Erasmus Intensive Programme - April 18-May 1st 2010
Centre for Biocultural Diversity - University of Kent

The Biocultural Diversity of Local Peoples and Migrants in Europe: Concepts and Interdisciplinary Methods (abbreviated as BIOCULTURE) will provide scientists and postgraduate students with a multipurpose platform to stimulate biocultural diversity studies, an emerging multidisciplinary endeavour dedicated to understanding the complex and dynamic interrelationships between humans, other species and ecosystems.

BIOCULTURE will train a critical mass of young students in biocultural diversity research methods and facilitate the exchange of experiences between leading scientists and young researchers within Europe. Coordinated by and initiated in 2009 at Kent’s Centre for Biocultural Diversity (CBCD), BIOCULTURE will consist of a two-week intensive course followed by a web-based virtual classroom engaging all participants.

Lectures and seminars will address key concepts such as co-evolution, agrobiodiversity, historical ecology and biocultural diversity, and European issues, such as traditional agriculture, crop diversity, urbanization, migration, and the conservation of natural resources, languages and agricultural heritage. In interactive methods workshops, Masters and Doctoral students will design and refine research proposals and then communicate their field experience via the virtual classroom. Programme alumni will form a community of researchers whose subsequent research and continued interaction via the BIOCULTURE website will promote understanding of European biocultural diversity.

BIOCULTURE consists of six partner organisations: University of Kent, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna; Wageningen University, The Netherlands; Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain; Uppsala University, Sweden; and Tallinn University, Estonia.

For details: BIOCULTURE and online application form

Financial Support for Accommodation (100%) and Flights (90%) for students and staff from WUR, BOKU, UAB, TALLINN, UPPSALA, who are also citizens of EU countries or of Turkey, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Norway.

Contact: Dr. Raj Puri, Course Convenor. R.K.Puri@kent.ac.uk Tel: +44-1227-823148