As Europe’s only intergovernmental research organization in the life sciences and as a leading laboratory in molecular biology, EMBL is dedicated to promoting excellence in the molecular life sciences throughout Europe. One of the best ways to achieve this goal is by inspiring and fostering talented young scientists to turn them into skilled and creative future leaders.

The EMBL International Ph.D. Programme is Europe’s ‘best in class’ Ph.D. programme for the life sciences. 240 students from over 40 countries are carrying out Ph.D. research at EMBL at any time. Every year we admit an average of 60 new students, who belong to the top science graduates in their countries. They are carefully selected from a large multi-national pool of applicants that reached over 1700 applications in 2012.... [-]

PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering

Chemical & Biological Engineering is a discipline that integrates chemistry and biology at the molecular level and uses this broad foundation along with engineering fundamentals to study the synthesis of new processes and products. Our graduate program in Chemical and Biological Engineering is an interdisciplinary program that combines chemical engineering fundamentals and systems biology to meet the research challenges of the future.The research areas of interest are:

The Ph.D. program in Neural and Cognitive Sciences (NCS) provides advanced research training focused on the interdisciplinary study of the central and peripheral nervous systems, the mind/brain system, cognition, and on applications in clinical, social, ergonomic, and sports contexts.

The students will develop competencies in: cellular neurophysiology; neurogenesis; clinical neuroscience; neuroengineering; psycholinguistics; perception, action, and attention; memory and executive control; thinking, judgment, and decision making; sports psychology; typical and atypical development; personality; social psychology; community psychology; comparative psychology. At the end of the course, the students will be able to formulate an independent project; to coordinate data collection integrating methods of biological and psychological sciences; to evaluate results; to propose technological innovations for clinical and rehabilitation purposes; to operate in multidisciplinary teams in public and private institutions.... [-]

The Ph.D. Course aims to prepare well-qualified scientists able to critically manage the implementation of EU and national regulations concerning with environmental analysis and to autonomously develop research activities in the field of environment. The course is focused on both theoretical and experimental activities. It includes the following ERC research areas:

Terrestrial ecology, land cover change (PE10_4); Biogeochemistry, biogeochemical cycles, environmental chemistry (PE10_9); Soil science (PE10_13); Ecology (theoretical and experimental; population, species, and community level) (LS8_1); Biodiversity, conservation biology, conservation genetics, invasion biology (LS8_4); Evolutionary biology: evolutionary ecology and genetics, co-evolution (LS8_5); Environmental and marine biology (LS8_8); Environmental toxicology at the population and ecosystems level (LS8_9); Microbial ecology and evolution (LS8_10); Agriculture related to animal husbandry, dairying, livestock raising (LS9_3); Agriculture related to crop production, soil biology and cultivation, applied plant biology (LS9_5); Population biology, population dynamics, population genetics (LS8_2); Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology (LS2).... [-]

Ph.D. in Physics of Biological and Complex Systems

The GGNB doctoral program / International Max Planck Research School "Physics of Biological and Complex Systems" is a member of the Göttingen Graduate School for Neurosciences and Molecular Biosciences (GGNB). It is conducted jointly by the University of Göttingen, the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, and the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization.The research-oriented program is taught in English and open to students who hold a Master's degree (or equivalent) in the physics, biophysics, chemistry, life sciences, medicine, or related fields.Building upon the increasingly strong links between physics, chemistry and the life sciences, the program aims at advancing the quantitative and molecular understanding of life processes while at the same time exploring new frontiers of physics. Research topics include biomolecular structure and dynamics, biological membranes, motor proteins and pattern formation in systems of interacting cells, neuronal information processing, and hydrodynamics and pattern formation of complex fluids.The program offers cutting-edge advanced microscopy courses and teaches the basics of new cutting-edge techniques essential for studying life processes in combination with quantitative physical approaches and synthetic strategies. An important aim is to overcome traditional barriers between disciplines and expose graduate students to physics, chemistry, and biology for a deeper understanding of all areas preparing students for increasingly interdisciplinary life sciences.... [-]

This field of study is focused on education of specialists competent to work in a wide spectrum of microbiology. The study is targeted on the complex mastering of several branches of contemporary microbiology, including environmental, clinical and food microbiology together with principles of molecular genetics.

The graduate is prepared for research, but also for the leading position in many branches of technological, clinical, environmental and food microbiology laboratories. It guarantees a deep knowledge of basic microbiology and contemporary arrays of molecular biology and biochemistry.

Doctoral students do research at the Bioluminescent Biotechnology Laboratory under the supervision of Professor Valentina Kratasyuk. Their research focuses on studying the chemical nature of light emission by luminous bacteria and other luminous species, modeling the enzyme metabolism in cell hyaloplasm, developing new generations of bioluminescent biosensors for environmental monitoring and medical diagnostics and other issues of bioluminescence research.

Professor Valentina Kratasyuk’s research interests are mechanisms of bioluminescence, bioluminescent enzymatic biosensors, enzymatic toxicity bioassays, bioluminescent analysis, biotechnological design, biochemistry, science education, history of sciences, immobilization of enzymes.... [-]

The Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience at SISSA aims at providing students with the fundamental knowledge and skills for conducting cutting-edge research in the field, covering topics as diverse as perception, language, memory, action, and social behavior. Some of our research is also translational in nature (e.g., cognitive neuropsychology), thus offering the opportunity for a career outside academia.

