Courses and events

This year, the annual Norsk symposium i biosystematikk will take place in Tromsø, bringing together Norway’s biosystematics community for two days of inspiring talks, discussion, and networking. MSc and PhD students, postdocs, researchers, and others in the field are invited to this national meeting, hosted by the Arctic University Museum of Norway and Artsdatabanken.

Organised by BIOCORE and Artsdatabanken in connection with the Norsk symposium i biosystematikk, this workshop introduces the Norwegian Red List for Species and its role in assessing extinction risk. Participants will learn how categories are assigned, what they mean in practice, and how uncertainty in data affects classification.

In collaboration with Biodiversity Genomics Europe, BIOCORE offers a four-day course on DNA barcoding using the ONT MinION. The course combines theory, hands-on lab work, and data analysis, and will be held at NTNU in Trondheim, Norway.

The first webinar in our BIOCORE series will focus on practical ways to strengthen reproducibility in biodiversity research - from data management and analysis workflows to transparent reporting. The session is particularly relevant for early career researchers who want their projects, code and datasets to be robust and reusable.

This one-week course at Espegrend Marine Research Field Station introduces modern methods in macroalgal taxonomy and phylogeny. Through lectures, fieldwork and lab exercises with international experts, students learn to collect, analyse and classify macroalgae using morphological and molecular approaches.

Aimed at PhD students working with environmental DNA and marine biodiversity, this course focuses on how to assess and supervise the research of others. Organised by the University of Oslo (UiO) and Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA) in collaboration with BIOCORE, it combines a preparatory module in Norway with an intensive module in Brazil, where participants practice supervision and feedback with MSc students.

This MSc course, held in Bragança in northern Brazil, brings together students from Norway and Brazil to use environmental DNA (eDNA) to monitor marine fisheries and fish farm health. Bragança’s proximity to fish markets, mangroves, and productive coastal waters with active fisheries and aquaculture makes it an ideal living laboratory for this course. The course combines hands-on metabarcoding training with a strong focus on intercultural collaboration, preparing students for work in international biodiversity research and management.

Gain hands-on experience with identifying boreal and Arctic flowering plants in one of Northern Norway’s richest botanical areas. This intensive field course at Skibotn Field Station combines excursions, applied taxonomy, and specimen preparation for museum collections, and is organised by UiT The Arctic University of Norway with support from the Photosyntech Research School and BIOCORE.

This one-week course introduces the biosystematics, ecology and applied science of European flies and midges (Diptera). Through fieldwork, lab exercises and lectures at Station Linné on Öland, participants gain practical skills in sampling, preserving, identifying and analysing Diptera.

Organised in the framework of the MARLIN project, and in collaboration with BIOCORE, this course offers a practical introduction to DNA barcoding in biodiversity research and management.