In the first two weeks of October, the ICTM was the host of the multidisciplinary training school "Blue Green Future (BgF) Summer School," organized by the BIOLAWEB project. The BgF Summer School was opened on October 2nd 2023, at the Center for the Promotion of Science and was continued in the following days at the premises of ICTM.
On the first day, three plenary lectures were held by eminent experts in the field of biomonitoring: Dr. Zlatko Levkov (Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Faculty of Biology, North Macedonia), Dr Frédéric Rimet (INRAE, France) and Dr Martyn Kelly (Bowburn Consultancy, United Kingdom).
During the first week, two workshops were organized. One was related to "Data processing, normalization of data (R program with examples and R codes)" from 2-4 October 2023 and was led by scientists from the French National Institute for Food, Agriculture and Environment (INRAE): Dr. Clarisse Lemonnier, Dr Frédéric Rimet, and Dr Benjamin Alric, the leading experts in the field of metabarcoding for biomonitoring. The second workshop, "eDNA focus on macrophytes," was held from 4-6 October 2023 and was led by Dr Andreas Ballot, an expert from the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), one of Europe's leading institutes for fundamental and applied research on marine and freshwater.
Besides two theoretical workshops held during the first week, the BIOLAWEB team organized three practical field exercises related to metabarcoding. The first field exercise was organized on October 5th, on Savsko Lake, in Belgrade, while two more were organized during the second week, a field exercise to Plava Banja, near Kikinda, on October 12th, and a field exercise to Pečena Slatina, near Baranda, on October 13th. Participants in these exercises had the opportunity to learn how to sample the eDNA of aquatic macrophytes and phytoplankton for metabarcoding analyses.
Most participants were students of the Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade. Still, more experienced colleagues from the Faculty of Biology, The Institute for Multidisciplinary Research, Serban Environmental Agency, etc. participated in the exercises. Participants had the privilege to gain valuable knowledge about state-of-the-art science, and the BIOLAWEB team was delighted to share enthusiasm and willingness to acquire new knowledge and skills with our colleagues and students.
The second week of BIOLAWEB BgF Summer School has started with a session dedicated to improving project management skills. Three workshops, each lasting one day, were organized in this session, from 9th to 11th October 2023. The "Project Management" workshop was organized on the first day. The welcome and opening speech was given by Dr Predrag Banković, assistant director for international cooperation of UB-ICTM, and Dr Miloš Ćirić, coordinator of the BIOLAWEB project. Further, we had the pleasure of hearing four great lectures given by MSc Dragana Zlatović, BIOLAWEB WP5 leader, Dr Vladan Ćosović, Head of ICPO (the International Cooperation and Project Office of UB-ICTM), Katarina Milanović, Finance project administrator of UB-ICTM, and Tatjana Božić, Coordinator for International Projects of UB Faculty of Chemistry.
During the second workshop, "Examples of good practice," participants had the pleasure of listening to four great talks as examples of successful stories, given by Dr. Miloš Ćirić, the coordinator of the BIOLAWEB project (UB-ICTM), Dr. Marija Lješević, PhytoPFAS project manager and WP2 leader (UB-ICTM), Dr Milena Čavić, Coordinator of the STEPUPIORS project, The Institute for Oncology and Radiology of Serbia (IORS), and, MSc Gordana Vlahović, Head of International Relations Office and Horizon Europe NCP for ERC & Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions, University of Novi Sad Faculty of Sciences (UNSPMF). Finally, a Panel discussion was held with the participation of all lecturers and participants, boosted with the involvement of Dr. Dana Vasiljević-Radović, assistant director for technological development at UB-ICTM. Our dear guests showed mutual respect, affection, and shared enthusiasm, which was transferred to the audience who actively and vividly participated in the discussion.
Finally, during the third workshop, one of the most interesting lectures was given by Dr Sanja Vraneš, an Expert of the European Commission and the World Bank - National Institutional consultant (NIC) within the SAIGE project. She spoke about "Project proposals from the evaluator's point of view and discussion." Afterward, we had the pleasure of hearing more about "Examples of good practice" from BIOLAWEB partners: Hervé Dumont, Head of Partnership and Project Engineering Department (INRAE), and Dr Susanne Schneider, senior scientist (NIVA). The last part of the third seminar was dedicated to "Open science and discussion" and was led by Dr Matija Zlatar, Coordinator of the Transformation Team (UB-ICTM).
The attendance of these workshops was exceptional, with more than 40 participants coming from various institutions. BIOLAWEB and UB-ICTM's ICPO teams were thrilled to host such a great number of colleagues and excellent lecturers in the different fields of project management and enjoy the energy of one more amazing session in Blue-Green Future Summer School.
The ICPO and BIOLAWEB team are proud and grateful for the opportunity to organize a series of high-quality events and share hope for BgF Summer School to become a recurring event.
You can find out more about BgF Summer School at https://biolaweb.com/news and https://biolaweb.com/gallery.
