Master in Conservation Biology and Applied Ecology

Conservation Biology and Applied Ecology is a four-semester master's programme that covers the principles and methods of ecology, evolutionary biology, and conservation science. Students engage with a wide range of topics including biodiversity research, climate change biology, animal-plant interactions, agroecology, forest ecology, chemical ecology, soil ecology, macroecology, and the biology of social insects such as honey bees and ants. The programme also reaches into ecosystem services, ecological theory and modelling, and ecology in alpine and tropical environments. Additional options exist in socio-biology, neurogenetics, remote sensing through the geography department, and computational approaches through the Centre of Computational and Theoretical Biology and the Centre of Artificial Intelligence and Data Sciences. The programme is structured around two selected thematic topics, each comprising two theory modules and one practical course unit. Students also receive training in statistics and scientific writing. Research training forms a significant part of the curriculum, with students actively participating in ongoing research projects and independently planning and conducting theoretical, experimental, or observational work before presenting findings in a Master's thesis. Intake occurs in both the winter and summer semesters. The programme is offered at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg in Würzburg, Germany.