IALE-Europe PhD Course 2026

Landscape Ecology for Nature Restoration: Perspectives across Habitats and Disciplines

Bari (Italy)

30 November - 5 December 2026

The next PhD Course Landscape Ecology - From Pattern and Process to People and Action will be jointly organised by IALE-Europe and IALE Italy. 

We will meet in Bari (Italy) frm 30 November to 5 December 2026

This PhD course fits in the series of PhD Courses in Landscape Ecology facilitated by IALE-Europe, each in collaboration with a local university or a IALE Chapter. Previous editions were organised in 2012 (Évora, PT), 2013 (Manchester, UK), 2015 (Copenhagen, DK), 2017 (Ghent, BE), 2019 (Milan, IT) and 2025 (Lednice, CZ). Each edition gathers around 24 participating PhD researchers and a team of international lecturers.

The course aims to set the stage for the participants to reflect on their PhD research within the wider landscape ecological thinking by interacting with young and notably senior researchers. It will include a mix of lectures on scientific concepts and tools, group coaching sessions by research topic, feedback sessions on students’ papers, discussion time, and a field trip to explore the area of the PhD course.

Quick links:

  1. Download the application form here: form

  2. Important dates:
    15 October 2026 - Deadline for 1st stage registration
    21 October 2026 – Final confirmation of acceptance/enrolment
    13 November 2026 – Payment 
    13 November 2026 – Deadline for submission of final papers (3000 words)
    30 November 2026 – Arrival in Bari

Topic and Theme

Landscape Ecology is the discipline that studies the interactions between spatial patterns and processes in landscapes across scales, integrating both biophysical and societal aspects of landscapes. The theoretical discourses and paradigms in landscape ecology link natural sciences with related human disciplines. It offers the opportunity to integrate the fundamental scientific approach of landscape ecology within planning and policy.

 

The focus of this course will be on Nature Restoration and how the transdisciplinary approach of landscape ecology can contribute to this across diverse habitats. Despite hosting the world’s largest network of protected areas, Europe’s nature is in alarming decline, with around 80% of habitat types in poor or bad conservation status. Nature restoration efforts may facilitate biodiversity increase, maintain ecosystem services, buffer against climate change, build resilience to natural disasters, and reduce risks to food security for the present and future needs of millions of people. A key instrument to support the EU Biodiversity Strategy, the Nature Restoration Regulation is the first continent-wide, comprehensive law of its kind to set binding targets for restoring degraded ecosystems. But in order to achieve multiple and often conflicting goals, which imply trade-offs and require assessment between different restoration targets and dominant land uses, there is a need for an inter-sectoral, interdisciplinary, multi-level approach which goes beyond a site-based or habitat patch-based focus, taking into account the wider landscape.  Landscape ecology, by its nature, has these characteristics and can provide methods and tools to address restoration needs within and beyond protected areas in a densely populated and ecologically transformed Europe.

Topics and relevant questions to be addressed: 

  1. Understanding nature restoration needs and priorities: What does "restoration" mean at the landscape scale? Which landscapes should be prioritised for the restoration of habitats and species of European conservation concern, and on what basis? Which landscape structures and processes enhance resilience to climate change, and how can they inform restoration priorities and strategies?
  2. Designing nature restoration across scales and dynamic gradients: Where can landscape restoration deliver synergies between biodiversity and ecosystem services, and where might trade-offs occur? How can landscape connectivity, permeability and ecological networks be restored to support species movement and ecosystem processes across fragmented landscapes? How does the surrounding landscape influence restoration options and outcomes, and how do these effects vary across spatial and temporal scales? How can landscape connectivity and ecological continuity be restored across fragmented and urbanising landscapes? 
  3. Balancing biodiversity, ecosystem services and human uses: How does human use influence restoration outcomes, and when should restored landscapes be protected from, accommodated for, or integrated with human activities? How can restoration programmes anticipate and respond to future demands for ecosystem services? How can restoration trajectories be monitored and evaluated under conditions of ecological uncertainty and environmental change?
  4. Governing and implementing nature restoration: How can scientific, local and practitioner knowledge be integrated into landscape restoration planning and decision-making? How can landscape restoration be governed across scales, policies, sectors and actors to enable transformative change? What knowledge, skills and capacities are needed to implement landscape restoration effectively across different levels of practice and decision-making?

