Upcoming courses and workshops

We all do excellent research that deserves to be presented in the best possible way. This course is open to you who wants to improve your skills in drawing figures, making posters and visually convey your research more effectively to both peers and the general audience. The goal of the course is to teach you basic skills that will make you comfortable to do figures that are clear and crisp, posters that outshine your neighboring fellow posters and presentations that keep your audience awake. 
 
The course is software independent and will cover things like use of colors, text and typography, sins and working designs, mini art school, layout compositing, format/copyrights and where to find figures, software, basic infographics, tips and tricks and practical drawing sessions. You will also learn to master a drawing program of your own choice. 

After the course, you will know 

• How to create beautiful and credible scientific posters.
• How to use professional illustration software to illustrate your research.
• Where to find images, if you cannot draw them yourself.
• How to create images that are simple but yet informative.

The course represents a mix of online theory and drawing tutorials complemented with four feedback meetings. All joint sessions will be in form of on-line sessions but you can also attend the last sessions face-to-face at campus.

The course is primarily intended for PhD students within the SLU Graduate School Organism Biology but is open to all PhD students at SLU if space allows.

• Credits: 4 ECTS
• Course code: PNG0073
• Course session code: F0035
• Dates: March 24 - May 8
• Course organiser: Andreas Dahlin at Visualize your Science AB 
• Location: Zoom
• How to apply: For binding registration on first serve basis (student number limited to 20), send an e-mail before 27th of February 2026 to Katarina.Landberg@slu.se indicating your name, Swedish personal number, department and position. The course fee is covered by the research school Organism Biology. However, if a registrant fail to attend the course without informing the organizer in due time the person must pay the actual course fee of 750 €.
• Link to syllabus
• Link to website with schedule and further information

Today basic knowledge of sequence analysis methods such as sequence homology searches and phylogenetic analysis is an essential skill set to complement wet lab experimental work within the life sciences. Fairly simple analyses of biological sequences can reveal a lot about gene function and lead to the formulation of new and unexpected hypotheses for experimental verification. This course will demonstrate to the students how basic methods in sequence analysis can improve their understanding of one or more target genes or proteins that are relevant to their PhD projects.

The course is aimed at PhD students whose main research focus is not bioinformatics but whose PhD projects involve biological sequences (e.g. biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology, cell biology, structural biology, microbiology). The course strives to improve the bioinformatic literacy of students, which will enable them to get to know their favorite gene(s) or protein(s) better, provide them with the necessary skills to evaluate these types of analyses in the published scientific literature as well as allow the students to generate novel hypotheses for future wet lab experiments.

The course will cover the fundamentals of sequence analysis including sequence databases, sequence homology searches, multiple sequence alignments, sequence motif searching and phylogenetic analysis. The course will also cover how to describe and visualize results of sequence analysis in an informative manner. The course will mainly rely on web-based tools. Note that the course will NOT cover any programming, genome assembly or analysis of genome-scale datasets (e.g. transcriptomics, proteomics, metagenomics). For more detailed information about course content and preliminary course dates, please see the syllabus and schedule.

• Credits: 2 ECTS
• Course code: PNS0191
• Course session code: F0034
• Dates: March 25 - May 20
• Course organiser: Tomas Linder
• Location: Zoom
• How to apply: Send an e-mail to Tomas Linder specifying your name, Swedish personal number, department and position no later than Feb 27th, 2026.
• Link to syllabus 
• Link to schedule

Real-time quantitative PCR is a very popular method broadly used and miss-used in molecular biology. The aim of this course is not only to teach the very basics of the qPCR method, but also to introduce students to the MIQE guidelines essential for designing, performing and interpreting quantitative experiments in a reliable way. During the course we will go through ins and outs of the qPCR method and how it relates to other methods, such as NGS and microarrays. We will use tools for primer design, data normalization and analysis and discuss experimental setups. The course also includes a practical part, during which students will design their own experiments, design and order primers, prepare templates, perform qPCR and analyze the data.  

The course, organized and taught by Alyona Minina on behalf of the research school Organism Biology, will run from April 7th to May 4th 2026. Teaching will be carried out in the form of lectures and seminars combined with group works as well as lab work at Uppsala BioCenter. For more info about the content and format of the course, please see the course syllabus and tentative program provided on the dedicated website linked below. The course can accommodate a maximum of 15 students. Priority is given to SLU PhD students but postdocs and researchers are also welcome to apply.

• Credits: 3,5 ECTS
• Course code: P000008
• Course session code: F0033
• Dates: April 7 - May 4
• Course organiser: Alyona Minina
• Location: BioCenter, Ultuna
• How to apply: To register for the course, please fill in this form no later than March 15. If you have questions, please contact Alyona Minina. 
• Link to syllabus
• Link to website with schedule and information

More information to come.

• Dates: May or June
• Organiser: Vahideh Rafiei
• Location:
• How to apply:
• Link to flyer/program

Aim: The aim of this course is to provide students with a solid theoretical background essential for designing confocal microscopy experiments, introductions to common softwares used in the area and also to give students hands-on experience with confocal microscopes available at the BioCenter, Ultuna.

