Course format

The course format is a combination of lectures, coaching sessions and group discussions, all set up in an interactive way. The participants are required to attend both the entire course and the IALE 2025 European Landscape Ecology Congress (www.iale2025.sav.sk). The course will start with a day introduction before the congress in Bratislava. After the congress, the course will be continued in Lednice.

Preliminary Program

Monday 1 September – Welcome, getting to know each other, introduction to the course and congress program
Tuesday 2 to Friday 5 September – Attending the IALE European Congress 2025
Friday 5 September (after closing congress) – Transfer to Lednice
Saturday 6 to Wednesday 10 September – Lectures, field visit, discussion sessions, paper discussions.
Wednesday 10 September (before lunch) – Departure to Bratislava

First part (before the congress – Monday 1 September 2025 in Bratislava, SK)

The participants will be introduced to the objectives, theme and format of the course. They will present themselves and share their research topic with the course participants and lecturers. Moreover, they will be introduced in the congress program and guidance will be provided to take the best advantage of the event, for the purpose of their research, which includes making directed contact networking activities.

Second part (after the congress – Friday 5 to Wednesday 10 September 2025 in Lednice, CZ)

The second part will take place at the Faculty of Horticulture of Mendel University in Lednice, where the participants and lecturers will reside at the campus facilities. The program is built around theoretical lectures focusing on different concepts, approaches and related applications in landscape ecology as well as sessions about specific research skills. One interactive workshop on paper writing and the publication process is planned, focusing on how to communicate scientific research to different publication formats. Besides these lectures, students will be expected to present their own research and engage in debates and discussions. The discussions during the course will contribute to the student’s critical reflection on their own research, their paper writing, their attitude as landscape researchers, and how they can position themselves within the landscape ecological thinking.

Assignments

For the PhD course, the students are expected to bring in (see deadlines at the end of this document):

(1) a poster presenting the overview of their PhD research;

(2) a paper (between 1000 and 3000 words) focussing on a part of the PhD to be discussed and improved during the course. It can be a paper you are working on at the moment (in draft version of to be submitted) where you would like to get feedback on. It can be also be a part of the PhD proposal in case you are still in the starting phase of the PhD. The aim is to discuss and improve the paper during the course for future submission for publication or improvement of the research proposal.

Furthermore, the students are asked to:

(3) have an active participation in the IALE2025 Congress by submitting and presenting a poster or a paper in the congress related to their PhD topic (depending on the stage of their PhD research).

Students can expect the following learning outcomes:

Contribution to a solid and innovative conceptual framework as a base to research landscapes from a landscape ecological perspective;
Insights into novel methodological approaches on the integration of natural and cultural dimensions;
A critical view and comments on their research work;
Contributions to a more coherent design of the presentation and publication of their research;
Lively and participatory discussions;
An enduring network of international researchers.

Number of contact & learning hours

The course is equal to 6 ECTS credits, including 40 contact hours and 110 hours of preparatory work. The latter includes reading tasks, preparing a poster and a paper, and further developing the paper after the course.