International Autumn School: Dynamic Modelling of Toxic Effects (DMoTE)

The Osnabrück University will be hosting an autumn school on the Dynamic Modelling of Toxic Effects (DMoTE).

Learn toxicokinetic and toxicodynamic modelling, and how to analyse and interpret toxicity data in ecotoxicology (focus mainly on DEB-based modelling). 

This international autumn school consists of an online pre-course and an on-site part. The pre-course is organized as a series of 4 online meetings, in weekly sessions of about four hours in the afternoon on 25.8. – 1.9. – 8.9. – 15.9.

The on-site course will be organized and hosted by Osnabrück University at the campus Westerberg from September 21 – 25.

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching will be a combination of lectures, computer exercises, group projects, and discussions.

Learning Outcome

In this course, students/participants will:

  • Understand the concepts of toxicokinetic (TK) and toxicodynamic (TD) processes
  • Understand the basics of mechanistic effect modelling (General Unified Threshold models of Survival, GUTS and Dynamic Energy Budget, DEB)
  • Learning to work with the BYOM platform in Matlab or in the memPyGUTS package in Python
  • Build simple TK models, and TD models for survival
  • Build TKTD models for sub-lethal effects
  • Use them to analyse and interpret toxicity data
  • Analyse a case study, and discuss and interpret the results

Required skills and prior knowledge

The course materials assume that the participants have a limited background in mathematics, statistics, ecotoxicology, modelling and coding, ideally in Matlab or Python. This means that some parts may be easy for you, while others will be challenging. However, these parts will differ between participants.

Course fee: €600 (PhD students from academic institutions); €1600 (industry employees)

Application period: February 9 – May 24, 2026

Lecturers

  • Andreas Focks (University of Osnabrück)
  • Florian Schunck (University of Osnabrück)
  • Simon Hansul (gaiac eco assessment)
  • Andre Gergs (Bayer)
  • Annika Mangold-Döring (Wageningen Environmental Research)
  • Nina Cedergreen (University of Copenhagen)

Application:

More information and Application form can be found on the course page: https://www.uni-osnabrueck.de/en/studying/our-study-programs/international-short-term-programs/international-autumn-school-dynamic-modelling-of-toxic-effects-dmote