ForBio – Research School in Biosystematics trains a new generation of biosystematists to meet society’s need for biodiversity expertise. Biosystematics includes research on morphological, genetic, and geographic variation in species and species groups, the processes that cause the variation, and evolutionary relationships. Taxonomic knowledge is fundamental for such studies and a prerequisite to assess and understand our biodiversity. Biosystematics is the core discipline of natural history museums and inextricably tied to museum collections, and fundamental to understanding biodiversity. Society's need for high-quality information on biodiversity is rapidly increasing, while in parallel biosystematics research has been suffering a general attrition of resources and staff. ForBio links the fragmented and often small research environments in the Nordic countries into an internationally strong platform for research and research training. It strengthens research by offering a wide range of both practical and theoretical, and specialist and state-of-the-art courses in biosystematics, by providing a platform for innovative teaching, and by facilitating research collaboration and networking of young researchers in the Nordic countries through annual scientific meetings. The courses provide a solid theoretical and practical understanding of the subject and include a wide range of nomenclature, taxonomic practices and principles, phylogenetics, bioinformatics, and field courses providing a broad knowledge of species in their ecological settings.
