PRIMER / PERMANOVA Essentials

With Marti J. Anderson

PRIMER-e is pleased to announce a hybrid course (offered in person and online) in Multivariate Analysis for Ecology & Other Sciences to be held over one week at the Washington Water Science Center, Tacoma, WA, USA.

Overview

PRIMER / PERMANOVA Essentials, December 14th – 18th, 2026

Participants can register to attend either online or in person.

This 5-day course will cover the essentials – a suite of core non-parametric methods implemented in PRIMER software, as well as several key semi-parametric methods encapsulated in PERMANOVA+. There will be special emphasis on the new tools and routines in the latest version of our software: PRIMER 8.

Registration Fees (in $USD)		In Person	Online only
EARLY BIRD On or before Sept 30th, 2026	Professional	USD $1,090	USD $930
EARLY BIRD On or before Sept 30th, 2026	Full-time Student	USD $790	USD $610
AFTER Sept 30th, 2026	Professional	USD $1,240	USD $930
AFTER Sept 30th, 2026	Full-time Student	USD $890	USD $610

All prices are in US dollars ($USD). Participants who reside in either New Zealand or Australia will also need to pay the relevant goods and services tax (GST), at invoice. Participants may (at the discretion of PRIMER-e) be eligible for a global equity discount on their registration fees (depending on their country of residence), which will be administered at the time of invoicing. Please contact primer@primer-e.com if you would like to apply and learn more.

Sessions will run daily, Monday to Friday, from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm on each day. Online participants will join the course live in USA Pacific Standard Time (PST = UTC -8 hrs). Each day will include a mixture of lectures and computer lab sessions to implement the new methods and techniques learned on example datasets. Participants will also have the opportunity to discuss and analyse their own data in consultation with the presenter. Those who register to attend in person are expected to bring their own laptop to the venue. A free fully functional (but time-limited) licence of our latest software, PRIMER 8 with PERMANOVA+, will be made available to registered participants for trial use during the course. (Note that PRIMER is a Windows-only product, so Macs need to run in Windows emulation.) This course will cater both to those who are new to multivariate analysis and to those who are familiar with PRIMER methods but would like a refresher, and to learn about the latest methods in the new version. This course is designed for scientists and research practitioners; it will emphasise the achievement of a conceptual understanding of multivariate methods, with demonstrations of how to implement these methods in the software and interpret results. No prior background in statistics is required.

VENUE

All sessions will be held live online and in person at Washington Water Science Center, 934 Broadway, Tacoma, WA 98402, USA. Online participants will join the course via Google Meet. For further local information or if you have questions regarding logistics at the venue, please contact the local host: Patrick Moran (pwmoran@usgs.gov). For information regarding registration or any other course-related matters, contact the PRIMER-e admin team directly: primer@primer-e.com.

OUTLINE OF TOPICS

The topics covered in this course shall include:

Properties of multivariate data (summary statistics, shade plots, histograms, draftsman plots, etc.);
Pre-treatment options (transformations, normalization, standardization, & dispersion weighting);
Measures of resemblance: distance, similarity and dissimilarity (Euclidean, Bray-Curtis, Jaccard, Sorensen, etc.);
Cluster analysis (CLUSTER), including tests for significant structure within clusters (SIMPROF) to permit non-arbitrary classifications of samples or variables (species);
Ordination via projection: principal components analysis (PCA); principal coordinate analysis (PCO);
Ordination to preserve inter-sample relationships via non-metric, metric or threshold metric multi-dimensional scaling (MDS, mMDS, tmMDS);
Relating biotic to abiotic data, including tests of association between resemblance matrices (RELATE), and finding optimal subsets of environmental (or other) variables that generate a ‘best’ match to patterns among samples based on species variables (BEST – BIOENV);
Non-parametric permutation test for differences among a priori groups of samples (analysis of similarities (ANOSIM), and ordination of bootstrap averages;
Finding important variables (SIMPER and BEST – BVSTEP);
Diversity measures (DIVERSE); Taxonomic distinctness; Taxonomic resemblance
Partitioning variation; tests for centroid differences among groups (PERMANOVA), including one-way and two-way cases, tests of interactions, constructing a priori contrasts and pairwise tests.
Tests for homogeneity of multivariate dispersions and comparisons of beta diversity (PERMDISP);
PERMANOVA accounting for heterogeneity of dispersions.
Complex multi-factor experimental designs, identifying fixed and random factors that are nested or crossed with one another (PERMANOVA);
Multivariate control charts for detecting unusual observations in space or time (e.g., monitoring).
Fitting multivariate response data (e.g., species) to continuous predictor variables (e.g., environmental), including model selection (DISTLM) and visualising fitted variation using dissimilarity-based redundancy analysis (dbRDA);
Graphical tools for effective presentation of results, including matrix displays and a variety of plot types, animations of ordinations captured to video files, centroid plots, bubble plots and multi-variable segmented bubble plots.

