Open, Reproducible and Transparent Science in Ecology
Course on reproducible workflows to manage, produce, use, and reuse FAIR data
Main content
Universities, journals, and funding bodies increasingly demand open and reproducible research practices across the scientific community. Research data needs to be FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable), workflows need to be reproducible, and science needs to be transparent.
Do you want to gain new skills in data management, making your data FAIR, and your workflows reproducible? Do you want training in open-source tools such as GitHub and R that can be used to achieve this?
We offer hands-on training on methods and technologies to make research more open, reproducible, and transparent (data wrangling, FAIR data principles, reproducible documents, GitHub, pipeline tools). We will cover topics including data publishing, storing, sharing, and reusing in relation to GBIF biodiversity data, Darwin Core Standards and Computer programming using the GBIF API (application programming interface). And we will show how to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) for supported programming.
The course is aimed at PhD students (will be prioritised) as well as early-career researchers in ecology and related fields, who produce their own data (i.e. collect data in the field or lab), use data from others (i.e. databases), or both. Some technical knowledge of programming in R will be an advantage.
The course will be held at Hjerkinn Vandrerhjem Dovrefjell, from the 10th - 15th November 2025. We will invite experts to give lectures on specific topics and provide hands-on training that gives students opportunities to practise new skills. We will provide examples, but also encourage students to bring their own data and problems to work on.
The course fee (including accommodation) is 4000 NOK. The course participants have to organise and pay for their travel to Hjerkinn themselves (train station 50 m away).
Application deadline: 1. September 2025
The course is 2.5 ECTS credits. Sufficient preparation, active participation, and completing the exercises are expected. A certificate for participating in the course will be issued by the University of Bergen.
To apply, please send a short description (¼ page) of your research and how this course fits into your career plan. If you need a visa to travel to Norway, please indicate this in your application and approximately how long this process will take, so we can account for this. Send your application to Aud Halbritter (aud.halbritter@uib.no) and please mark the subject with APPLICATION OS Course 2025 and your name.
For more information and about previous courses see:
https://open-science-course.github.io/course_website/
The course is organised by Living Norway in collaboration with the University of Bergen, GBIF Norway, Nord University, NINA, NTNU, NMBU, and UIO.