Fees include meals and accommodation.
If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to email contact@intp.science (anything logistics-related) or estere.seinkmane@gmail.com (anything content-related).
What is the concept?
This is a week-long “science summer camp” , a.k.a interdisciplinary school at INTP in the French Pyrenees. There will be one overarching interdisciplinary topic - “Communities”. Each day we explore this topic from perspectives of different fields (Ecology, Sociology, Microbiology etc), as a “mini-project” - these include both a lecture part and an interactive workshop part, with some “outputs”. Afternoons are dedicated to more traditionally creative activities, as well as exploring the surroundings. People pick which creative workshops they want to attend but everyone attends the same mini-projects that rotate throughout the week. Evenings have an important social role, summarising the day and giving an option to socialise.
Overall this creates an intellectually stimulating and very social environment, essentially a retreat but where you get to learn, do things and meet interesting people! The idea is inspired by summer camps in post-Soviet countries, where there is a big tradition of such things, often creating life-long communities.
What is INTP?
INTP (Institut Natura e Teoria en Pireneus) is an independent lab and residency centre for research and training. The main goal of the INTP is to promote a broader practice of science by fostering creativity, interdisciplinarity and pressure-free research for a variety of profiles from academics to independents and citizen scientists. To pursue this goal, the institute has a physical campus in the French Pyrenees, in the village of Surba in Ariege. The INTP house & surroundings are a lovely space (you can check out
pictures here) and is quite easy to reach, see below for logistics.
Who is this for?
Anyone who is interested! Although we expect that some participants and teachers come from academia (e.g. PhD students, researchers), this is definitely not just for academics, but rather for anyone who is curious about the world and wants to spend a week in a good company. You don’t need to have any background in science beyond high school, and it is also not just about science - there will be cool creative activities and opportunities to explore the area. The teachers at the school are professionals around 30-40 years old, and anyone 18+ is welcome as a participant. We expect to have only around 12-13 participants for this first time. The school will be in English but there will be people who occasionally could translate if needed (to French, Russian, and others).
What are the mini-projects?
Each mini-project will cover the theme (“Communities”) from a perspective of a particular field. For example, one day we are likely to talk about ecological communities (food networks etc), another about social communities, another on microbiomes, etc. We will have both exact/natural sciences and humanities/social sciences. In each field, we will aim to have an interactive part, i.e. a mini-project that participants will do - e.g. run a computer simulation, make a map, a poster, etc. You can put as much effort into this as you want, there are no assessments or competitions here.
What is the schedule, will there be free time?
Most days there will be the more scienc-y part in the morning, and the more creative/explor-y activities in the early afternoon. Later in the afternoon there will be time for more discussions, informal lectures, etc, and in the evening there will be a social get-together with games and other activities. There won’t be much free time during the week itself to go on day trips etc, though optional hiking/climbing activities are planned for the afternoons. Of course you are welcome to stay in the area to explore before and/or after the event.
Who is organising / teaching?
The school is organised by Estere Seinkmane, a cell biologist and bioinformatician with 10+ years experience (20+ if you count participating as a kid) in science summer camps - most of these were for school-age children, but it is exciting to try this model for adults. The event is run in collaboration with Matthieu Barbier and Azenor Bideault, mathematical ecologists and organisers at INTP. Other confirmed teachers include those with expertise in sociology, visual arts, education, media history, and music.
What about logistics? Getting there, accommodation, food
Getting to Surba: closest big’ish city is Toulouse, which you can get a train or a flight to. From Toulouse take a 1.5h train to Tarascon-sur-Ariege or to Foix, where we will arrange transport from. Another option is getting to Barcelona and driving (3h) or taking trains with changes at the border.
Arrival and departure: you would need to arrive by late afternoon on Monday 8th September, and leave in the morning on Sunday 14th.
Accommodation: rooms shared between 2-3 people, some with private bathrooms.
Food: vegetarian food will be provided for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Please let us know other dietary requirements or allergies.
How much does it cost?
We don’t want the cost to stop people from participating, but at the same time we need to be able to cover the costs (accommodation, food) of the week, and ideally have enough to cover these costs for those coming to teach (they are already volunteering their time!). We are therefore suggesting several fee options.
Basic cost: 65 EUR/night x 6 = 390 EUR - this would just cover accommodation and food for one person, without anything extra
“Sponsor”: 110 EUR/night x 6 = 660 EUR - or whatever you are willing to pay on top of the basic cost - if you are able to pay more, and particularly if you are able to get a travel grant or another form of funding from your academic institution or company, that would be hugely appreciated!
Sponsored place: if you would really like to take part but unable to afford the basic cost, please contact us (or fill in the relevant bit in the sign-up form) and we’ll see what we can do.