The School is strongly research oriented. Our faculty dedicates most of their time to research, thus offering exceptional tutorship. This substantial investment in research is reflected in our ability to attract highly competitive funding (there are five on-going ERC grants in the group, several Human Frontier projects, and so on); develop strong research ties, both locally (e.g., the Healthcare system of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, the Unione Italiana Ciechi, the University of Trieste) and internationally (e.g., NTNU, Harvard, Oxford); and publish in leading journals such as Current Biology, PNAS, Science, and Nature.... [-]

Biology, biotechnology and biosciences have been rapidly developing since 2000. To handle the data produced, computer technology is required due to the excessive amount of data. Most of the recent techniques used in DNA, RNA and protein-based research is supported by bioinformatics and computer science. The computer science offers a new era for the biological sciences. For example the building block of the cell, proteins are modeled in 3D using computer; this enables the rapid and efficient identification of molecular interactions and signal transduction pathways. Similarly, mutations in the genetic sequence can be detected quite fast using the computer technology. Since the recent advancements in computational biology decreased the cost and accelerated the research processes including the drug development, the in silico studies are highly demanded in the industry.... [-]

Understanding the working principles of living organisms and soft matter systems from the basic equations ruling the dynamics of atoms and molecules was considered science fiction until a few years ago, and biophysics was almost unanimously considered a battlefield for phenomenologists. Nowadays, applying rigorous physics to biological processes is no longer a dream. What’s more, it is becoming clear that the next few decades will be the golden age for the “theory of life”, which is expected to undergo the same accelerating growth experienced by other physics disciplines in the past century.

Young scientists attracted by the opportunity to develop and apply concepts, models and methods to explore the still uncharted territory of quantitative biology can take up this challenge in our Ph.D. programme in Physics and Chemistry of Biological Systems.... [-]

The aim of the Lectures of the Ph.D. program in Neurobiology is to provide students with a common framework starting from different backgrounds.

Lectures will take place at the beginning of the Ph.D. Program, so to have more time to focus on the scientific research project that will be carried out during the Ph.D. There will be two main scientific modules complemented by a module dedicated to specific experimental methodologies and safety procedures. All the lectures will be in English and will be held by an expert in the field.

Module 1 will be devoted to fundamental aspects of Neurophysiology and Neurobiology: we will review basic notions about neurons, synapses and sensory systems. We will also cover properties of neuronal networks underlying perception in the cortex and locomotion in the spinal cord.... [-]

Ph.D. in Microbiology and Biochemistry

The doctoral program "Microbiology and Biochemistry" is a member of the Göttingen Graduate School for Neurosciences and Molecular Biosciences (GGNB). It is hosted by the Göttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences (GZMB) and is conducted jointly by the University of Göttingen and the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry.The research-oriented program is taught in English and open to students who hold a Master's degree (or equivalent) in the biosciences, chemistry, physics, medicine, or related fields.The Microbiology and Biochemistry program accepts students who are interested in all problems of microbiology and biochemistry. Training is aimed at achieving a comparative understanding of microorganisms work at a molecular level and how they contribute to interactions in their natural environments; a critical sense of how to apply comprehensive genomic analysis tools, and an ability to set up and test conceptual models for molecular functions.... [-]

Ph.D. in Molecular Biology of Cells

The doctoral program "Molecular Biology of Cells" is a member of the Göttingen Graduate School for Neurosciences and Molecular Biosciences (GGNB). It is hosted by the Göttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences (GZMB) and is conducted jointly by the University of Göttingen, the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine, and the German Primate Center.The research-oriented program is taught in English and open to students who hold a Master's degree (or equivalent) in the biosciences, chemistry, physics, medicine, or related fields.The program accepts students from diverse areas of previous education who share an enthusiasm for studying cells. Training is aimed at achieving a comparative understanding of how cell fate and topology are determined, a critical sense of how to apply comprehensive genomic analysis tools, and the ability to set up and test conceptual models for cellular functions.... [-]

The Ph.D. Course in Structural and Functional Genomics main mission is the training of enthusiastic young scientists focusing their interests in a broad spectrum of biological research disciplines.

Projects within the Ph.D. Course Program span from genomics, transcriptomics and developmental genetics to structural biology, molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration and developmental neurobiology. Crossing over research such as system biology may have a prominent role within the Ph.D. Course Program. Students are continuously exposed to cutting-edge research through year around classes, seminars, and workshops. The average ratio between supervisor and students is about 1 to 5.... [-]

The primary focus of the Ecology, Evolution, Behaviour and Environmental Economics research cluster is fundamental and applied aspects of ecology, environmental economics, conservation, aquaculture, animal behavior, molecular taxonomy and molecular genetics, particularly involving links between these aspects. The cluster has a high level of research activity involving academic staff, Postdoctoral scientists, and postgraduate research students. The cluster has a high level of research activity involving academic staff, Postdoctoral scientists, and postgraduate research students.