The international PhD Programme Plants for Life aims to train a prominent body of future world-class researchers in plant sciences able to address key biological questions related to plant growth and development, to plant responses to environmental stress and to the improvement of crop varieties and plant products.
The innovative training provided by the Plants for Life PhD Programme is unique in the country, representing an opportune and highly valuable input to increase the competitiveness and innovation ability in an area of crucial importance for the sustainable development and future of human society.
Curricular structure
The programme has a total of 240 credits (ECTS) and is mainly composed by the individual Research Thesis (210 ECTS) leading to the PhD dissertation. The course component (30 ECTs) corresponds to a total of 20 weeks and focuses on training in core competences in plant sciences and in transversal skills. Supported by their supervisors, students are encouraged to develop their own path within the programme and selecting additional courses.
The programme initial training deals with fundamental subjects, such as Plant Cell and Developmental Biology, Plant Metabolic Regulation, and Eco-Physiology and Plant Interactions. This training aims to provide an overview of general aspects in Plant Sciences and the required conceptual framework to tackle the subsequent, more applied subjects: Modern Strategies in Crop Breeding and Plant Biotechnology for Sustainability and Global Economy. Most of the curricular units take one or two weeks (1.5 or 3 ECTS).
After this initial training, students have a four week period to write and discuss a bibliographic review on their research subject (Research Project, 6 ECTS, under close supervision of the thesis adviser), before starting their Research Thesis, which comprises most of the PhD Program (210 ECTS).
Complementary training will follow on the second, third or fourth years, on more transversal subjects such as Systems Biology (1.5 ECTS) or Bio-Entrepreneurship (3 ECTS), and soft skills, such as Science Communication (1.5 ECTS), for oral and written communication to peer and public audiences, and the Research Training (3 ECTS), where students will be guided on developing their first research article manuscript.
Additionally, students may choose advanced courses taking place at other institutions, according to their personal interests and the relevance to their thesis (Free Options, 4.5 ECTS).
Overall, students will profit from an outstanding research environment, which entails interactions between research groups across the participating institutions, promoting interdisciplinary high-level training.
