Activities 2015

Summer school: The future of forests

This summer course took place 23 August - 4 September, 2015 at SLU campus Alnarp in Sweden.

The objectives of this summer school were to gather an international group of selected graduate students with strong background in forest sciences, forest ecology or natural resource economics. Students were introduced to the Swedish forestry model as a base line for critical discussions, also based upon the student´s experience from their home countries.

A Report on the GCUA Graduate Summer School “The Future of Forests – Managing Forests for People”
Prepared by Ismail Muhammad, Chai Ee Wen and Muhammad Aizat Abd Ghani
Phd Candidates, Faculty of Forestry, University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

Contact: Lars Drössle

Summer school: Green and sustainable cities 

– the Landscape Architecture Perspective on Global Urban Challenges

This summer course took place between the 10-22 August 2015 at Alnarpsgården, SLU Campus Alnarp in Sweden.

The objective of this summer school, Green and sustainable cities, was to gather an international group of selected graduate students of different disciplinary focus in the fields of Landscape architecture, Landscape Planning, Environmental Psychology, Sustainable Architecture as well as students in Urban design, Physical and Community Planning  with a clear and focused interest in Green and Sustainable Cities.

Through lectures and excursion guiding from distinguished scientists/practitioners within the field, students was presented with tools to address challenges and specific problems within the subject area of Green and Sustainable Cities and got training in leadership and communication. The attendees was also provided with  multiple opportunities to interact with invited scientists and learned from each other and built networks.

Download an evaluation and report from the GCUA summer school Green and sustainable cities

Contact: Per Berg

Summer school: Aquaculture - local solutions to a global challenge

22 June –1 July, 2015, Uppsala, Sweden

The GCUA 2030 aquaculture summer school, held at SLU campus Ultuna during 22 June –1 July 2015, gathered students from 9 universities representing 14 different countries covering all continents.

During the course challenges and opportunities within the area of aquaculture globally were discussed. Twenty lecturers from SLU and a number of other organisations, such as University of Stirling, Wageningen University, University of Queensland, Makerere University, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Karolinska Institutet, University of Ghent and Worldfish contributed to the course. In addition to the aquaculture specific part of the course, aspects of communication and leadership were discussed and applied during workshops and group work.

Workshop: Livestock production in the post antibiotic era

In December 2015, 25 researchers from 15 different universities gathered for the 8th GCUA 2030 workshop "Livestock Production in the Post Antibiotic Era” in Uppsala, Sweden. Sustainable livestock production, e.g. basic food-protein production, is a challenge in general, of which the lowered dependence on antibiotics in the production is one of the major. Gradually, present antibiotics are loosing impact and functionality, and we need to look for alternatives, moderate our usage and prepare for an era where the usefulness of antibiotics will be limited. 

The general ambition of the workshop was to (1) develop a research agenda, define relevant topics and suggest paths taken to approach them scientifically, (2) to generate one or several reflection papers, addressing the topic on a broader scale and (3) plan for a summer-school for PhD students within the GCUA 2030 network.

The workshop themes were as follows:

1. Animal health – a holistic approach to improved production systems with less use of antibiotics
2. On farm biosecurity – including external and internal biosecurity as well as biocontainment, to establish sufficient barriers to prevent transmission of infectious agents
3. Alternatives to antibiotics – probiotics and vaccines, strategic disinfection or treatments
4. Food chain biosecurity – a holistic approach to biosecurity addressing the challenges associated with infectious diseases from farm to fork.

 Workshop: Why wildlife? 

The 7th international Workshop "Why Wildlife? – Global Opportunities & Challenges" took place in Uppsala, Sweden, 26-29 April 2015. 

Program and abstracts for the conference

Participating universities:

• University of Melbourne (Australia)
• University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, BOKU (Austria)
• University of Sao Paolo (Brazil)
• University of Bologna (Italy)
• University of Putra (Malaysia)
• Wageningen University (Netherlands)
• Lincoln University (New Zealand)
• University of Porto (Portugal)
• University of Pretoria (South Africa)
• Sokoine University of Agriculture (Tanzania)
• Makerere University (Uganda)
• University of California, Davis (USA)
• Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Sweden)