Photo: Laxmi Mishra
Are you close to the end of your PhD or have recently finished your PhD? Would you like to continue in Academia and want to take part in designing your future postdoctoral project? Take the opportunity and apply for the UPSC Symposium for Early Career Plant Scientists!
Umeå Plant Science Centre (UPSC) invites talented young scientists for a symposium in Umeå. This is a great opportunity to present your work in an international context, to meet the UPSC group leaders and identify common research interests.
Find and design your own exciting postdoctoral project
Our aim is to identify and support the most talented young researchers, to design and obtain postdoctoral fellowship fundings in collaboration with a UPSC group leader of their choice. Invited candidates are thus expected to identify one or several matching UPSC group leaders with whom they would like to work to develop a postdoctoral project and apply for possible fellowships.
The two-day symposium will take place on June 1-2, 2023, in Umeå in Northern Sweden. Only the most promising candidates will be invited and get the chance to present their PhD work at UPSC, visit the research center and discuss potential projects with different research groups and get to know the vibrant city of Umeå, one of Sweden’s fastest growing cities. All costs associated with the symposium will be covered by UPSC.
Who can apply?
To be eligible, you should be within 1 year of defending your PhD or have obtained your PhD within the last 2 years and have published at least one manuscript as first author in a peer-reviewed journal or as preprint.
How to apply:
Identify research topic(s) and one or more group leaders at UPSC that you would be interested to work with and justify your choice based on your experience and future plans. You can find more information about the research groups at UPSC on the UPSC homepage.
Note: The application period for this symposium is over!
If you have additional questions regarding the application process, please contact
What happens after your application?
The most promising candidates will be pre-selected by an evaluation committee based on their application. The focus will be on their qualification and eligibility to apply for a postdoctoral fellowship from e.g., EMBO, Marie Curie or Human Frontiers. Applications that do not identify at least one UPSC PI and research topic of interest to work with for a future fellowship application will not be considered. All applicants will be notified by the end of April.
The travel arrangement for those selected candidates who accepted the invitation to the symposium will be made in May and the programme for the symposium will be finalised. The symposium and discussions with group leaders will take place on June 1-2, 2023.
Based on the outcome of the visit and discussions during the symposium, the postdoctoral candidate and the PI will be encouraged to start writing the application for a fellowship with the support of the local grants office. Please note that the deadlines for many fellowship applications e.g. to EMBO, Marie Curie or Human Frontiers are in August/September.
Why joining UPSC?
Umeå Plant Science Centre (UPSC) is a centre of excellence for experimental plant research and forest biotechnology in Northern Sweden. Our mission is to perform excellent and innovative basic research and generate knowledge that benefits forestry, agriculture, environment and society. We work across a wide range of disciplines in plant science reaching from cell biology to ecophysiology and from basic research to industrial applications. Our common goal is to understand the plants’ ability to grow, adapt and acclimate to a changing world and how we can breed better plants.
UPSC belongs to two universities, Umeå University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). About 200 people from more than 40 different nationalities work here. We host some 30 principal investigators, and our researchers have access to state-of-the-art analytical platforms, unique tree germplasm resources and plant growth facilities. We strive for a collaborative work environment and support our scientists throughout all career stages by providing professional training opportunities and individual career mentoring.
Umeå has a strong postdoc community organised in the Umeå Postdoc Society (UPS). UPS fosters networking amongst postdocs, organises social and career development events and works towards improving the postdoc experience in Umeå. Check out their website: https://umeapostdocsociety.se/ and do not hesitate to get in contact with them!