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Université de Bordeaux
 

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: Tomato and carrot
    Pot au Pin farm (Cestas) and 10 hectare tomato greenhouse (Parentis-en-Born).

  • 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 Couhins.

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 Couhins and its wine cellar).

Week 1

Sunday

July 16th

Monday

July 17th

Tuesday

July 18th 

Wednesday

July 19th

Thursday

July 20th

Friday

July 21st

Saturday

July 22nd

 French breakfast

Dr. Frédéric Delmas, Prof. Michel Hernould

French agriculture, climate changes

Prof. Valérie Schurdi-Levrau

Tomato heat stress topics

Dr. Frédéric Delmas, Prof. Michel Hernould

 Grape culture and wine production

Prof. Eric Gomes, Dr. Kentaro Mori

 Strawberry culture and production

Dr. Beatrice Denoyes, Dr. Amelia Gaston

 Forestry and climate change 

 Dr. Didier Bert

Free time

  

Introduction

Prof. Michel Hernould 

 Stress and plant response 

Dr. Frédéric Delmas, Prof. Michel Hernould

RedOx status in tomato

Dr . Pierre Petriacq

Visit of the Institute of Vine and Wine Science – Interview regarding the description of research topics

Prof. Eric Gomes, Dr. Kentaro Mori 

Visit of INVENIO (strawberry selection/IVC lab)

Dr. Justine Perrotte

 Visit of INRAe Pierroton

Dr. Didier Bert 

Plant improvements to meet the major challenges of responding to stress: examples from New Aquitaine crops
 

Prof. Valérie Schurdi-Levrau

INRAE Bordeaux Metabolome platform visit - Interview of 
Dr . Pierre Petriacq

Visit of Château Couhins

Pierre Marazanof

 Visit of Montaigne tower

Bordeaux city tour
 

 Student presentations

Visit of tomato greenhouses at Tom d’Aqui and labwork presentation

Thomas Chadeleaud

Labwork n°2

Visit of the dune of Pilat/view of the Pine forest

Dr. Frédéric Delmas, Prof. Michel Hernould 

Labwork n°1

Week 2

Sunday

July 23rd

Monday

July 24th

Tuesday

July 25th

Wednesday

July 26th

Thursday

July 27th

Friday

July 28th

Visit of a fresh food market

Prof. Michel Hernould, Dr. Kentaro Mori

Aquaculture

Dr. Benoît Sautour

New breeding techniques

Prof. Michel Hernould

Visit of an orchard at Bourran and/or Toulenne

Dr. Gérard Barroso

Visit of Planet Vegetal (carrots and leeks)

Christian Letierce

 Student feedback presentations

Visit of Saint Emilion

 Visit of an Oyster House at Gujan Mestras and a Sturgeon rearing farm for caviar production at Mios

Prof. Valérie Schurdi-Levrau

 Visit of the Maïsadour production center

Antoine Gaillard

Preparation of student feedback presentation 1 - group project

Prof. Philippe Gallusci, Prof. Michel Hernould

Preparation of student feedback presentation 2 - group project

Dr. Frédéric Delmas, Prof. Michel Hernould


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.

Program may be subject to change.

BSS - French agricultureBSS - French agriculture
BSS - French agricultureBSS - French agriculture
BSS - French agricultureBSS - French agriculture
BSS - French agricultureBSS - French agriculture
BSS - French agricultureBSS - French agriculture
BSS - French agricultureBSS - French agriculture
BSS - French agricultureBSS - French agriculture
BSS - French agricultureBSS - French agriculture
BSS - French agricultureBSS - French agriculture
BSS - French agricultureBSS - French agriculture
BSS - French agricultureBSS - French agriculture
BSS - French agricultureBSS - French agriculture
BSS - French agricultureBSS - French agriculture
BSS - French agricultureBSS - French agriculture

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