Application

To all current and prospective 1st year PhD students studying Bioinformatics in Sweden,

We are pleased to announce that MedBioInfo, the National Graduate School in Medical Bioinformatics, will be extended to admit a final incoming class in 2024.  Due in part to the pandemic, we spent less than expected in prior years, and so did not have to shut down after our 2022 admission round as originally planned. You are therefore invited to apply to join.

MedBioInfo was established to provide advanced training in bioinformatics to the next generation of world-class life-science researchers. If admitted you will join a competitively selected student community. Our 42 affiliated faculty members include most of the leading bioinformaticians in Sweden, and we also draw on the faculty of NORBIS, our Norwegian sister school. Alongside your peers, this will form a key part of your future scientific network. Our courses are short, worth 3 or 5 HP(ECTS). Each course typically requires a one-week at-home pre-assignment, one week in residence, and (often) a take-home one-week post-assignment. You would typically take two courses per year, for a total of 3 years. The courses are more specialised than can be provided by your home university. You will be matched with a faculty mentor, providing a perspective and advice complementary to that of your advisor. We also have an annual meeting where you will attend faculty talks and soft-skills workshops, present your research, network, and get feedback. You will be granted a yearly travel budget. Best of all, this should be fun.

You are eligible to apply if you began or will begin your PhD between January 2022 and April 2023, though I wish to emphasize there is flexibility in this. Target groups include PhD students in Life Science doing primarily computational research.Selection criteria include your CV, transcript, and the relevance of your research project. You will also need an endorsement letter from your advisor and a suitable laptop.

We strive to have a broad distribution of Swedish home universities. We take pride in our good gender balance, as well as inclusion in other aspects. To this end we have a policy of respectful dialogue in courses, seminars, and meetings.

Please be aware that, if admitted, your first course, “Applied Bioinformatics” will run in Uppsala 27-31 May, so you should mark your calendar already now. Several of our core courses require programming in Python. If your Python background is weak, you will need to start strengthening your skills soon after admissions. There are many online courses, and we also recommend Shaw’s “Python 3 the hard way.” Considering the climate, we ask students to avoid flying to MedBioInfo events.

The application deadline is February 28, 2024 at 23:59. In past years we have enrolled up to 30 students, but this time due to budgetary considerations our enrollment target is 20 students, the number originally promised to the Swedish Research Council. Though you can expect a more competitive assessment this year, we nonetheless encourage you to apply. You should apply following https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/MedBioInfo-Application-2024. Feel free to email Sam with any questions. We look forward to reading your application.

With kind regards,

Arne Elofsson, Director

Samuel Flores, Dean of Students

Petras Kundrotas, Course Coordinator