Copenhagen Plant Science Center – Current Advances in Plant Biology
PhD School at the Faculty of SCIENCE at University of Copenhagen
This is a specialised course where 50% of the seats are reserved to PhD students enrolled at the Faculty of SCIENCE at UCPH and 50% og the seats are reserved to other applicants. Seats will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis and according to the applicable rules.
Anyone can apply for the course, but if you are not a PhD student, you will be placed on the waiting list until enrollment deadline. After the enrollment deadline, available seats will be allocated to applicants on the waiting list.
Aim and Content
The purpose of the course is to raise awareness and increase the understanding of the plant science activities that are taking place in the Copenhagen Plant Science Center (CPSC) and with their partners, among the PhD-students working in the departments affiliated with the CPSC or in other Danish institutions. Many PhD-students in CPSC have a background in e.g. biotechnology, biochemistry, chemistry, microbiology etc. An additional aim is therefore to provide students with a broad network in Danish plant science to support their future careers and train their confidence in discussing plant science orally and in writing, interacting with plant scientists from other disciplines etc.
The main part of the course is a lecture series, where scientists from departments across the CPSC give lectures on their topic in plant science. There will be at least one speaker from each CPSC department that currently counts PLEN, BIO, IGN, FOOD and also GLOBE. In addition, the invited speakers are international leading plant scientists that will feature in the ‘CPSC talk’ series that is open to all CPSC scientists and will be an integrated part of this PhD course. In these talks, the speakers both present their science at and share experiences from their careers and advice for the younger generation scientists.
For the general lectures, the speakers are asked to provide a review paper to support their talk, and in separate teaching sessions, we discuss the principles of a review, how to structure such a publication etc. At an agreed deadline after the course, the students are to deliver a final ‘report’ in the form of a short review on their own topic, applying the principles discussed in class, and written with advice from their main supervisor. In class, the students will work in groups to discuss their individual ideas for their own review and structure and prepare a brief presentation for the whole class to discuss the ideas. Furthermore, in sessions during the course, we will discuss the contents of the talks and the relation between different disciplines etc. We will also have a session on the use of AI in scientific writing.
Finally, for the CPSC talks, there will be social events where the group of PhD-students will have lunch with the speaker, and in the hours between the talk and the lunch, work together to come up with 4-5 questions to ask the speaker at this event.
Learning outcomes
Intended learning outcome for the students who complete the course:
Knowledge
• Overview and understanding of the plant science that is taking place in the CPSC
• Knowledge of leading international plant scientists and plant science research environments
• Insights into the typical structure and formulation of review papers within their field
Skills
• Be able to read and understand review papers within a broader area of plant science
• Be able to engage in lectures and put the information into context with other lectures
Competences
• Be able to structure and write a scientific review within disciplines in plant science
• Be able to engage in lectures and formulate questions to the speakers
Target Group
This course targets PhD-students within plant science, in particular those working in the fundamental/molecular plant science to translational space, but also others that have an interest in the field
Recommended Academic Qualifications
It is relevant for all PhD-students within plant science that have an interest in fundamental/molecular/translational plant science. However, for students that do not have a plant science-or molecular biology-related MSc or other similar experiences, it is recommended to follow the course in the second half of their PhDs when they are more acquainted with a relevant field.
Research Area
Plant science and plant molecular science, from fundamental plant biology to translational agriculture and the science of plant-based foods.
Teaching and Learning Methods
The course consists of lectures, reading, group discussions, presentations in class and interactions with speakers. All teachers (lecturers) will support the scientific discussions, and the main teacher (course responsible) will support the group work and discussions and presentations in class.
Student preparation involves reading the provided literature, as well as focused literature searches within own field to identify topics for review paper. Also preparation of short presentations to enable discussions of proposed outlines for their review papers with their peers and the main teacher.
Type of Assessment
The course requires attendance at 80 % of the in-person teaching (lectures, group work, discussions and speaker lunches), and hand-in of a scientific review of approximately 4,000 words. In addition to the word requirement/limit, to be approved the review must meet the best practice standards we agree in class.
Literature
Literature will be provided by the teachers; one scientific review per lecture.
Course coordinator
Nanna Bjarnholt, Associate Professor, nnb@plen.ku.dk
Guest Lecturers
Professor Alisdair Fernie is a world leading capacity in plant metabolomics and a Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute of the group "Central Metabolism". Early work of Prof. Fernie focused on the metabolic regulation of photosynthetic and heterotrophic carbon metabolism. Prof. Fernie has developed extensive expertise in metabolomics and flux profiling as well as studying the genetic control of metabolism with a particular focus on crop species. His studies now embrace both primary and intermediary metabolism.
Professor Anne Osbourn is a Group Leader at the world-renowned plant and microbial research center, the John Innes Centre in York, UK, and Fellow of the Royal Society, UK. Prof. Osburne investigates plant natural product biosynthesis and discovered that the genes for many of these pathways are organized in clusters in plant genomes like ‘beads on a string’. This discovery has greatly accelerated the ability to find new pathways and chemistries of potential importance for the development of drugs and other useful compounds. She specializes in triterpenes, their biosynthesis, enzyme and pathway discovery, genome mining for natural product pathways, and the production of natural products and analogs for drug and chemical discovery programmes, using synthetic biology approaches.
Both speakers are highly relevant as their research covers a broad spectrum of plant species, including crops, plant processes related to metabolism, and synthetic biology and genomics approaches, related to many of the research activities carried out in the CPSC. Combined, their talks will form a topical mini-symposium on plant metabolism and applications in plant science and innovation.
Dates
1 March-30 April 2026 (Mondays/Tuesdays/Friday mornings)
Course location
Copenhagen Plant Science Center/PLEN
Course fee
• PhD student enrolled at SCIENCE: 0 DKK
• PhD student from Danish PhD school Open market: 0 DKK
• PhD student from Danish PhD school not Open market: 62000 DKK
• PhD student from foreign university: 6000 DKK
• Master's student from Danish university: 0 DKK
• Master's student from foreign university: 6000 DKK
• Non-PhD student employed at a university (e.g., postdocs): 6000 DKK
• Non-PhD student not employed at a university (e.g., from a private company): 16.800 DKK
Cancellation policy
• Cancellations made up to two weeks before the course starts are free of charge.
• Cancellations made less than two weeks before the course starts will be charged a fee of DKK 3.000
• Participants with less than 80% attendance cannot pass the course and will be charged a fee of DKK 5.000
• No-show will result in a fee of DKK 5.000
• Participants who fail to hand in any mandatory exams or assignments cannot pass the course and will be charged a fee of DKK 5.000
Course fee and participant fee
PhD courses offered at the Faculty of SCIENCE have course fees corresponding to different participant types.
In addition to the course fee, there might also be a participant fee.
If the course has a participant fee, this will apply to all participants regardless of participant
type - and in addition to the course fee.