Programme

Aim: Provide PhD students who have limited or no background in agricultural cropping systems, state-of-the-art knowledge about crop production. The course will present the origins of crops and cropping systems from different regions, for students to analyze the environmental impacts of the respective cropping systems and propose strategies to improve their sustainability using the SGD´s as a framework. The course intends to familiarize students with cropping systems that deliver a range of ecosystem services. By also connecting specific cropping systems knowledge with social, geographical and economic aspects – via a multi-disciplinary approach – this course encourages students to incorporate sustainable development concepts in their thinking.

• Course organiser: Marocs Lana (marcos.lana@slu.se)
• Dates: August 25 - September 19 (see schedule in the upcoming course announcement for specific dates and times during this period)
• Points: 3.5 ECTS
• Application date: sign up before August 15
• Location: Uppsala & online
• Course code: P000136

Aim: to provide an in-depth overview of the basic methods for measuring and assessing growth and physiology of plants, and to give an overview of quantitative methods for the measurement of structural and functional plant properties (so called phenotyping) in modern phenotyping facilities. A special focus is on the current concepts and methodologies for the assessment of plant nutrient use efficiency in different agricultural and ecological contexts.

• Course organiser: Martin Weih (martin.weih@slu.se).
• Starting date: 1 September (full schedule available from Martin)
• Points. 6 ECTS
• Location: Uppsala or Zoom
• Course code: P000015

Focussing on ecosystem functioning in inland waters (lakes and streams) and terrestrial ecosystems (soils, riparian habitats, agricultural and forest landscapes), this course covered basic definitions, the relationship between ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services, and several currently topical themes in ecosystem functioning research. These include the roles of functional traits and calculation of functional diversity (including practical exercises in R), multifunctionality, and an overview of biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research.

• Contact & registration: Brendan Mckie (brendan.mckie@slu.se)
• PNG0057
• 3 ECTS
• September 2025

Aim: To illustrate the application of number of multivariate methods on ecological data. Ordination and classification procedures will be demonstrated in lectures and exercises. The course is given in two parts. Part 1 consists of lectures and calculation exercises, and part 2 is a supervised project on your own data. You can take either only part 1, or the full course.

• Part 1 (no project)
  • PNS0190
  • 3 ECTS
  • October (TBA)
• Part 2 (project, non-obligatory)
  
  • PNS0074
  • 4.5 ECTS
  • October (TBA)
• Course organizer: Ulf Grandin (ulf.grandin@slu.se) and research schools FoSW and Ecology

See this link for more information on the course and how to apply: Multivariate methods for ecologists

Would you like to know more about how to communicate your science to the general public? To communicate science teaches how to plan and perform communication work and what measures and channels that can be used to reach different target groups.

This course is organised jointly by the NJ Research Schools (Ecology - basics and applications, Focus on Food and Biomaterials, Focus on Soils and Water, Organism biology, People, Society and Sustainability, Sustainable systems for food, energy and biomaterials) and the divisions of Planning and Communication.

The course will be in hybrid format, with two physical meetings in Ultuna and some Zoom lectures in between the physical meetings. For more information about the course, and to apply, follow the link below. 

• Planned for Autumn 2025
• Course website: To communicate science, 2 ECTS (previous course occasion 2023)
• 2 ECTS
• POG0086
• For questions please contact galia.zamaratskaia@slu.se

Aim: to help each student overcome the initial steep learning curve that is associated with learning R, and how to think in a structured and logical way to make programming using base R coding easier (includes data structures, base graphics, indexing information, loops and how to predict and extract information from statistical objects). This is a joint course from the Ecology + FoSW and Organism Biology research schools.

• Course organiser: Matt Low (matt.low@slu.se )
• Date: 1 week course in November (TBA)
• Points: 3 ECTS
• Location: in Uppsala (or you can do the course in your own time using online materials)
• Course code: PNG0088

Have you ever asked yourself what possibilities you, as a PhD, have in the labour market outside of the university? Do you want to improve your chances of finding your dream job? Then join our one-day seminar (TBA) hosted by all the NJ-faculty research schools, to get different perspectives on career choices, finding your “dream job”, self-employment possibilities, prospects and possibilities in the current labour market, etc.

The aim of the workshop is to give insights and inspiration on how to write a thesis summary. The topics covered are legal issues concerning the thesis summary writing process, writing inspiration, and discussions on “best practices” for writing a thesis summary. Organizer: Philip Jacobson (TBA)

Welcome to the workshop: ‘How to become a post doc” that we are organizing in collaboration with several research schools at SLU. Full day (week 9, TBA), incl. presentations from funders in Sweden (VR & Formas), a session on writing applications, and opportunities to interact with and learn from other postdocs. Organizer: Research School (FFB) (Ali Moazzami).