Background

The concept of a bioeconomy, also called the “bio-based economy” or “knowledge-based bio-economy” can be understood as an economy where the basic building blocks for materials, chemicals and energy are derived from renewable biological resources, such as plant and animal sources. This type of economy can meet many of the requirements for sustainability from environmental, social and economic perspectives (McCormick & Kautto,2013). Furthermore, the forest sector is becoming more integrated with other industrial sectors, such as construction, energy, chemicals and textile industries. The concepts of “forest-based sector” and “forest-based bioeconomy” are beginning to replace the conventional and more narrow concept of “forest sector”. The European forest-based sector is also becoming more diversified, interlinked, and cross-sectorial. It is increasingly affected by issues such as climate change impacts and policies, energy policies, advances in new technologies, the increasing role of services, and trends towards a low carbon bioeconomy or green economy (Think Forest, 2014).

Goal of the summer school 2016

The goal is to organize an interdisciplinary summer school covering all aspects of forest sciences and closely related fields related to bioeconomy from social sciences (policy, socio-economics) over natural sciences (growth and yield, ecology, silviculture, agro-forestry, …) to material and wood sciences and engineering (including harvesting techniques and operations research). The participants will work closely together with specialists from different disciplines to reflect on their own work and learn new perspectives as well.

Organization

The summer school will include lectures, poster sessions, excursions and group work of the students to selected topics. It is planned that the results of the group work will be presented on the last day of the summer school 2016 (September, 2^nd  2016). This presentation will be integrated in a ceremony, in which the renewal of the signature of the NFZ agreement by the representatives of the NFZ member organisations will take place.

Keynotes and Lectures

The summer school will feature Keynote speeches and lectures addressing disciplinary and interdisciplinary challenges in the broad field of bioeconomy. 

Location

Location will be the “Fachschaftshaus” of the University of Freiburg on the “Schauinsland” mountain (1100 m.a.s.l) close to Freiburg i.Br. Germany. This idyllic and peaceful location offers a place to work and retreat for teachers and students since 1935 and will be the perfect location for our summer school.

Preliminary program

Official arrival for the summer school will be on Monday (29.8.) until 12a.m, however participants are free to arrive on Sunday (28.8), where we will go on a field trip to the surrounding area and visit the “Eugen-Keidel-tower”, a lookout that offers a beautiful view of the black forest. Monday through Thursday will consist of input lectures from the various speakers, group discussions and different transdisciplinary based exercises. On Wednesday afternoon an excursion to the Black Forest area covering topics like close-to-nature forestry will take place.  On the final day we will move to Freiburg (university or FVA), where the renewal ceremony of the NFZ framework agreement will take place. In the ceremony where leading representatives from the partner institutions of NFZ will participate, the presentation of the summer school group work will be integrated. 

Application

The summer school seeks to attract PhD students or young scientist in the broad field of forest sciences and closely related disciplines from any country in the world as well as the NFZ network countries. We expect around 20 highly-motivated students. The language of all sessions will be English.

You can use the following link to send us your application until June 30. 2016

Application to summer school 2016 “BioFor”

The WSL recently posted a Video on their YouTube channel featuring the NFZ summer schools, which will give you a nice impression from the 2015 summer school in Switzerland. You can find the video here  or under  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npno2Ppfovc&feature=youtu.be .