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.
Please note that, unless stated otherwise, these are unpaid internships designed to give you hands-on research experience. Many students complete them as part of their degree, for example for course credits, or fund their stay through mobility programmes such as Erasmus+. We're happy to help with the paperwork where needed.
Understanding which climate conditions affect crop yields, how strongly, and how future yields can change under these conditions is crucial for improving crop models, ensuring future food production, and supporting timely climate adaptation. You can choose to focus on one historical yield losses and climatic contributions, past yield variability and future yield simulations, or climatic drivers of simultaneous widespread yield losses. Experience with coding languages such as Python, MATLAB, or R is required.
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.
Can growing legumes alongside a cereal protect their seed from pests? Seed beetles bore into developing faba bean and pea seeds, reducing seed weight, quality and germination. In this project, you will assess harvested seed from field trials comparing sole crops and intercrops with barley, scoring beetle damage and measuring seed size and weight - gaining skills in seed phenotyping, intercropping research, and data analysis in R.
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.
When? Spring-autumn 2027 (Fixed) Where? Ultuna Campus Who? MSc thesis project (can be BSc in English)
Description
What can Sweden's forgotten lupin varieties still do? Five historical Swedish accessions of narrow-leaved lupin survive in the NordGen genebank, but nobody has described them under modern conditions. In this project you will grow all five in an outdoor netted area and phenotype them plant by plant - emergence, flowering, architecture, maturity, shatter and yield components - gaining skills in plant phenotyping, legume agronomy and genetic resource characterisation.
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.
How do wheat and pea respond to multiple stresses under different agroecological management practices? In this summer project, you will help assess field trials testing practices such as undersown cover crops. You will gain practical experience in crop measurements, field phenotyping, monitoring of abiotic and biotic stress factors, and field data processing.
Overall Project
HEROCROP - Harnessing Emerging Resilient and Optimized CROP breeding to develop multi-stress ready agroecological systems across Europe’s diverse pedoclimatic regions
Can undersown cover crops reduce stress pressure and support biodiversity in wheat and pea systems? In this summer project, you will help monitor weeds, pests, and biodiversity in field trials testing agroecological management practices. You will gain practical experience in field scouting, biodiversity assessments, crop system monitoring, and field data processing.
Overall Project
HEROCROP - Harnessing Emerging Resilient and Optimized CROP breeding to develop multi-stress ready agroecological systems across Europe’s diverse pedoclimatic regions
Can rhizobia adapted to Swedish conditions help lupins fix more nitrogen than commercial inoculants? In this internship, you will help run a pot experiment as part of RhizoLupin, comparing newly isolated rhizobia with commercial products. You will grow inoculated lupins, monitor plant development, and help harvest plants for biomass, yield and nitrogen fixation analyses.
How can we make below-ground traits useful for pea breeding? In this internship, you will help run a controlled tube experiment as part of N-Fix+, a project focused on improving symbiotic nitrogen fixation in pea. You will work with pea breeding material and help assess root traits, nodulation capacity and early plant growth under controlled conditions.
Overall Project
N-Fix+ - increasing pea productivity through improved symbiotic nitrogen fixation
