ForestPaths partners from Lund University co-organised this year’s LPJ-GUESS training school that took place on 19 November. The event was dedicated to building practical skills in using the LPJ-GUESS process-based dynamic vegetation-terrestrial ecosystem model. This was the third in-person edition of the training school held at Beijing Normal University, aimed at PhD students and postdoctoral researchers.

This year, the training school implemented a project-based format. Participants were asked to arrive with a specific project plan they intended to apply LPJ-GUESS to. Trainers then worked individually with each trainee to refine their plan and guide them through the first steps of applying the model.

Many participants chose to focus on projects related to forest growth and function, with several drawing directly on recent developments from ForestPaths - including advances in forest structure initialisation.

The training school is primarily funded by STINT (the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education) in collaboration with the National Natural Science Foundation of China. This year, additional contributions were made by ForestPaths and the forest-focused project Tree2Globe.

Through its involvement, ForestPaths supports early-career researchers and promotes international collaboration around forestry-relevant research.