Habitat mapping and trophic ecology of Marine Animal Forests

For MAF-WORLD COST Action 20102, it is a pleasure to announce the training school “Habitat mapping and trophic ecology of Marine Animal Forests” that will be held in Portugal at the Center for Marine Sciences in Faro, on Sept 25th – Oct 1st 2023.

The topics include:

• Fundaments of habitat mapping and data acquisition methods at sea;
• Non-invasive methods to map deep-sea benthic communities;
• Trophic strategies in MAF-forming organisms;
• Methods to assess heterotrophy in MAFs;
• Trophic ecology in R: SIBER & mixSAR.

Instructores:
Marina Carreiro Silva (University of the Azores, Portugal)
Carlos Dominguez Carrió (University of the Azores, Portugal)
Márcio Coelho (CCMAR, Portugal)
Laurence De Clippele (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Vianney Denis (National Taiwan University, Taiwan)
Aschwin Engelen (CCMAR, Portugal)
Christine Ferrier-Pagès (Monaco Scientific Center, Monaco)
Andrea Gori (University of Barcelona, Spain)
Covadonga Orejas (IEO-CSIC)
Sergio Rossi (University of Salento, Italy; UFC-Labomar, Brazil)
Alessandra Savini (University of Milan, Italy)
Nadine Schubert (CCMAR, Portugal)
Núria Viladrich (University of Barcelona, Spain)

The training school is limited to 15 students and travel bursaries are available from the MAF WORLD COST Action to support the participation of 10 students in this training event. If you are interested in applying for this funding support, please first check that you fit the eligibility criteria below and then follow the steps to apply.

Applying for MAF-WORLD training school

• Applicants must be PhD students, Postdocs or Researchers.
• Applications should include a CV and a motivation letter (no more than one page), stating why you want to participate in the training school and how you will benefit from it.
• Please email your application to Nadine Schubert (nadine_schubert@hotmail.com) with a cc to Sergio Rossi (sergio.rossi@unisalento.it).
• The deadline for applications is 18:00 GMT on 15 June 2023. Applications received after this date will not be considered.
• The training school organizers will evaluate applications; successful applicants will be notified at the beginning of July 2023.

MAF-WORLD travel bursaries

Eligibility criteria for application for travel bursaries

• Applicants must be formally affiliated to or registered at a European or Associated to the EU country institution.
• Applicants must be a member of the MAF COST Action to apply for funding. Membership is free and easy – apply here to join one of the MAF working groups (https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA20102/#tabs+Name:Working%20Groups%20and%20Membership). You must do this before you can apply for travel support.
• Successful applicants will be able to apply for reimbursement of their training school travel costs, subject to the conditions below. No advance payments will be made!

What is covered by the funding support, and what are the rules?

• Travel bursaries cover economy class airfare to and from the training school, up to a value of EUR 1000 (strongly recommended to purchase travel insurance cancellation), plus a daily allowance of EUR 195 per day to cover hotel accommodation, local transport and meals.
• The total amount available is capped at EUR 2200 per applicant.
• Costs are reimbursed retrospectively after the training school has taken place via the e-COST portal. You must retain proof of payment for your flight ticket, as well as your boarding passes.
• You must submit your request for reimbursement via the online e-COST platform as soon as possible after the training school, but no later than Oct 31st 2023.
• You can expect reimbursement within a few weeks of submitting your claim, subject to providing all the necessary documentation.
• Recipients of travel bursaries through this scheme must ensure they sign the daily attendance register provided at the training school.

Questions?

Please contact Nadine Schubert or Sergio Rossi.