Delivered by PR Stats — October 20–31, 2025
Bayesian multilevel models allow you to robustly analyse data that are hierarchical, sparse, or structured across space and time — exactly the kind of data challenges often faced in marine mammal science.
In this 10-session live online course, you’ll learn how to build and interpret Bayesian GLMs and hierarchical modelsusing the brms package in R. While the course uses general ecological datasets, the concepts and tools are directly transferable to marine mammal research, including:
Photo-ID data
Population monitoring
Acoustic detections
Habitat models
Movement and telemetry datasets
Marine mammal data often suffer from:
Small sample sizes or uneven survey effort
Hierarchical structure (e.g. sightings nested within individuals, seasons, sites)
Spatial/temporal autocorrelation
Zero-inflation (e.g. in acoustic or sightings data)
Bayesian multilevel models offer an intuitive and principled way to handle these realities — providing transparent uncertainty quantification and flexible model structures tailored to your study design.
Through real-time coding and interactive sessions, you will:
Understand Bayesian inference concepts like priors, posteriors, and credible intervals
Fit GLMs and multilevel/hierarchical models using brms (Bayesian syntax with R and Stan backend)
Use informative priors in ecologically meaningful ways
Apply model diagnostics and comparison (WAIC, LOO-CV)
Model non-Gaussian data (counts, proportions, zero-inflation)
Handle spatial and temporal structure
Understand basics of joint species distribution models
Interpret results with uncertainty and communicate findings effectively
Note: All examples use general ecological datasets — not marine mammal data — but skills are easily adapted.
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Dates | October 20–24 & 27–31, 2025 |
| Duration | 10 days × ~4 hours per day (total 40 hours) |
| Time zone | UK time (GMT+1); suitable for EU/UK, and recordings support flexibility |
| Format | Live, interactive sessions via online platform |
| Software | R, RStudio, brms (Stan-based Bayesian models) |
| Skill level | Comfortable with R, basic stats (GLMs, regression, data wrangling) |
All sessions are recorded, with materials (slides, code, data) provided after each class.
Early-bird rate (first 10 places): £400
Standard rate: £450
If you’re a marine mammal scientist, PhD student, postdoc, or government/NGO researcher working with:
Sighting or survey data
Mark-recapture or occupancy models
Acoustic presence/absence
Habitat or distribution models
Individual- or group-level data
…this course will provide the Bayesian modelling foundation you need, even if the example datasets aren’t marine-mammal-specific.
Register now to secure your early-bird place and bring advanced Bayesian tools to your ecological research toolkit.
Email oliver@prstats.org with any questions.