Upcoming courses and workshops

Page reviewed:  21/11/2025

Upcoming activities for the Research School Organism Biology. The list is updated regularly with new activities. The activities are also announced via the OB e-mail list and doktorand-NJ e-mail list.

Activities Autumn 2025

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

Suggest new courses and activities

All biology‐oriented PhD students at the BioCenter and their supervisors, as well as potential course leaders, are strongly encouraged to propose activities for the research school Organism Biology. OB coordinates activities to meet the needs of our core target group for courses, workshops, seminars, and networking activities. However, we depend on your input to identify these needs!

To suggest an activity, please answer the questions below and send your responses to one of the Organism Biology directors of studies (addresses in footer).

  • Your name, position and department.
  • Title/topic/focus of suggested activity.
  • Your prediction of the size and composition of the target group for the proposed activity (minimum five PhD students).
  • Your detailed ideas about content, format, responsible organizer, suitable teachers, and proposed duration/credits (if applicable).

Contact

  • Research School Organism Biology (OB)

    Katarina Landberg
    Researcher at the Department of Plant Biology
    katarina.landberg@slu.se

    Vahideh Rafieebanadaki
    Researcher at the Department of Forest Mycology & Plant Pathology
    vahideh.rafiei@slu.se