Research School in Biosystematics – ForBio

Our ambition is to train a new generation of biosystematists to meet the society’s needs for biodiversity expertise and at the same time to strengthen the research in biosystematics in the Nordic countries. To achieve that, we offer a wide range of both practical and theoretical courses in biosystematics and provide a platform for facilitating teaching and research collaboration between Nordic research institutes.

Photo: Christiane Todt, UiB

There is a large discrepancy between the number of described species and the estimated number of undescribed species. Our knowledge of the relationship between many of the described species and higher taxa is often poorly known, as are the processes that give rise to different evolutionary lineages. From the society there is also an increasing demand for biodiversity estimates, species inventories, and description and classification of new species.

Our ambition is to train a new generation of biosystematists to meet the society’s needs for biodiversity expertise and at the same time to strengthen the research in biosystematics in the Nordic countries. To achieve that, we offer a wide range of both practical and theoretical courses in biosystematics and provide a platform for facilitating teaching and research collaboration between Nordic universities and other research institutes.

ForBio primarily aims to strengthen biosystematics education for students and postdocs working in the fields of botany (including mycology, bryology and phycology) and zoology. Courses are also open for others who want to broaden their expertise.


ForBio's vision is to meet the community's need of biodiversity information by strengthening research and expertise in biosystematics by:

(1) linking the respective research communities in the Nordic countries in a research and education network

(2) providing a high-quality research training program embedded in active research environments at high international level

(3) contributing to increased knowledge of Nordic species through (1) and (2) above, and also by offering courses to other target groups than PhD students such as volunteers in inventories, non-professional biologists, and natural management officials.


ForBio is a teaching and research initiative coordinated by the Natural History Museum (University of Oslo),  University Museum of Bergen (University of Bergen), Tromsø University Museum (University of Tromsø) and the NTNU University Museum  (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim). ForBio is currently funded by the Norwegian Taxonomy Initiative of the Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre - Artsdatabanken.

 

 
 
Published Oct. 21, 2011 12:29 PM - Last modified Feb. 8, 2024 11:50 AM