Forestry Training Centre (BFW), Traunkirchen, „Waldcampus Österreich“
https://fasttraunkirchen.at
The beautiful lake town of Traunkirchen lies 422 m above sea level on the west bank of Lake Traunsee. The lake extends 7.8 km from north to south and 4.8 km from west to east. The lake offers excellent swimming areas within walking distance of the Forestry Training Centre.
How to reach the Forestry Training Centre, Traunkirchen:
Arriving by train
The forest campus is only a 3-minute walk from the train station “Traunkirchen Bahnhof”, so it is very easy to get there by train. The station Traunkirchen can be reached by a local train starting at the train station Attnang-Puchheim which is a larger stop along the main train line between Vienna-Salzburg-Munich. Fast trains from the Austrian federal train line ÖBB (https://www.oebb.at/) and the private Westbahn (https://westbahn.at) https://westbahn.at/en/) operate on a frequency of 30-60 min in both directions.
Timetable information: https://www.oebb.at
Tickets ÖBB: https://shop.oebbtickets.at/de/ticket
Arriving By Car/Bus
Approach via the Salzkammergut federal road B145, follow the signs “Waldcampus Österreich”. Attention: Height restrictions at the railway underpasses in Traunkirchen – 3.40 m. Traveling by coach is possible via the Pichlhofstraße (ABZ Salzkammergut).
Accommodation & Food:
The registration fee will cover room rent and food (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) during the summer school duration. There is also a Bistro and some vending machines in the campus building where drinks can be purchased. Please bring cash for the vending machines.
Course Faculty:
Dr. Debojyoti Chakraborty (Kurskoordinator), Senior Scientist, Department Forest Growth, Silviculture & Genetics, Austrian Research Centre for Forests, BFW, Vienna
Dr. Silvio Schüler, Head, Department Forest Growth, Silviculture & Genetics, Austrian Research Centre for Forests, BFW, Vienna
Dr. Marcela Van Loo, Head of Unit of provenance research and breeding, Austrian Research Centre for Forests, BFW, Vienna
Dr. Albert Ciceu, Post Doc, Department Forest Growth, Silviculture & Genetics, Austrian Research Centre for Forests, BFW, Vienna
Prof. Milan Lstibůrek, Department of Forest Genetics and Physiology, Czech University of Life Sciences, CZU, Prague
Contact:
Dr. Debojyoti Chakraborty
Course Coordinator
