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From 5 July to 10 July 2015, our Department of Ecological Modelling (namely Karin Frank, Jürgen Groeneveld and the POLISES group) will be the main local coordinators for an International Summer School. It is titled ‘How to model human decision making in social-ecological agent-based models’ and will take place in the cosy, picturesque Saxon town of Kohren-Sahlis. PhD students and post-docs with an interest in modelling social-ecological systems in the context of natural resource use are kindly invited to apply.

The intensive course offers you an introduction to theories of human decision-making and behaviour that are relevant for natural resource management in social-ecological systems. Hence, you will get insights as well as hands-on experience on how to represent human decision-making in models of social-ecological systems. On the one hand, you will be attending lectures by international experts who share their experience in this field. On the other hand, you will carry out your own modelling project on a given subject in a small team. Of course, there will also be ample opportunities to explore the surroundings and to socialise with the other participants.

The modelling itself will be carried out on the NetLogo platform, so you should have a basic level of proficiency when the Summer School starts. The course will focus on building simple models, analysing the results, and presenting them in an effective way.

If you would like to participate, we are looking forward to receiving your online application by 1 March 2015. Please consider inviting your friends and colleagues as well. You’ll find the application form and more detailed information on this website.