The major goal is to bring PhD students and young Postdocs in touch with IODP at an early stage of their career, inform them about the exciting research within IODP as (I)ODP and DSDP have been proven to be the most successful internationally collaborative research programs in the history of Earth sciences, and and to prepare them for future participation in IODP expeditions. Such training will be achieved by taking the summer school participants on a “virtual ship” where they get familiarized with a wide spectrum of state-of-the-art analytical technologies and core description and scanning methods according to the high standards of IODP expeditions. In addition, the thematic topic of the summer school will be reviewed by various scientific lectures by the leading experts in the field. The application deadline is May 5, 2017.