REGISTRATION COSTS

The cost for registration includes all course materials, and a temporary licence key to use PRIMER 8 with PERMANOVA+ software (fully functional, for the duration of the course). For in-person participants, the fee also includes coffee/tea and snacks during breaks and free Wi‑Fi at the venue. There are a number of nearby cafes where in-person participants can purchase lunch, or they are welcome to bring their own lunch. The registration fee does not include accommodation or other meals, or the separate (discounted) cost of purchasing time-unlimited software.

The prices to register are:

Registration Fees (in $USD)		In Person	Online only
EARLY BIRD On or before Sept 30th, 2026	Professional	USD $1,090	USD $930
EARLY BIRD On or before Sept 30th, 2026	Full-time Student	USD $790	USD $610
AFTER Sept 30th, 2026	Professional	USD $1,240	USD $930
AFTER Sept 30th, 2026	Full-time Student	USD $890	USD $610

All prices are in US Dollars ($USD). Participants who reside in either New Zealand or Australia will also need to pay the relevant goods and services tax (GST), at invoice. Participants may (at the discretion of PRIMER-e) be eligible for a global equity discount on their registration fees (depending on their country of residence), which will be administered at the time of invoicing. Please contact primer@primer-e.com if you would like to apply and learn more.

DISCOUNTED SOFTWARE PRICES FOR COURSE PARTICIPANTS

We are pleased to offer all course participants a discount of 10% off our standard prices for your initial software subscription. If you would like to receive a quote for a software subscription for PRIMER 8 with PERMANOVA+ (either a 12-month or 36-month term), please contact our team at primer@primer-e.com. All discounts for which you are eligible (including student discounts, global equity discounts, or recognition discounts for those with existing PRIMER 7 licences, etc.) will be applied to your subscription quote.

REGISTRATION

To register, please fill out the registration form available on the PRIMER-e website (or download to the right) and return it directly to primer@primer-e.com to secure your place. The deadline for registration and payment is November 30th, 2026. Late registrants will only be accepted if space permits. Unfortunately, we cannot permit attendance at the course unless the payment for registration has been received in full by PRIMER-e prior to the commencement of the course. Please get in touch with us directly at primer@primer-e.com if you have any questions, and especially if you would like:

to obtain a quote for your registration,
to register more than one individual from your organisation and pay on a single invoice (please include separate registration forms for each individual participant).
to receive a quote for a software subscription at a discounted price.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Marti J. Anderson is the Director of PRIMER-e (Quest Research Limited), a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand (FRSNZ) and Distinguished Professor Emerita in the New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study (NZIAS) at Massey University in Auckland. Her core research is in community ecology, biodiversity, multivariate analysis, experimental design and resampling methods, with a special focus on developing novel statistical methods for ecology. She has developed all of the statistical methods in PERMANOVA+ and especially enjoys engaging in the dynamic interactions with students, academics and professionals that have become a trademark of the PRIMER/PERMANOVA+ international courses, shedding new light on multivariate data.

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Terms and Conditions

Please refer to PRIMER-e’s Standard Terms and Conditions for Courses. In addition, below are PRIMER-e’s Specific Terms and Conditions for this Course.

Deadlines: Registration and payment must be received by the PRIMER-e office no later than November 30th, 2026. Please use one form per person.
Payment information: Registrants will be invoiced directly upon receipt by the PRIMER-e office of a completed registration form. All payments are to be made in $USD.
Payment options are detailed on the invoice and include:
- by Credit/Debit Card;
- by Direct Electronic Bank Transfer
GST: If you reside in New Zealand, you will need to pay 15% GST, applied at invoice. If you reside in Australia, you will need to pay 10% GST, applied at invoice.
Cancellation and Refund policy: The course organisers should be notified of cancellations in writing. If cancellation occurs before November 30th, 2026, the total course fee will be refunded, less any associated bank fees and administration costs. If you cancel after the deadline stated above, you may send a substitute person. Please notify the PRIMER-e office and provide us with the appropriate registration details for the substitute at the time of cancellation. In the absence of a substitute, we will still refund the payment (less administration costs) if we succeed in filling your place. “No shows” are non-refundable and are liable for the full registration costs. In the unlikely event of a course cancellation, PRIMER-e will refund registration fees in full, but shall not refund nor be liable for any additional associated costs, expenses, or losses incurred by registrants.

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