Autumn Fungal Biology / Ecology education

Welcome to Rural Arts In Science & Sustainability Education What is RAiSE Ecology? Rural Arts In Science & Sustainability Education By reconnecting art and science, and applying them to ecological sustainability, Rural Arts In Science and Sustainability Education (RAiSE Ecology) focuses on providing innovative and practical education for genuine sustainable development to meet the three existential challenges of biodiversity conservation, sustainable agriculture, and de-linking from fossil fuels. Because the nature of environment, ecology, and sustainability cut across traditional subject disciplines, as well as national boundaries, tackling the environmental crises within silos will not succeed. The international transdisciplinary RAiSE ecology courses start at a rural venue in France and lead towards applications within both urban and rural communities. A RAiSE ecology course is run through innovative, imaginative, and creatively facilitated field workshops, conversations, and projects. The RAiSE courses provide a practical and philosophical pathway by which individuals and communities can attune within nature through the development of a deeper systemic understanding of ecological patterns and processes. Attending a RAiSE course will help you to be able to apply ecological design principles to build and grow pioneering prototypes of genuinely sustainable solutions that apply to both rural and urban environments. We explore what sustainability looks, feels, and tastes like, as well as how genuine sustainability can be understood in terms of ecological and economic processes. From architecture to agriculture, applying insights from fungal mycelia, the development of new fabrics, new organic materials, biological, carbon neutral, and renewable energy systems, using waste as a resource, rain-water harvest to wood-fired pottery, the residential start of the course will bring you together with international interdisciplinary minds from across the sciences and arts, to create the community that will continue for a further 9 months with an online VLE curriculum together with tutorials helping to guide you with your own applied project of your choice in your workplace, school or local community. Your final project will enable you to join a growing network of collaborative startups, ecological and mycological entrepreneurs in mutual support to be empowered to transform your workplace, community, home, garden, farm, whether rural or urban. Arts ruraux dans l'enseignement des sciences En reconnectant l'art et la science et en les appliquant à la durabilité, RAISE se concentre sur la fourniture d'une éducation innovante et pratique pour le développement durable afin de relever les trois défis existentiels de la conservation de la biodiversité, de l'agriculture durable et de la dissociation des combustibles fossiles. Les cours sont dispensés dans un lieu rural en France grâce à l'innovation, l'imagination et la créativité. Les cours fournissent une voie philosophique et pratique par laquelle les individus et les communautés peuvent s'adapter à la nature avec une compréhension systémique plus profonde des modèles et processus écologiques. Suivre un cours RAiSE vous aidera à être en mesure d'utiliser les principes de conception écologique pour construire et développer des prototypes pionniers de solutions durables applicables aux environnements ruraux et urbains. Nous nous demandons à quoi ressemble, ressent et goûte la durabilité ? De la conception de bâtiments écologiques à l'application des connaissances du monde des mycéliums fongiques, au développement de nouveaux tissus, de nouveaux matériaux organiques, de systèmes d'énergie biologique, neutre en carbone et renouvelables, en utilisant les déchets comme ressource, la récupération de l'eau de pluie à la poterie au feu de bois, le début résidentiel du cours vous réunira avec des esprits interdisciplinaires issus des sciences et des arts, pour créer la communauté qui se poursuivra pendant 9 mois supplémentaires avec un programme en ligne vous aidant à vous guider dans votre propre projet de durabilité appliquée sur votre lieu de travail, l'école ou la communauté locale. Votre projet vous permettra de rejoindre un réseau grandissant de startups collaboratives et d'entrepreneurs écologiques qui s'entraident pour être en mesure de transformer leurs entreprises, leurs communautés, leurs foyers et leurs écosystèmes.

The Venue in France The venue for the residential intensive field ecology module at the start of the course is a Napoleonic farm close to the town of Poitiers, to the South of La Loire, about 2 hours drive to the East of La Rochelle. Poitiers is well connected nationally and internationally, and a bus service is available from Poitiers train station (2 hours SW of Paris on the Bordeaux line), or from the other transport options eg coach or airport. There are two buses a day from Poitiers train station which stop in the village closest to the farm. Details of bus times and where to get off will be provided on enrollment. From the bus stop, you can either be picked up or make your way to the venue on foot. The Napoleonic farm with ancillary agricultural buildings, is set on the boundary between two agricultural paradigms. To the left are biodiverse woodlands, pastures, and the wetland called 'the marais', together with permaculture plots, and to the right, industrial agri-tech monocultures of France's prairie heartland. This provides the ideal location to use as our ecological base camp, from which to compare and contrast different modes of agricultural production within walking distance, from sustainable permaculture practices to the unsustainable industrial monocropping of export commodities with the fossil fuel, artificial fertiliser, and pesticides that this entails. RAiSE Ecology Team A collaborative & diverse group of tutors and facilitators from Arts and Sciences Dr Alan Rayner Fungal Ecology, Mycology, Evolution, Bio*Art and Philosophy of Natural Inclusion Dr Alan Boldon Arts and Ecology Interdisciplinarity, Site-Specific Sustainability Education Dr Christian v.T. Taylor Evolution Fungal & Insect Ecology Biosophy & Mycosophy Education for Sustainable Development. French / English / German / Italian Professor Roger Guevara INECOL Mexico Climate Ecology Ecological Data Analysis Insect Fungal Ecology English / Spanish Filip Frontonay Permaculture and Sustainable architecture. Sustainable restoration. French / English Stephan Chatry Permaculture and Sustainable Aesthetics. Arts curator. French / English Francesco Fraioli MA Philosophy, Music Italian / English Shelley Castle MA Ecological Arts Arts Activism Mycoremediation Mycofiltration Field Lab Annie Emery Fungal Biodiversity Permaculture Myco medicine English / French Silvia Tello Bueno Aesthetics of Nature and habitat Culinary Arts Spanish / English Dr. Federica Migliardo Arts-Science Transdisciplinarity Philosophy, Physics Italian / English / French Dr. Tom Wakeford Participatory action research in practice . Democratic control of science and technology . Post-patriarchal, Post-white supremacist, Post-capitalist futures . Spanish / English Dr. Kevan Manwa ring Ecological Literature Nature writing Creative writing Dr. Linda Long Molecular Music Biology & Biochemistry Dr Chris Turner Aesthoecology, Eco-philosophy, Arts and ecology, Iner-generational education Francesco De Zuani Cassina PhD Student in Physics and Sustainability Italian / English Lorenzo Miani PhD Student in Physics and Sustainability Italian / English Dr. Mike Edwards Ecological Soundscapes, Regeneration, Deep listening, Climate change, Musician Coby Vanderwall Computer Science, Ecology, Mycology, Biomimicry

