Timetable & learning outcomes

The summer school aims to decipher the strategies that have been developed to identify and exploit stress responses and to manage the growing practices that tackle abiotic and biotic stress. Course content will focus on major challenges encountered by the agricultural industry, such as confronting climate change and maintaining both the yield and quality of agro-food productions. A variety of crops will be studied, such as tomatoes, strawberries, grapevines, carrots, leeks, pine and oak trees etc.

Teaching will be based on the flipped classroom principle: participants and speakers will co-design laboratory experiments in response to current queries and demands faced by farmers and customers. Students and professors will then collect the resulting data and determine the most efficient data mining methods to process the results. The analyses and experimental conclusions will be presented at the end of the summer school.

Participants will be familiarised with academic research, thus preparing them for future studies within doctoral schools and also for the workforce. This international experience will allow students to gain a deeper understanding of other cultures, make lifelong friends from a wide variety of backgrounds and benefit from world-renowned academic excellence.

Tentative programme

Week 1: from the laboratory…

The first week will be devoted to exploring the existing links between climate change, agricultural production and biotechnology.
Via practical and group work, students will understand the role of fundamental research when testing innovative solutions for agriculture. The aim is to provide students with a comprehensive toolbox that will allow them to carry out a needs analysis of modern agricultural practices. This is achieved through an overview of the main challenges of French agriculture and the links between fundamental research and biotechnological agricultural solutions.

Topics to be explored:

• Pollen in high ambient temperatures and development consequences (by use of cellular and molecular biology and functional genomics);
• The impact of climate change on the composition of tomato fruit (approaches for the study of central, specialised and redox metabolisms will be considered for this topic);
• Mildew: how to predict and fight this biotic threat (investigation by bioassays of strategies to study plant-pathogen interactions and control pathogen development).

In order to prepare the inverted class, quizzes will be provided to introduce each topic.

Week 2: …to the field!

During the second week, in order to combine theory with the practice and reality of the professional world, specific theme days are organised. The days are based on the agricultural sectors listed below.

Participants will discover the research laboratories and experimental facilities available at the University of Bordeaux, discuss with researchers who are active within chosen themes and visit agricultural and industrial facilities in New Aquitaine to exchange with professionals from each industry.

• Day 1: Forest and Arcachon Bay
  Laboratory (Pierotton INRAE), Oyster House at Gujan Mestras and the Dune of Pyla, Sturgeon rearing for caviar production (Mios).
  
  
• Day 2: Corn production
  “Maisadour” factory (Mont-de-Marsan).
  
  
• Day 3: Carrots and leeks
  Planète Végétale farm (Cestas).
  
  
• Day 4: Strawberry
  “Invenio” - center for the selection of strawberry varieties (Douville).
  
  
• Day 5: Vine and wine
  Laboratories at the Institute of Vine and Wine Science (ISVV) and the vineyard of Château Luchey-Halde (BSA).
  
  
• Day 6:
  INRAE agro-ecological experimentation farm (Saint-Laurent de la Pree).
  

In addition to the lectures and practical/group work, the two week summer school programme is balanced with many cultural events and excursions (e.g. historical sites of Bordeaux and the Museum of Aquitaine, Montaigne Tower, Roquetaillade Castle, the Dune of Pilat, the town of Saint-Émilion and its vineyards, Gujan Mestras harbour on the Arcachon bay, renowned for its oysters, Château Luchey-Halde and its wine cellar).

Week 1

Monday July 8th	Tuesday July 9th	Wednesday July 10th	Thursday July 11th	Friday July 12th	Saturday July 13th	Sunday July 14th
General introduction Kentaro Mori, Michel Hernould Basic presentation on French agriculture and climate change Valérie Schurdi-Levraud Basic presentations on stress and plant response - Visit of the INRAE equipment Michel Hernould, Frédéric Delmas Basic presentation on Plant improvements to meet the major challenges of responding to stress: examples from New Aquitaine crops Valérie Schurdi-Levraud Students' self-prensentations	Basic presentations on Tomato heat stress topics Michel Hernould, Frédéric Delmas RedOx status in tomato Pierre Pétriacq Visit of INRAE centre and facilities (plateform Bordeaux Metabolome) Pierre Pétriacq, Josep Valls Lab work 1 Michel Hernould, Frédéric Delmas	Basic presentations on grape culture and wine production Eric Gomes, Kentaro Mori Visit of the ISVV lab and facilities - Interview: research topics Eric Gomes, Patrick Lucas Prepartion for students' feedback presentation 1 Kentaro Mori, Michel Hernould   Visit of the vineyard of Château Luchey-Halde Jean-Philippe Fontenelle	Visit of Planète Végétal (Carrot and leek production) in Cestas Christian Letierce Visit of INRAE agro-ecological experimentation farm Jean-Philppe Fontenelle	Basic presentation on mycology and phytopathology Justine Perrotte Visit of the Orchard at INRAE Toulenne Marie-Laure Greil Visit of the Roquetaillade castle	Bordeaux city tour and free time	Visit of Saint-Emilion

Week 2

Monday July 15th	Tuesday July 16th	Wednesday July 17th	Thursday July 18th
Lab work 2 Gérard Barroso, Karine Dementhon Basic presentation on forestry and climate change Didier Bert Visit of INRA Pierroton Didier Bert  Visit of the Dune du Pilat/view of the pine forest Frédéric Delmas, Michel Hernould	Basic presentation on straweberry culture and production Justine Perrotte Visit of Invenio (strawberry selection/IVC lab) in Douville Justine Perrotte Lab work 3	Basic presentation on new breeding techniques Michel Hernould Visit of the Maisadour production centre Lucie Bua	Preparation - Students' feedback presentations 2 Frédéric Delmas, Michel Hernould Students' feedback presentation All teachers

Expertise upon completion

Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to translate socioeconomic and ecological demands into scientific questions and build a project proposal describing the work-packages, project management and financial support. Students and speakers will collaborate within project teams, thus allowing participants to develop their project management and communication skills.

A certificate of participation will be awarded to students upon completion of the course.

Programme may be subject to change.