Available courses

IOI summer school 2025

Generating Impact Through Transdisciplinary Research: Co-Designing Solutions for Complex Marine and Coastal Challenges

Participants will interact with international and local academia and practitioners as well as experts in knowledge transfer and communication at the science/policy interface. Lectures will cover theoretical backgrounds, concepts, and methods – from transdisciplinarity and project co-design to complexities of agreeing on goals and joint visions in the context of multiple actors from diverse backgrounds. 

The training will include discussions on measures of research quality in a transdisciplinary context, tackling inequalities, managing teams and conflict situations, and generating impactful outcomes. For each topic, real-world examples and insights by practitioners will be given. Training in effective science communication for a non-academic audience will also be provided. 


Ocean Governance for Sustainable Marine Social - Ecological Systems

The Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) has joined forces with the International Ocean Institute (IOI) to host a summer school on the topic Ocean Governance for Sustainable Marine Social-Ecological Systems. The interdisciplinary Summer School enables around 30 international participants to develop solution pathways for the sustainable management and protection of the oceans and offers a unique opportunity to exchange knowledge and ideas with experienced researchers and practitioners.

Hands on MinION: Generating reference DNA barcodes for West African marine fishes

The objective of the training is to deliver practical lab (and minor bioinformatics skills) on a small and relatively affordable DNA sequencing device, the MinION from Oxford Nanopores Technologies. We go from tissue to COI reference DNA barcode within the WAMBA-net summer school 2024 at the Université Nangui Abrogoua, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Although this lab focused training targets the generation of a reference DNA barcode database, the same protocol can be used to monitor biodiversity with eDNA.

Field Data Collection with KoboToolbox

The KoboToolbox is a robust and versatile tool for data collection in remote areas. It has been developed and introduced in 2005 by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and is specifically designed to support data acquisition in challenging conditions. It is an open-source tool and can be used for free on the main KoboToolbox server or run on own servers. The application does not use much battery and the app design is simple requiring minimal graphical performance. The possibility to collect data while offline and dataset management opportunities on the server are specific strengths of the tool.

This online training will present basics on data collection as part of the data research life cycle, and teach you in practice how to set up an own KoboToolbox survey. Contact alexandra.nozik@leibniz-zmt.de for feedback.

Fish Barcoding and Functional Ecology:

Monitoring the Status of Marine Coastal Ecosystems

The workshop is scheduled for September 26 – October 21, 2022. Foto© by Jordan Casey. Please visit the ZMT website for further information. Here you find a short report.

A practical introduction to working with QGIS

This course offers asynchronous training on GIS (Geographical Information System) applications.

ZMT Welcome Course 2022

Marine Research in an Inter- and Transdisciplinary Environment. The course aims to introduce participants to ZMT´s mission and vision and to establish a relation to their own research project. This includes a reflection on the research design of their project and on concepts of interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity which are central to ZMT.

Eventhough it was initially designed for Doctoral candidates we feel that also Postdocs, especially when they are new at ZMT, can profit from the course - and be a contribution to the course at the same time. 

Zukunftstag 2022

Beim deutschlandweiten Girls / Boys Day (auch Zukunftstag) beteiligt sich das ZMT mit diesem digitalen Angebot. Hier wird Arbeits- und Informationsmaterial bereitgestellt. Im begleitenden Videotreffen am 28.4.2022 werden exemplarisch Berufswege vorgestellt und Raum zur Diskussion gegeben. Beispielhaft werden am Thema Korallenriff und Nachhaltigkeit Arbeitsfelder des Leibniz-Zentrum für Marine Tropenforschung aufgezeigt.


ZMT Welcome Course 2021

Marine Research in an Inter- and Transdisciplinary Environment. The course aims to introduce participants to ZMT´s mission and vision and to establish a relation to their own research project. This includes a reflection on the research design of their project and on concepts of interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity which are central to ZMT.

Eventhough it was initially designed for Doctoral candidates we feel that also Postdocs, especially when they are new at ZMT, can profit from the course - and be a contribution to the course at the same time. 

ZMT Welcome Course 2020

Marine Research in an Inter- and Transdisciplinary Environment. The course aims to introduce participants to ZMT´s mission and vision and to establish a relation to their own research project. This includes a reflection on the research design of their project and on concepts of interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity which are central to ZMT.

Eventhough it was initially designed for Doctoral candidates we feel that also Postdocs, especially when they are new at ZMT, can profit from the course - and be a contribution to the course at the same time. 

ZMT Alumni Conference 2021

Welcome to ZMT's Alumni Conference 2021!

Click here to visit the conference website.

Zukunftstag am 22.04.2021

Beim deutschlandweiten Girls / Boys Day (auch Zukunftstag) beteiligt sich das ZMT mit diesem digitalen Angebot. Hier wird Arbeits- und Informationsmaterial bereitgestellt. Im begleitenden Videotreffen am 22.4.2021 werden exemplarisch Berufswege vorgestellt und Raum zur Diskussion gegeben. Beispielhaft werden am Thema Korallenriff und Nachhaltigkeit Arbeitsfelder des Leibniz-Zentrum für Marine Tropenforschung aufgezeigt.

Pilot Training for Responsible and Evidence-Informed MPA Management in Bangladesh 2025

The Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) in Germany is an implementing partner for supporting the integrated and effective management of the SoNG MPA in Bangladesh. The SoNG Support Project falls under the project "Integrated management of the Sundarbans Mangroves and the Marine Protected Area 'Swatch of No Ground' (SoNG)", an initiative of the MoEFCC, implemented by the Bangladesh Forest Department, the Department of Fisheries, and GIZ Bangladesh, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development.

The Pilot Training for Responsible & Evidence-informed MPA management in Bangladesh is at the heart of the second phase of the SoNG Support Project. Based on the results of the kick-off workshops conducted during the first phase, and taking into account further feedback of knowledge holders in Bangladesh, ZMT has developed this pilot traning programme. The target groups are decision-makers at the policy-level and the implementation-level of government bodies responsible/relevant for MPA management in Bangladesh.

The overall training objective is to enhance participants’ abilities to effectively and equitably manage, enforce, and monitor the SoNG MPA and other MPAs in Bangladesh with engagement of all relevant stakeholders. To this end, a set of training materials is under development. These materials are informed by the results of three kick-off workshops with relevant stakeholders in Bangladesh, as well as regional and international expertise.

An important aspect of the training design is to bring together decision-makers from different levels of governance or management, who do not regularly interact. We aim to create a spaces for engagement and learning from different perspectives.

This pilot training serves to ensure that the training materials suit the needs of policy-makers, planners, and implementers responsible for the SoNG MPA and other MPAs in Bangladesh.