Running dates: August 10. – August 14., 2026
Application deadline: UiT students: June 15th. others: June 1st.
Location: Skibotn (meet up in Tromsø the first day)
ECTS: 5
Course leader
Practical info
This course will be on site at the Skibotn fieldstation (see more below).The responsible institution is UiT. UiTs local course code is BIO-8024.
Important! Registration is binding! Do not apply for a course unless you are sure that you can attend.
Registration: PhD students in Norway must apply for this course in BOTH ways (others apply with step 1);
- Please fill in the online application here
- Apply to UiT (course code Bio-8024 or Bio-3024) UiT students must register through studentweb, the registration opens 15 May.
The course schedule and description of field excursions will be provided at a late stage to the accepted participants. Participants meet up at the Botany Building, The Arctic University Museum of Norway, UiT 10 August at 12:00 for practical information and transport to Skibotn.
The course is run with financial support from the national graduate school Photosyntech.
Contact Galina Gusarova (galina.gusarova@uit.no) for more information.
Course content
Practical experience with morphology-based species identification is in high demand in both basic and applied biological research. You will study applied taxonomy, acquire identification and field collection skills, as well as learn how to prepare and mount the specimens for preservation in museum collections.
This course will provide training in the identification of Boreal and Arctic groups of flowering plants. The teaching will take place in Skibotn area with a remarkably high species number for such northern latitudes (68-69 degrees N) challenging the general concept that species richness decreases as latitude increases. Daily excursions to both lowland and mountain habitats will be combined with practical work in the class to identify the collected materials using the identification keys and learn diagnostic characters of plant taxa.The field course is preceded by a self-study period where students read about main groups of vascular plants and prepare a lecture to be given during the course.
This course is accredited by the University of Tromsø as amounting 5 ECTS. Course code Bio-3024 (MSc level) and Bio-8024 (PhD level). See the course description on the UiT pages here.
Instructors: Andy Sortland andy.sortland@uit.no and Galina Gussarova galina.gusarova@uit.no.
Required previous knowledge/course-specific requirements
The field course is preceded by a self-study period where students read about main groups of vascular plants and prepare a lecture to be given during the course in Skibotn.
The course is primarily intended for PhD students of the research schools and post-docs. However, it is also open for MSc and BSs students, as well as non-students if there is space available.
Assessment
Performance during the practical parts of the course and a practical exam (pass/or fail), which will be arranged on the last day of the course. The exam will consist of the identification of specimens using keys and documenting the distinct morphological characters of the specimens that are used to classify it to taxa at different taxonomic levels.
Financial aid
We provide transport from Tromsø (The Arctic University Museum) to Skibotn station. Accommodation and subsistence at the Skibotn field station for the course duration will also be covered for all the participants. There are no course fees. Support to cover travel to Tromsø will be available to (i) Members of Photosyntech who are awarded activity grants and can use these grants to cover their travel expenses. Activity grants are paid out after each semester to members who have been attending courses that year; (ii) ForBio members affiliated with Norwegian universities or research institutes. All other applicants will need to secure their own funding to cover travel to Tromsø.
It is expected that all participants in the course are affiliated or become affiliated with the research schools:
Apply for membership to Photosyntech graduate school (PhD students in Norway only)
Find out about how to become a ForBio member or associate (PhD students and all other applicants).
Admission
The maximum number of participants is 15.
PhD candidates apply for a seat by contacting course responsible, Galina Gusarove, before June 8th. PhD candidates that are granted seats on the course can continue to apply formally:
PhD candidates at UiT register in Studentweb before course starts
PhD candidates outside of UiT apply for a singular course between July 20th and August 9th and register in Studentweb after acceptance.
Language
English.
For questions regarding the research schools
For Photosyntech: contact Sunniva Katharina Thode at photosyntech@uit.no
For ForBio: contact Micah Dunthorn at micah.dunthorn@nhm.uio.no