Summer school:
Evolutionary Biology in Guarda
An international summer school in the swiss alps for Master students and early PhD students with a keen interest in evolutionary Biology. Jointly offered by the University of Basel and the ETH Zürich.

The 2025 Evolutionary Biology in Guarda summer school will take place from:
14. - 21. June 2025 (Saturday to Saturday).
The course will start on Saturday evening at 19h and will end Friday evening (departure on Saturday morning). Only candidates will be admitted who are able to participate for the entire course period.
Purpose of the summer school
- To learn to think more clearly and to express your ideas.
- To gain confidence in your own ideas.
- To discuss your ideas, reject them if necessary and to find new ones.
- To learn how to write a grant.
- To have a focused and sustained conversation about science, to dig deep.
- To make the doing of science a shared pleasure.
- To learn to interact in a team.
What happens during the summer school
- Form working groups of 4-5 people with shared interests.
- Make a list of things to discuss.
- Take some time to discuss the list.
- Faculty members will assist you and will visit groups daily.
- Ask yourselves, what is a good research question? How can we recognise it?
- Choose 1-2 promising questions or topics. Discuss them.
- Write a grant proposal
- Have it critiqued, revise it, present it in plenary.
- All of this happens without using the internet (There is limited internet access during the course).
Faculty
- Dr. Rosemary Grant (Princeton University, USA)
- Dr. Peter Grant (Princeton University, USA)
- Dr. Johanna Mappes (University of Helsinki, Finland)
- Dr. Sebastian Bonhoeffer (ETH Zürich)
- Dr. Dieter Ebert (University of Basel) (course organizer)
We expect that participants have a solid background in evolutionary biology and basic population genetics.
Participants (up to 28) are usually made up of:
- students from ETH Zürich and University of Basel in Switzerland (up to
about half) - graduate students from anywhere else
The course language is English.
Every participant has to finance their travel themself. The costs for
accommodation and food during the Summer School are CHF 530.-. This
course fee has to be paid in advance (we have to pay for housing in
advance). We are trying to find suport to reduce these costs, in
particular for participants from the Global South. But don't count on this.
The town of Guarda is in the swiss alps at an altitude of about 1650 meters in the Swiss Canton of Grison (Graubünden), in the eastern part Switzerland. The nearest larger town is Scuol (about 10 km). The mountains in the area are spectacular. Don't forget your hiking equipment (Shoes! Rain gear!). We will be there at the peak of the alpine flowers (Bring an alpine plant key if you like flowers).
We might have anything from snow to bright sunshine (high UV radiation). Usually the temperatures are springlike, with fairly warm days, but rather cool nights. Houses are not heated!
external page Local forecasts and climate monitoring for Guarda (MeteoSwiss)
We ask all participants to arrive on saturday afternoon and leave on
saturday morning. There is a train station in the valley close to
Guarda. From there a bus brings you up the mountain into the village.
There is also a footpath from the train station to the village which is
not very long, but steep.
The most convenient airport is Zürich. From there it is a 3-4 hour trip
by train. To check train connections within Switzerland go to the external page Swiss railway schedule.
Inform us about your arrival time! Be there on saturday afternoon.
Application
Application for the 2025 Summer School is closed. Successful applicants will be informed by email.