Evolving towards inter- and transdisciplinary approaches is fundamental when addressing nature restoration across the diversity of European landscapes. This requires a true interaction between natural and social sciences and between science, policy and practice. This means that the course will address topics from both the natural and social sciences – more specifically, focus on integrating them – and how approaches, theories, and tools from both can inspire a landscape ecological approach to understanding and answering the current changes in the environment and society. 

In this course, we want to capitalise on the variety of disciplinary backgrounds of PhD students and the diversity of case studies to foster a discussion that clarifies the conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches for addressing the complexity of nature restoration from a landscape ecological perspective.

 

Targeted audience

The course is open to PhD researchers from all over the world at different stages of their PhD research. To create an open atmosphere and to increase interaction, the course is limited to a maximum of 24 students. The course will be interesting for PhD students in geography, biology, environmental sciences, ecology and biosciences, as well as in social sciences and planning, with research or a clear link to different aspects of nature restoration, landscapes, and landscape ecology. Feel free to contact the course organisation if you want to discuss whether the course would fit your PhD trajectory. 

 

Course format

The course format combines lectures, coaching sessions and group discussions, all designed to be interactive and guided by the participant’s learning questions. 

On the day of arrival, participants will be introduced to the course objectives, theme, and format, as well as the venue. They will present themselves and share their research topic with the course participants and lecturers. 

The program is built around theoretical lectures focusing on different concepts, approaches and related applications in nature restoration and landscape ecology, as well as sessions on specific research skills. One interactive workshop on paper writing and the publication process is planned, focusing on how to communicate scientific research in 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 students’ critical reflection on their own research, their paper writing, their attitude as landscape researchers, and how they can position themselves within 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) focusing 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 or to be submitted), where you would like to get feedback on. It can 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.

 

Learning outcomes, number of contact & learning hours 

Students can expect the following learning outcomes:

  • Contribution to a solid and innovative conceptual framework as a base to research landscapes and nature restoration from a landscape ecological perspective;
  • Insights into novel methodological approaches on the integration of natural and social 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.

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.

 

Organisation and practical aspects

Download the application form here: form

Lecturer team 

  • Emilio Padoa Schioppa – Prof., Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy)
  • Ioannis Vogiatzakis - Prof., Department of Soil, Plant, and Food Sciences, University of Bari Aldo Moro (Italy)
  • Isabel Loupa Ramos – Prof., Department of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Environment, University of Lisbon (Portugal) 
  • Paola Mairota - Prof., Department of Soil, Plant, and Food Sciences, University of Bari Aldo Moro (Italy)
  • Theo van der Sluis – Senior researcher Landscape Ecology & Biodiversity, Wageningen University and Research (The Netherlands)
  • Veerle Van Eetvelde – Prof., Department of Geography, Ghent University (Belgium) 

Fee

300€. This covers accommodation in Bari, breakfast, lunches and coffee breaks, and course materials. Travel in Bari is not included. 

To register for the PhD course, you must become a member of IALE, as the course will be funded by IALE International, IALE-Europe, and IALE Italy. 

  • If you are not yet a member, you can contact Ioannis Vogiatzakis (ioannis.vogiatzakis@uniba.it) for further instructions.
  • If you are not yet a member and live/work in Italy, you can register on the website of the Italian chapter: https://www.siepiale.it

Dates

  • 15 October 2026 - Deadline for 1st stage registration: submission of the application form and abstract of a paper (max. 500 words) (download from https://iale-europe.eu). Applications should be sent to Veerle Van Eetvelde (veerle.vaneetvelde@ugent.be).
  • 21 October 2026 – Final confirmation of acceptance/enrolment
  • 13 November 2026 – Payment and payment confirmation to be sent to Ioannis Vogiatzakis (ioannis.vogiatzakis@uniba.it) .
  • 13 November 2026 – Deadline for submission of final papers (3000 words)
  • 30 November 2026 – Arrival in Bari

 

Contact details and organising committee

For more information about practical organisation:

Paola Mairota - University of Bari Aldo Moro and IALE Italy - paola.mairota@uniba.it

Ioannis Vogiatzakis - University of Bari Aldo Moro and IALE-Europe - ioannis.vogiatzakis@uniba.it

 

For more information about the format and content of the PhD course:

Veerle Van Eetvelde - Ghent University and IALE-Europe - veerle.vaneetvelde@ugent.be

Isabel Loupa Ramos - University of Lisbon and IALE-Europe - isabel.ramos@tecnico.ulisboa.pt