From its start, Dina placed emphasis on PhD education - Dina initially
funded 8 PhD students and another 6 were associated to Dina. All PhD
students funded by Dina must include a major course in computer
science in their curricula. In order to provide this teaching an
agreement was made between KVL-IMF and DTU-IT; Dina funded an
assistant professor at DTU while DTU funded a senior researcher in
informatics to spend three years at KVL.
Much experience was earned from computer science courses for PhD
students with a different main scientific background. The importance
of these activities led to establishing the Dina Research School in
1997, in order to strengthen the training to applying informatics in
agricultural research. The objective of the research school is "to
support and inspire the research training of new academic staff
members in the agricultural research, the advisory service and the
agricultural sector in general". The support is mostly rendered as
courses and workshops, open to all PhD students whose projects combine
agriculture and informatics. Mostly students with agricultural
background attend the courses and workshops which are announced
through an open mail list, but also some with an informatics
background.
The Dina Research School is headed by Assoc.Prof. A.R. Kristensen,
KVL-IHH. The head is responsible for the administration, and together
with a number of experts from the informatics disciplines he is
responsible for the scientific contents of the activities. As of
December 1999, the experts connected to the research school are:
Prof. P.C. Hansen (Numerical analysis), DTU-IMM,
Assoc.Prof. P. Sestoft (Computer science), KVL-IMF, Senior Researcher
H. Stryhn (Statistics), Danish Veterinary Laboratory.
Each year the research school organizes two regular workshops; they
are held at appropriate conference centers and the duration is two
half days from lunch the first day to lunch the next day. Subjects
covered until now have been: Introduction course, Dec. 1997;
Stochastic simulation, April 1998; Numerical problems and mathematical
software, Dec. 1998; Bayesian networks, April 1999; Differential
equations, Dec. 1999. The number of participants (PhD students) has
varied between 16 and 20. As a rule, the research school experts and
some of Dina's IT Coordinators teach at the workshops, together with
external lecturers.
The research school organizes an annual summer school, with a duration
of two weeks (10 working days). Most of the participants are PhD
students paid for by Dina. From 1999 these courses form part of a
Nordic collaboration, and there are participants from all five Nordic
countries. Up to now, two summer schools have taken place, both at
Tune Landboskole. Titles were: "Software construction in Java for
agricultural applications", Aug. 1998, and "Computer intensive
statistical methods - with biological applications", Aug. 1999. The
number of participants in 1998 was 18, and in 1999 there were 21, of
which 7 were from Denmark, 5 from Finland, 5 from Norway and 4 from
Sweden. More than 40 PhD students applied in 1999 but the number of
participants was limited, both for economical and practical
reasons. The course was financed by NOVA.
On the initiative of the Dina Research School a Nordic research
training network financed by NorFA has been established. The
objectives of the Nordic network is basically the same as for the Dina
Research School, in particular to organize common summer courses. Many
PhD students need informatics training but the specific needs of the
individual vary from project to project, and from person to person, so
the number of potential participants in a specific course can be
rather limited. A Nordic network for research training is a
significantly better basis for such courses, and three have already
been planned: 1. Differential equations and dynamic systems in
agriculture. Organized by the Dina Research School, Denmark, 2000;
2. Geograhical information systems and spatial statistics. Organized
by Gerhard Skagestein, Norway, 2001; 3. Design of data generation -
experimental design. Organized by Hannu Rita, Finland, 2002.
Plans for the future. The courses and workshops will be continued, and
it is intented to create a 'common market' for workshops in the Nordic
countries. PhD students financed by Dina will be associated with the
research school. Through project applications, it has been tried to
acquire such funding but up to now unsuccesfully.
Evaluation. The organisational structure of the research school, with
a head from agricultural research and associated experts from the
informatics disciplines, has proved to be an efficient construction in
practice. The structure has made it possible to offer workshops and
summer schools at an advanced level, relevant and understandable to
PhD students from the agricultural disciplines. Workshops and schools
have been evaluated very positively by the participants, and it has
been demonstrated that it is possible to offer arrangements that are
simultaneously relevant to PhD students from the agricultural and the
informatics disciplines. The main emphasis is on presenting
informatics which can be useful in agricultural applications. The
Nordic extension of the research school has been accepted in all five
countries; collaboration in the contact group is smooth and the first
common summer school had applicants in excess in all countries except
Iceland.