Upcoming in 2018Natural Environment Research Council advanced training courses

In collaboration with the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), several advanced training courses are upcoming in early 2018. They are aimed at postrgraduate and post-doctoral envrionmental researchers. 

Participants are encouraged to bring their own project material for a more hands on approach to learning and problem solving within small groups. Many students have left past courses with completely new working models for their projects. 

Bayesian methods to quantify uncertainty and risk in the environment

19th-23rd February 2018

  • Location: Each four-day course is fully residential at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.
  • Funding: There are 20 fully-funded places available on each course. This covers fees, travel, accommodation and subsistence. Priority is given to applicants whose research is at least 50% supported by NERC.
  • Requirements: This course is based upon the premise that students have already taken a course of elementary statistical methods. The course assumes you have existing familiarity with programming in R, and of basic statistical concepts including probability and Bayes’ Theorem.

Using examples from environmental science throughout, Bayesian model fitting methods will be introduced and compared to classical approaches. We will demonstrate how to set up complex structural models where Bayesian methods are necessary. Extensions to spatial and temporal smoothing, for example in disease mapping, will also be covered. The OpenBUGS statistical package will be used in conjunction with R for practical sessions. The focus will be on applications and modelling, particularly in areas cognisant with the students’ research, but will also cover sufficient theory to explain the modelling concepts.


On completion of this course you will have a good understanding of the role of Bayesian methods in statistical modelling and will be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of this modelling in relation to traditional statistical modelling. You will also go away with working computer code which you can modify and reuse your own work. You will also be able to critically review and assess Bayesian modelling reported in the environmental science literature.


Raising your game by developing mathematical modelling skills

5th-9th March 2018

  • Location: Each four day course is residentially based at the Ross Priory Conference Centre located on the beautiful shores of Loch Lomond 
  • Funding: There are 9 fully-funded places available on each course. This covers fees, travel, accommodation and subsistence. Priority is given to applicants whose research is at least 50% supported by NERC.
  • Requirements: The course assumes existing familiarity with programming in R, and of basic calculus. 

This course will provide a basic understanding of modelling and it uses in the environment. The course will ‘lift the lid’ of mathematical models and teach you how to build your own ordinary differential equation models from the ground-up using the open-source R programming environment. We'll show you how to formulate biological, ecological, or physical problem in terms of ordinary differential equations, code and solve them in R. We'll start by examining simple food chain system and disease models, and progress to formulating and constructing basic models from scratch.


The course is practically orientated, with short lecture sessions interspersed with hands-on practical work. A high staff to student ratio offers near 1-to-1 attention. In addition, we encourage you to come prepared to give a short presentation on your own projects. As a group, we then consider how each of these projects can be posed in terms of differential equations, and translate them into operation R-code.