The project includes the activation of a training plan relevant to the scientific issues tackled in the project. For this project the following training plan is proposed:

• Title: Methodological aspects linked to the use of morphometric descriptors of phytoplankton corporations in the evaluation of the state of health of transitional and marine-coastal ecosystems.
• Location: Laboratory of Ecology, Department of Biological and Environmental Science and Technology, Centro Ecotekne, 73100 LECCE (Italy).
• Description: The training plan has the aim of training and increasing the knowledge of personnel who are already qualified for the identification and the classification of phytoplankton species and the use of programming tools.

Specifically, the course will follow three parallel training programs. The first is the “ecological” training program, intended for students with skills in the field of phytoplankton biology; it will be designed to improve knowledge of the descriptors of the ecological status of aquatic ecosystems, in order to apply the technological product to monitoring programs.

The ecological training program will have the following objectives:

• to provide theoretical aspects that take account the most recent literature concerning morphology, taxonomy, classification and phylogenies of phytoplankton corporations;
• to teach theoretical and methodological aspects of phytoplankton as bio-indicators of the ecological quality of the aquatic transitional and marine-coastal ecosystems;
• to provide indications regarding the new methodological approaches to classifying the state of quality of the aquatic transitional and marine-coastal ecosystems based on the use of non-taxonomic descriptors, measured with optical microscopy techniques supported by image analysis systems;
• to teach, by means of practical activities, methods and criteria for the correct identification of species;
• to teach, by means of practical activities, ways of recording phytoplankton descriptors, with particular reference to non-taxonomic descriptors, linked to the dimensional characteristics of the individuals, measured with optical microscopy techniques, and to train students in the use of specific software;
• to provide indications for the evaluation of the criteria for the classification of the state of health by means of non-taxonomic descriptors and to train students in the use of specific software.

Eligibility: the course will be open to about 20 people resident in the EU. The criteria for the selection of the participants are as follows:

• the student must hold a degree in Biological or Environmental Science or in Information and Communication Technology;
• almost the 50% of the student must be compatible with the figure of young researcher, i.e. he/she must be less than 35 years of age and have at least 4 years of experience in the specific sector of reference;
• the student must have previous experience in the field of the taxonomy of phytoplankton or in the field of software programming for image analysis systems;
• the student must be involved, in his/her institution of origin, in research specific to the sector.