The language of instruction is English. This course encourages participants to interact with each other for active learning. In addition to the planned lectures (morning), we will prepare practical/lab sessions (afternoon) in such a way that participants are able to have hands-on experience and learn how the models work, what the necessary input data are and how to interpret results. We will provide computer programs and examples of our own during the course (please bring your own laptop).

Participants are asked to introduce their scientific interests (poster) on Monday afternoon and to explain how the model-based vegetation reconstruction can help them to address specific research questions. Participants are also asked to conduct small independent projects individually or with others during the course; participants are welcome to bring their own data and materials with them and use those for their own projects. Participants will have to read and familiarize themselves with the topics beforehand. The course will finalize with a professional report by the students.

The teaching staff includes experienced researchers in model-based vegetation reconstruction such as Shinya Sugita (SS – Professor, Tallinn University, Estonia), Marie-José Gaillard (MJG – Professor, Linnaeus University, Sweden), Petr Kuneš (PK – Assistant professor, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic), Laurent Marquer (LM – Researcher, Lund University, Sweden) and Florence Mazier (FM – Researcher CNRS UMR 5602 GEODE, Jean Jaures University, Toulouse). See below for a preliminary program.