This is the fourth time that ENDURE conducts a summer school for postgraduate students on topics related to crop protection. These residential courses are organised, coordinated and facilitated by ENDURE partner Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna (SSSA) of Pisa and take place in the beautiful campus of the International School for Advanced Education (SIAF) located in Volterra 60 km S-E of Pisa in the heart of the Tuscany countryside.  Past summer schools covered:

• “ Biodiversity for crop protection” - 2007
• “ Modelling approaches to support IPM” - 2009
• “ New and emerging agricultural pests, diseases and weeds” - 2010

This time around, PhD students will interact with researchers to reflect on the application of agroecological principles to cropping systems for the management of weeds, pests and diseases. A mix of lectures, practical exercises, team work and one-on-one interactions as well as the participatory facilitation skills of SSSA staff will ensure a lively and efficient learning environment. Teachers and students will cover a diversity of aspects of agroecology for crop protection. The menu of topics considered includes novel approaches looking at trophic interactions involving weeds, the role of hedges and field margins in functional biodiversity, the use of predatory flies in greenhouses, the biological management of root diseases, ecosystem services rendered by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, multi-pest modelling to support integration between pest, weed and disease management, and a comparison of agroecology in tropical and temperate cropping systems. Teachers and facilitators include Camilla Moonen and Gionata Bocci (SSSA), Marco Barzman and Sandrine Petit (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique), Stefan Kuehne  (Julius Kuehn-Institut), Sabine Ravsnkov  (Aarhus University) and Alain Ratnadass (CIRAD).

If you wish to participate in the summer school, with or without the grant, please click here

Deadline for application is May 30, 2012.