Oxford, U.K., Interdisciplinary Summer School on Forests 4-8 August 2025

Interdisciplinary Summer School on Forest Ecosystems 2025 

AIM & OBJECTIVES

We had an amazing experience with PANGEOS participating in the Interdisciplinary Summer School on Forest Ecosystems 2025. It was already the third year in a row where we are planning to do a summer school where multiple COST Actions will get together and train a new generation of scientists on how to map, monitor, understand better or model forest ecosystems using innovative new technologies.

A wide variety of factors highly challenge forest ecosystems, and in recent years and decades, the challenging factors have been getting significantly worse. The good news is that many sectors are experiencing revolutionary developments. Awareness of the state-of-the-art across disciplines that focus on forest ecosystem applications is very important. That is why we have connected four forest-related COST Actions together: 3DForEcoTech, ARiF, CLEANFOREST and PANGEOS. Participants will go through topics including ground-based lidar, remote sensing, augmented reality, climate extremes and more – all with a focus on forest monitoring.

WHEN & WHERE?

04/8/2023 – 08/8/2023, Oxford, United Kingdom

Venue: Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford & Wytham Woods
Local Organiser: Sruthi M Krishna Moorthy – University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world’s second-oldest university in continuous operation. The Department of Earth Sciences is the Earth Sciences department of the University of Oxford, England, which is part of the university’s Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division. The department is based in the Earth Sciences building on South Parks Road in the Science Area.

Wytham Woods form an iconic location that has been the subject of continuous ecological research programmes, many dating back to the 1940s. The estate has been owned and maintained by the University of Oxford since 1942. The Woods are often quoted as being one of the most researched pieces of woodland in the world, and their 1000 acres are designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

During the summer school, we will organise a poster session on the participants’ current research interests, and the work will stimulate open exchange and discussion between students and trainers.

TARGET AUDIENCE

This summer school is designed for PhD candidates and postdocs from a variety of research fields.

HOW TO APPLY?

Applications are closed (and the event has already ended)! We had hundreds of people apply to this interdisciplinary training event for the limited 40 places that were available. For this summer school applicants were spread across the four distinguished topics and selected based on their submitted (i) a short motivation letter, (ii) a one-page CV and (iii) a 300-word abstract of the participants’ current work. The organising committee issued the acceptance notifications in May 2025.

Participation fee & support: No registration fee. COST actions 3DForEcoTech, ARiF, CLEANFOREST and PANGEOS will reimburse the costs of selected participants’ travel, accommodation and subsistence. Only applicants from COST countries (https://www.cost.eu/about/members/) are eligible for reimbursement. The costs will be reimbursed only after the completion of the summer school. Students from outside these countries can also apply, but they have to use their own funding.

KEYNOTES

Yadvinder Malhi – University Oxford (UK)

Maria J. Santos – University of Zurich (Switzerland)

Stefano Puliti – Norwegian Institute for Bio-economy Research (Norway)

Mathias Disney – University College London (UK)

ORGANISERS & TRAINERS

3DForEcoTech COST Action

• Martin Mokroš – University College London
• Emily Lines – University of Cambridge
• Markus Eichhorn – University College Cork
• Sruthi M Krishna Moorthy – University of Oxford

ARiF

• Thomas Purfürst – Universität Freiburg
• TBA

CLEANFOREST

• Rossella Guerrieri – University of Bologna
• TBA

PANGEOS

• Shawn C. Kefauver – Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona
• Maria Santos – Earth System Science, University of Zurich.

Relevant skills for selection and inclusion from PANGEOS are: