General Information

• Location: APDL, Leça da Palmeira
• Schedule: 9h-12h; 14h-18h
• Target audience:
  • Graduate students (MSc, PhD)
  • Advanced Undergraduate students;
  • Environmental Scientists and Analysts
  • Fisheries and Aquatic Resource Managers
  • Policy Advisors and Technicians in Environmental
  • Agencies
• Language: English
• Course participants will receive a certificate of attendance.

Registrations

Fee:

• Full course (in person): €200 (€150 for CIIMAR/UP/CCMAR members)
• Online option (theoretical classes only): €100
• Single-day attendance: €50

• Register through this form: https://forms.office.com/e/nigQ9Vw1hm
• Registration is only guaranteed upon sending proof of payment to trainingandcareer@ciimar.up.pt,
• IBAN: PT50 0079 0000 0826 8888 1027 6, SWIFT/BIC: BPNPPTPL, Account holder name: Centro
  Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental
• After sending the proof of payment, a confirmatory e-mail for the registration will be sent.

Course description

This intensive one-week course equips participants with the core principles and practical skills needed to design, implement, and analyse models of organisms and the ecosystems they inhabit. Through a blend of concise lectures, guided tutorials, and hands-on computer labs, you will progress from conceptual model construction to fully coded simulations, gaining insight into the entire modelling workflow—from defining questions and system boundaries to interpreting results for management and policy. Although the methodology taught is applicable to any ecosystem, the examples presented during the
course will focus on marine organisms and ecosystems.

Specific aims of the course

By the end of the week you will be able to:

• Formulate clear ecological questions and translate them into appropriate model structures.
• Build and document dynamic models in STELLA, Ecopath with Ecosim, and R, selecting the
platform that best fits the problem.
• Evaluate model behaviour through calibration, sensitivity testing, and uncertainty appraisal.
• Design and run scenario simulations that inform conservation, fisheries, and climate-adaptation
decisions.
• Critically interpret and communicate modelling results, acknowledging assumptions and
limitations, to support evidence-based marine ecosystem management.

Course Programme

Check the course’s programme here.

Organization

Irene Martins- MEMO

Instructors

Keynote lecturer Nathalie Niquil (CNRS Research Director UMR M2C, University of Caen Normandy)
Laurie Michaud, Assistant Researcher, UMR M2C,University of Caen Normandy
Ester Dias, PhD Researcher RACE team, CIIMAR
Rita Bastos, Post-Doc Researcher, CIBIO – UTAD
Isabel Iglesias, PhD, Assistant Researcher LOAI team, CIIMAR
Fabíola Amorim, PhD Researcher LOAI team, CIIMAR

In case of any questions, please contact CIIMAR’s Advanced Training & Careers‘ office.