• Course code: PNS0138
• Credits: 5 ECTS
• Dates: 1st - 12th December
• How to apply: To register for the course, send an e-mail to Adrian Dauphinee (adrian.dauphinee@slu.se) by November 28th. Number of participants limited to 16. PhD students and those new to the course will be given priority.
• Course organiser: Adrian Dauphinee
• Location: BioCenter, Uppsala
• Link to Syllabus
• Link to Schedule

Are you wondering how to take the next step after your PhD? Join us for our upcoming workshop “PhD Careers outside academia” on November 28th, held online via Zoom.

During the session, we will explore career opportunities beyond academia, discuss strategies for pursuing diverse career paths, and demonstrate how to transfer your academic skills to non-academic environments. Several former PhDs who have successfully transitioned into industry, including speakers now in leadership and hiring positions, will share their perspectives and experiences.

More information and the workshop program can be found in the attached flyer below. For any questions, please contact Vahideh Rafiei, vahideh.rafiei@slu.se or Eva Krab, eveline.krab@slu.se

• Date: 28th November
• How to register: Please register no later than 10.00 on November 27 by sending an email to: vahideh.rafiei@slu.se. We will send you a link for the workshop as soon as the registration closes.
• Organisers: Vahideh Rafiei and Eva Krab
• Location: BioCenter, Uppsala or Zoom
• Link to Flyer

About the courses: High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) technologies and in particular Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) have revolutionized the way we conduct gene expression analysis. In comparison to micro-array- based methods, NGS has unleashed an almost unlimited power to perform gene expression analysis, for a similar price and with faster, more comprehensive, more efficient and more reproducible characteristics. Rapidly, the data generation rate has exceeded the analytical capabilities and data analysis has become the major bottleneck in gene expression studies.

The SLU Bioinformatics Infrastructure (SLUBI) is organizing two back-to-back courses for the Organism Biology Research School, aimed at PhD students, that has the objective to help addressing this problem by (i) helping participants critically assess the challenges faced in the HTS field, (ii) developing efficient communication skill with bioinformatician, and (iii) training students in analyzing HTS data. For detailed info about the courses, please see the syllabuses attached. 

• Course codes: P000057 and P000058
• Credits: 3+1,5 ECTS
• Dates: 13th - 31th October
• How to apply: Application deadline is September 13th. To register, follow this link: https://forms.gle/XZfS9vg8sGQf6cRx7
• Course organisers: Nicolas Delhomme and Amrei Binzer Panchal at SLUBI
• Location: Zoom
• Link to Syllabus I
• Link to Syllabus II

About the course: Understanding & Programming in R is a week-long course designed to help researchers new to the R programming language or those who haven’t mastered R’s programming environment to become confident in using R and to design & implement analyses specific to their own research questions. It also include some pre-course preparation.

• Course code: PNG0088
• Credits: 3 ECTS
• Dates: 7th - 11th October or online Oct-Dec
• How to apply: Please contact the course leader Matt Low in the ecology department matt.low@slu.se to register or for more information. The course can fill quickly, so register sooner rather than later. Application deadline Sep 27th
• Course organiser: Matt Low
• Location: Ultuna or Zoom
• Link to Flyer

About the course: This course has been designed for PhD students in the Organismal Biology Research School, in collaboration with the SLU breeding network. Experts in plant breeding at our university collaborate to answer: (1) how to associate phenotypes and genotypes and (2) how to accelerate marker-assisted selection in the era of high throughput genome sequencing. Along this course, students will be able to review basic principles of association mapping, study in detail the bioinformatic methods today available, and do extensive hands-on work on pre-designed examples. 

• Course code: P000145
• Credits: 3 ECTS
• Dates: October, 7th - 11th October week 41 and 44
• How to apply: Register via the on line registration form. Last date for application September 15th. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf0JrpSqgpdpsCm2mw3AWrdYXVlDm8oJ7KC8ThhR98PZ12jfQ/viewform?usp=header
• Course organiser: Martha Rendón
• Location: Ultuna
• Link to Flyer

Aim: Welcome to this year’s Thesis summary writing workshop for all PhD students at SLU! The aim of the workshop is to give insights, inspiration and useful tools for writing a thesis. Some of the topics covered are legal aspects regarding copyright, plagiarism and AI, efficient use of the thesis template, and discussions on “best practices” for writing a thesis.

• Date: 19th September 09:00-15:00
• How to register: Send an email to philip.jacobson@slu.se. Deadline 2nd of September. Please state your department, if you wish to attend at Ultuna or via video (Zoom), add allergies or food preferences if Ultuna (lunch and fika will be included)
• Workshop organiser: Philip Jacobson
• Location: Campus Ultuna or Zoom
• Flyer
• Program

Would you like to know more about how to communicate your science to the general public? To communicate science teaches how to plan and perform communication work and what measures and channels that can be used to reach different target groups.

This course is organised jointly by the NJ Research Schools (Ecology - basics and applications, Focus on Food and Biomaterials, Focus on Soils and Water, Organism biology, People, Society and Sustainability, Sustainable systems for food, energy and biomaterials) and the divisions of Planning and Communication.

• Course code: OG0086
• Credits: 2 ECTS
• Dates: 15th September- 1st December
• Application deadline: 27 th August
• Course organiser: Lotta Jäderlund
• Location: Ultuna
• Link to Syllabus and application site