GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences and Geo-INQUIRE are organizing a Summer School on Seismology, Seismic Data Analysis, Hazard Assessment and Risk Mitigation for 20 PhD Students, PostDocs, and scientists from the field of Solid Earth.

Date: Monday, 15 June 2026, from 9:00 CEST to Tuesday, 30 June 2026, 18:00 CEST.

Apply here! 

The registration will close on Sunday 15 March 2026 (23:59 CET).

Location: The workshop will take place at GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences Potsdam, Germany.

Duration: Ten days lectures, plus two additional days of personalized training on request. Arrival and departures day and weekends excluded.

Contact information: course-un@gfz.de

Organizing institution: GFZ Helmholtz-Centre for Geosciences

Organizers: Simone Cesca, Fabrice Cotton, Torsten Dahm, Angelo Strollo (GFZ Helmholtz-Centre for Geosciences)

Scope: This multidisciplinary workshop bridges the gap between raw geoscientific data, earthquake source analysis and actionable hazard analyses, both scientifically and technically.

In line with the steadily growing demand by participants in former courses for mainly practice-oriented training and workshop discussions related to case studies, the current course programme comprises, besides introductory and state-of-the-art review lectures on the various subjects of earthquake seismology and risk assessment, extensive practical exercises, demonstrations, workshop and discussions. Generally, the course programme aims at developing interdisciplinary problem understanding, acquaintance with the theoretical fundamentals and basic features of modern instrumentation, commonly used models and algorithms as well as developing practical skills in data evaluation and analysis. The course will prioritize lectures and practicals focusing on the following topics:

• Theoretical foundations of seismology
• Seismic monitoring
• Seismic source inversion and modeling
• Site effects and microzonation
• Seismic hazard assessment.

Description: The training course 2026 is sponsored by GFZ and Geo-INQUIRE. Since decades, more than 1,200 participants from 125 countries, amongst them graduate students, university lecturers as well as senior staff and directors of reputed research institutes, have attended the seismology training courses organized and supported by the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences. A preliminary scientific program of the course is annexed to this circular.

The training course is planned as a 2-week course. The training is dedicated to fundamental lessons and exercises on Seismology, Earthquake Source analysis, Site Effects, Strong Ground Motion, and Seismic Hazard Assessment and Risk Estimation. The course is complemented by 2 days of individual training, so-called ‘expert days’, during which the participants can deepen on specific topics or analyze own data. The topics for the expert days may broaden those of the course, include other topics, such as e.g. InSAR and geodynamic modelling. The participation to the 2 expert days is not mandatory.

Some sessions of the training course are dedicated to scientific-technical presentations by the course participants, who will report about his/her work: such scientific-technical presentations are planned as talks to the other course participants and interested colleagues from the GFZ.

In case a course participant wants to use own data (seismic data, instrumental microzonation, earthquake catalogue, etc.) during the time of the Training Course a copy of the data should be sent in advance to the GFZ for checking and quality control. Throughout the course the completion of exercises by the participants as well as their contributions to workshop sessions and topical discussions are evaluated. The successful participation in the course is acknowledged by a certificate at the end of the course.

Event type: on-site

Preliminary program:

Speakers (preliminary list): Dino Bindi, Pinar Büyükakpinar, Simone Cesca, Fabrice Cotton, Torsten Dahm, Peter Evans, Sebastian Heimann, Irene Liou, Cecilia Nievias, Matthias Ohrnberger, Gesa Petersen, Marco Pilz, Angelo Strollo, Elif Tüker, Graeme Weatherill

Financials: For successful applicants, the workshop organization will cover thefollowing expenses:

• Accommodation (incl. breakfast) and tea-break refreshments within the facilities and arrangements provided by the organizers.
• Daily allowance including a small amount of pocket-money to cover meals and incidental expenses for the days, where lunch/dinner is not provided by the organizers;
• Local transport in connection with the official programme, field excursions and for participants arriving at and departing from the airport.

Travel grants to cover the cost of international air travel might be available for only some of the selected participants. Therefore, every applicant is urged to look into available possibilities to cover travel expenses on his/her own with the support of his/her nominating or sponsoring institution and to make, an explicit statement to this effect in the application form.

Logistics:

• Hotel: Accommodation will be provided in single rooms.
• Transportation to/from the venue: Information will be provided to the applicants selected for participation.

Requirements: The application is open to everyone; however, PhD students, PostDocs, and early-career scientists from the field of Solid Earth will be prioritized.

Workshop applicants should have a strong interest in the topics listed above, such as earthquake monitoring and modeling, and earthquake, volcano and tsunami hazards.

The workshop language will be English, and a good English knowledge is required.

Programming skills, computing knowledge, and user-level Linux skills will be positively considered during the evaluation of applicants.

Students will need to bring their own laptops, which may be used to run Jupyter Notebooks and to install software distributed before and during the course.

Application: All applicants must complete the registration form and include a motivation letter via the application system hifis. 

Completion of the form does not mean automatic acceptance of the participant. Due to the limited number of seats, a selection of participants will be made based on the information provided during registration. Participants will be informed of their acceptance to the event via email after the selection process is complete.

A waiting list may be created and used in case any issues arise with the selected participants.

If you have special dietary requirements or require additional assistance, please indicate this in the application form. Please also contact us if you require assistance with applying for a visa or have any other doubts, even before submitting the application.

The selection will be based on the analysis of the CVs, motivation letters, and inclusion criteria by the scientific organization committee.

Timeline:

02.02.2026: Opening of Registration

15.03.2026: Registration Deadline (23:59 CEST)

30.03.2026: Notification to applicants (selected and waiting list)

Inclusion criteria: We aim to make the workshop an inclusive event. GFZ and Geo-INQUIRE promote diversity and inclusion within the scope of the project, including the applications for the International Training Course 2026. Therefore, applications from female colleagues will be given special attention during the evaluation process.

The course is primarily dedicated to colleagues (a) working in one of the widening countries, associated countries, and outermost regions of Horizon Europe*, and (b) proceeding from the broad Mediterranean region, specifically Northern African and Middle East countries.

Applications from candidates with special needs are welcome and will be given due consideration in the selection process. Please indicate your needs in the registration template. 

* Widening countries are Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Associated countries (allowed to coordinate widening projects) include Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Faroe Islands, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey, and Ukraine. The outermost regions include Réunion, Mayotte, the Canary Islands, the Azores, Madeira, Saint-Martin, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Guyana.

Geo-INQUIRE is funded by the European Commission under project number 101058518 within the HORIZON-INFRA-2021-SERV-01 call. Terms and Conditions for participants in Geo-INQUIRE activities: https://www.geo-inquire.eu/about/terms-and-conditions