VLE Residential field ecology module A 10-day field ecology module takes place at the beginning of an optional 9-month Arts and Ecology Masters Level program. The field ecology module takes place at our venue in rural France. Here, amongst the woodlands, fields, and natural waterways, you will meet the course team both face to face and virtually, and begin your ecological retuning and attuning journey within and around other species. This international transdisciplinary intensive will provide a grounding in both practical and philosophical biology, ecology, biodiversity mapping and conservation, and biologically-inspired art and design. There will be hands-on introductions to citizen science and community arts practices, as well as space for theoretical and philosophical conversations toward the practical implementation of genuine sustainable development. At the RAiSE residential, you will be staying in simple, sustainable, rustic accommodation consisting of a sleeping barn, a shared kitchen and dining room, and a classroom space. If you prefer your own private space, you are welcome to bring a tent and sleeping bag. The timetable includes practical skills-based learning as well as the theoretical and philosophical curriculum. There will be space for reflection and conversation. Mornings will be practical based, followed by a communal lunch, with afternoons documenting findings, developing theoretical frameworks, and practical resources for the following morning. Evenings will be for conversations, sharing ideas, and inspiring eco-media. The first part of the residential will consist of deep orientation to locations, site, and space. This will be followed by developing techniques of deep observation and ecological inquiry, consisting of fieldwork which will feed into developing techniques of both investigating and enhancing the mutually symbiotic inter-specific relationships that can help you on your re-tuning to nature pathway. Towards the end of the residential, you will apply your knowledge and understanding of nature and sustainability to an attuning to nature mini-project which will help you towards the more extensive RAiSE project that you will instigate on your return home. After your return home the course will continue with a rota of virtual classes and tutorials to help you to progress your project and its documentation. Projects will be compiled in a virtual gallery, and assessed, and based on this, RAiSE Certificates (MA or MSc) will be obtained on course completion. Participants will be invited to present their projects at the following year's residential either face-to-face or virtually. It is envisaged that a mutually supportive network of like-minded projects could develop in different countries over time.

Links, themes, and mutual aid Rural Arts In Science of Sustainability Education is looking for links with universities, NGO's and other like-minded organisations to create a community of mutual support, learning, and practice. Open Learn RAiSE Ecology Blog W e a v e Site-Specific Living Learning labs Art and Science of Natural Inclusion What is genuine sustainability, and how can it be measured? Sound Matters and Rewilding AMBIOS Wildlife Conservation Training Learning Planet Institute Paris UNESCO Biodiversity Education & Culture UNESCO Reimagining Our Futures: New Social Contract for Education. Centre for Alternative Technology Local Futures Fungal medicines Low Impact Living Initiative Integrating and strengthening 17 SDG's Via Campesina international peasants movement Education for Carbon Literacy Intermediate Technology Human Rights Education Seed and Food sovereignty Society for Protection of Underground Networks

RAiSE Course Dates 2025 The 2025 RAiSE residential course runs from Thursday 10th July until Monday 21st July. The 9-month RAiSE MA / MSc starts with the RAISE residential and finishes in May 2026. Course fees are on a sliding scale based on affordability. It costs 500 Euros per student to run the course. If you can pay more, that will help to reduce the fee for those on low income through our RAiSE scholarship program. You will also need to bring some pocket money for food & bus fares. To enrol please fill in the form below and write in your message how you think attending the course will help you, and then set up the payment using the links at the bottom of this page. You will receive an email confirmation and an invite to join the VLE (virtual learning environment) to start your learning journey. Please note: you must be at least 18 years of age to enroll. The course is aimed for gap year, undergraduate and postgraduate students. You will need to be a graduate to get the MA or MSc certificate. If you are an undergraduate and complete the RAiSE course, you will be given a certificate of completion which will be upgraded once you have graduated. For further information and to enrol Name Email Phone Address Subject * Message Submit Thanks for submitting! Scroll to the bottom to complete booking by setting up payment Payment to complete booking Donations will fund the RAiSE scholarship program Pay Now

RAiSE Research Our long-term research goals are to explore and apply a philosophy of life that stems from an understanding of living systems, ecology and arts practice. We believe that such a philosophy would integrate biosophy, ecosophy and mycosophy into a coherent ethical symbiosis for education for sustainable development (ESD) that would re-define sustainability and integrate the UN 17 sustainable development goals (17 SDG's) and prepare graduates for futures based on solutions not offered by the business as usual model. Ways out of fossil fuel dependence Permaculture; applying ecological design to increase yields from organic food production Philosophy to attune in nature

Fungal education Please contact using the link below if interested in hosting a RAiSE fungal education walk, talk, workshop, or presentation on the biology, ecology, mycosophy & sustainability solutions offered by fungi.