The work collaboration between academia and industry within the centre made it apparent that there is a lack of people with expertise in both areas. All centre partners agreed that the most efficient way of finding people that can bridge between scientific work and industrial applications would be to educate students within a special program.
In 2013, together with its industrial partners, the UPSC Centre for Forest Biotechnology (at that time still called Berzelii Centre for Forest Biotechnology) started a research school in forest genetics, biotechnology and breeding. The project is currently still running its third class (seven students). It is co-financed by the UPSC Centre for Forest Biotechnology, SLU, Kempe Foundation (http://www.kempe.com/index_english.html), Föreningen Skogsträdsförädling (http://skogstradsforadling.se) and several of the industrial centre partner (Stora Enso Plantor, Holmen Skog, Stora Enso, Sveaskog and Skogforsk).
About the school
Postgraduate students admitted to the education participate in a five years program comprising a common part with a set of obligatory courses, common excursions and research visits. This common part of the program is trying to provide a common knowledge framework on molecular genetics of important traits, genomics, SE technology, statistics, quantitative genetics and breeding theory. Additional to the common part each student has his/her own research program that is formulated jointly by the academic supervisor and the industrial host.
Currently the school is still running its third class (start date 2017/2018). The first class started in 2013 with eleven students and the second class started in 2015 with eight students.
For further information on finished and ongoing PhD projects please consult the homepage of the research school:
http://resschool.slu.se