The regions within the Danube River Basin are characterized by significant disproportions in their economic and social development. Some of them, e.g. those in the Lower Danube Region, are disadvantaged in comparison with the regions in the Upper Danube, but they have a good touristic potential with their unique natural assets and cultural heritage.

The Danube:Future Interdisciplinary School (DIS) 2018 offers PhD-students and young scientists from member universities of the Danube Rector’s Conference (DRC) and the Alps-Adriatic Rector’s Conference (AARC) the opportunity to discuss the abovementioned issues and to develop research proposals within this broad context. The Danube:Future Interdisciplinary School offers a well-coordinated program of high-profile lectures, methodological inputs regarding interdisciplinarity and trans-disciplinarity, thematic excursions and professionally supervised working phases for writing project proposals.

The 2018DIS is the fifth edition of the Interdisciplinary Training School, after the 2013-2014-2015 editions held in Gorizia (Italy), and the 2017 edition held in Krems (Austria). More than 110 PhD students and Post-docs from 12 countries participated in the previous editions. Participants came from the following EU and non-EU Countries: Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Kosovo.

The Danube:Future Interdisciplinary School is part of the Capacity Building Module of the Danube:Future project, a Flagship Project of the EUSDR - the European Union Strategy for the Danube Region, in the Priority Area ‘Knowledge Society’. Danube:Future is a joint network project of the Danube Rector’s Conference (DRC) and the Alps-Adriatic Rector’s Conference (AARC). It aims at supporting sustainable development of the macro-region by capacity building in the Danube River Basin (DRB) and by providing networking to facilitate the development of common research projects.

PhD Students and Early Post-Doc Research Fellows from DRC and AARC universities from all countries of the Danube Region are welcome to apply. The University of Ruse ‘Angel Kanchev’ will issue a certificate of 3 ECTS for the successful completion of the Interdisciplinary School.

The expertise of the involved institutions ensures high scientific standards and the facilitation of interdisciplinary student groups. An international cast of lecturers from the universities of DRC and AARC (the organizing universities and other universities of the network) and local experts will ensure that students get up-to-date, place-specific instruction. A volume of proceedings including the students’ project proposals will be published.

Owing to the co-operation of the partner universities, the participation in 2018DIS (including course materials) is free: there is no tuition! Living expenses will be covered by external funding. You might also be eligible for travel assistance by your home university.

WHERE

The Danube:Future Interdisciplinary School 2018 is taking place in the town of Ruse, Bulgaria (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBydX8KMtDg), at the campus of the University of Ruse ‘Angel Kanchev’, 8 Studentska Street.

To discover more about University of Ruse - UR, please take a look at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq3ATrzvPCA https://www.uni-ruse.bg/en

• CALL (deadline by June 18th, 2018): Call for application and EXAMPLE - application form