BSRS 2016: Water, Climate and Society

Water experts will gather in Bergen from June 13-24 for the international summer school for PhD candidates and junior researchers.

The annual Bergen Summer Research School (BSRS) is an interdisciplinary venue for exploring some of the greatest challenges of our time. Focus this year is Water, Climate and Society. Seven parallel courses will span disciplines from the natural, health, and social sciences to the humanities.

General application deadline was March 1.

In 2016 the World Economic Forum ranked for the first time the water crisis as the greatest global risk to economies, environments and societies in the forthcoming decade, even posing greater risks than climate change, although they are related.

In 2015 NATO held their largest military exercise since the Cold War simulating war over water. The UN’s General Secretary and the World Bank have argued that management of water is crucial to future developments.

This year’s scientific leader, Professor Terje Tvedt, is series editor of the nine-volume series A History of Water with contributions from over two hundred researchers from most disciplines — and from about one hundred countries. He has published extensively on the River Nile and on theoretical issues involved in studying water-society issues, see Water and Society, 2016. Professor Tvedt is known for three award-winning TV-documentaries on water that has been shown all over the world.

BSRS seeks to create a unique environment for participants to present, engage, discuss, progress their thinking, and improve on their work. As part of the taught courses, there will be an excursion into the waterscape of western Norway to explore the impact of rivers, fjords and glaciers on societies.

Keynote speakers include Professor Terje Tvedt, Professor Owen McIntyre, University College Cork , Professor Robin Marsh, University of Berkeley, and Docent Terje Oestigaard at Uppsala University, Sweden.

Read more about the courses

Research groups at UiB have wide multidisciplinary networks of water experts through Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research; the pioneering Nile Basin Research Programme, which involves researchers from all the Nile basin countries from all disciplines; and the multidisciplinary education programme between eight universities in Africa and Asia on Water and Society.

This is the ninth summer Bergen puts global challenges on the agenda. BSRS attracts PhD candidates and junior researchers from all over the world. 

BSRS is a joint effort by the Bergen University College, Chr. Michelsen Institute, Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), Uni Research, and the University of Bergen.