Available student project opportunities at the Department of Crop Production Ecology
Page reviewed:
07/07/2026
This page lists potential student opportunities across the Department of Crop Production Ecology, including BSc thesis projects, MSc thesis projects, research internships, and summer internships.
The department conducts research, teaching, and collaboration to support the agriculture of the future. Student projects at the department address questions related to crop production systems, yield and quality, ecosystem services, and environmental impact, contributing to the development of more sustainable crop production.
Projects may include field, greenhouse, laboratory, imaging, modelling, data analysis, or literature-based work, depending on the topic and supervisor.
Explore the opportunities below to find a project that matches your interests, skills, and study programme. Click on each project title for more information; contact details for the responsible supervisor are included in the project description.
MSc/BSc Theses
When? Start anytime finished by Dec 2026 (Flexible) Where? Ultuna Campus Who? MSc thesis project
Description
How do wheat roots grow in the early stages of development? What genetic regions are controlling this variation? In this project, you will grow a Nordic winter wheat collection in transparent growth boxes (rhizoboxes) that allow you to track root development. You will extract root traits using tools such as RootPainter, and combine them with genetic marker data to explore genomic regions linked to early root growth - gaining skills in plant phenotyping and genetic analysis.
When? Starting Aug/Sept 2026 Where? Ultuna Campus Who? BSc thesis project (Swedish or English) or MSc thesis project (English)
Description
Faba bean is a legume crop that, together with their microbial symbiotic parter, fix nitrogen from the air into the soil. This process requires a lot of energy, so when nitrogen is readily available the mechanism switches off. A new Fixation Under Nitrate (fun) mutant stops this switch from turning off causing a continuous production of nitrogen. This project will look at the effect this nitrogen fixing mutation has on the growth of the plant, comparing the phenological development of the mutant vs the wild type.
When? Early 2027 (Flexible) Where? Ultuna Campus Who? MSc thesis project (can be BSc in English)
Description
How do legume and cereal roots interact when grown together? In this project, you will work with selected crop combinations in a rhizotron experiment designed to track early root development. You will help set up the experiment, collect root images and trait data, and analyse how different crop partners influence root growth - gaining skills in plant phenotyping, intercropping research, and image analysis.
When? Spring/summer 2027 (Flexible) Where? Ultuna Campus Who? BSc thesis project (Swedish or English) or MSc thesis project (English)
Description
Nicotinamide (vitamine B3) and its metabolite nicotinic acid are compounds naturally produced by plants which have a putative but insufficiently explored role in activating plant defence to threats such as herbivory. In this thesis you will perform pilot experiments in the lab and/or field to evaluate how seed and spray treatments with nicotinamide affects crop injury, using rapeseed and flea beetles as a model system.
Overall Project
The project is a collaboration between plant protection research at SLU and biotechnology research at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.
This thesis project will investigate how cereal–legume intercropping influences weed biomass and weed diversity in organic cropping systems. The student will compare weed communities across different crop combinations and monocultures using field data from InterRoot plots. The project will include field sampling, plant identification, biodiversity assessment and data analysis, providing experience in agroecology, field-based research and sustainable crop production systems.
How do cereal and legume root systems interact when grown together in organic intercropping systems? In this summer project, you will help assess root system architecture and root distribution in cereal–legume field plots, comparing different crop combinations and monocultures. You will gain practical experience in field phenotyping, root system analysis, and sustainable crop production research.
