The symposium will assemble oral talks (plenary and parallel sessions), poster sessions and discussion in small groups of participants. Oral talks and posters will be accommodated into 11 symposium sub-topics, each subtopic will be supported by one plenary talk (key note talk) by worldwide reputed mycologists. From the oral talks, we expect to depict methodological and technical limits (regarding current trends) in order to discuss/suggest most adequate scientific tools for testing specific research questions/results.
The symposium shall last five days and will cover four activities.
Part I: Two days: Oral presentations. Key note talks by professional mycologists working in tropical Africa followed by parallel topic sessions of smaller groups, where PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and early career mycologists will be given the possibility to present the results of their investigations and mycological activities. After each talk, there will be time for the exchange of knowledge concerning modern techniques in mycology, to evaluate the quality of the results presented, and to depict limits and suggest methods/techniques to improve the scientific quality of the work.
Part II: 1 day: Workshops on specific topics. Important problems common to junior mycologists will be selected from the oral talks and results. Each group will be assigned to discuss and debate on one topic and to suggest practical solutions. The aim is to present participants on any particular technique/method that has been identified as important to improve their skills.
Part III: 0.5 day: Discussions about the establishment of the “Association for Tropical African Mycology-ATAMy”. The aim is to initiate a network of Europe-African mycologists to sustain tropical mycology. Discussion on how to support early career mycologists of the new Association and electing the steering committee of the Association. 0.5 day: Oral talks + Synthesis of the symposium + Perspectives.
Part IV : Excursions : We offer three packages, please refer to the post symposium excursions link.