News

On Monday, 23.09.2024, a group of enthusiastic young ecological researchers from Charles University (Czech Republic), the University of Bayreuth (Germany) and other European research institutions joined us in Wallenfels, Germany. For one week, we worked together in the Science School on Quantitative Ecology - a course organized jointly by researchers from Charles University, the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Chair of Sportecology to equip participants with advanced quantitative skills vital for modern ecological research and to foster Czech-German collaboration. 

Over the course of 5 days, young scientists delved with us into a wide range of topics, including species distribution modelling, multidimensional methods, community ecology, biogeography, paleoecology, and macroevolution. The practical sessions on R programming, GitHub, and open science practices made the heads of the participants (fortunately not literally) smoke, but also ignited their enthusiasm for collaborative sciences. After all this hard work, sociable dinner and passionate board game nights offered just the right counterpart to relax. 

At the end of the week, we said goodbye to each other with a laughing and a crying eye: Sad, that the inspiring week had already come to an end, but happy to have met like-minded people whom they eventually will meet again. 

We would like to say thank you to all participants for their simply amazing engagement and to our funders - the Bavarian-Czech Academic Agency (BTHA) and the Support for the Internationalization of Charles University (POINT) - without their support, the event wouldn’t have been possible.