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.
Read more: Get selected as speaker for the UPSC Symposium for Early Career Plant Scientists
Welcome to the 3rd INUPRAG symposium on February 21-23, 2023, at Hotel Mimer in Umeå! Our focus will be on Integrative Plant Biology.
Sustainable production of biomass and high-quality food as well as raw materials are one of today’s major challenges of agriculture and forestry. To achieve this goal while maintaining natural resources and biodiversity, plant developmental and physiological processes from the cellular up to ecosystem levels need to be better understood. This symposium will gather a multidisciplinary group of plant scientists from three main European research institutes (UPSC, INRAE and CRAG) for exchanging ideas and developing new collaborations.
Around 40 speakers from the INUPRAG cooperation will present their most recent work and future projects. Our goal is to promote extensive discussions and exchange of ideas in a relaxed and informal atmosphere to facilitate networking and new collaborations.
Join us in Umeå and enjoy the amazing Northern Swedish winter!
"Fighting Swedish mosquitos" - UPSC Phd students and postdocs during the 2nd retreat in Skeppsvik 2018 (Photo: Niklas Mähler)
Welcome to the 3rd UPSC PhD and Postdoc Retreat in Skeppsvik!
Are you a PhD student or Postdoc at UPSC or part of one of the UPSC associated research groups? Join us for the UPSC PhD and Postdoc Retreat on September 28-29 at Skeppsviks Herrgård (close to Sävar, about 30km outside of Umeå; http://www.skeppsvik.se/).
We will start the retreat on Wednesday morning, 28th of September, with a joint bus transport to Skeppsvik. The first session on that day will be focussed on UPSC Alumni. UPSC alumni working in different professions will share their experiences with us. The afternoon of the same day is reserved for getting to know each other with team building activities and also free time to mingle and for outdoor and indoor activities.
On the second day, Carolin Grabbe from the SLU Grants Office will discuss with us funding possibilities for young researchers and advice on grant writing. In the afternoon, we want to discuss with you what we can improve to make UPSC a creative, innovative and productive environment for you. This discussion was already started during the UPSC DAYS in Saxnäs in August and we would like to continue on that and also get feedback from those of you who could not join the meeting in Saxnäs. The retreat will end after this discussion session and we will jointly go back to Umeå by bus.
Read more: UPSC PhD and Postdoc Retreat 2022 on September 28-29
The lake Kultsjön in Saxnäs (Skogsfrun/CC BY-SA; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)
The meeting will take place on August 22-24 at Saxnäsgården in Saxnäs, South Lapland. We invite everyone working at UPSC or associated with UPSC to spend three days together to discuss how we can strengthen UPSC to be competitive in future.
Which are the future challenges and how can they be addressed? What is important for your personal career or group development? What type of support would you like to get? How to improve UPSC’s work environment? These and other questions will be addressed during the three days in the beautiful environment of Saxnäs in South Lapland.
Get involved and help us to create a vision for the next 20 years of UPSC!
We are currently working on the programme. Do you have any suggestions? Please feel free to contact Totte Niittylä, Stefan Jansson or/and Anne Honsel.
The registration to the UPSC Days 2022 is now closed!
For questions, please contact Anne Honsel (
Would you like to participate in the visit of the Wallenberg Wood Science Center summer school at UPSC?
All PhD students and Postdocs from UPSC are invited to participate in the one day visit of the summer school of the Wallenberg Wood Science Center (WWSC) at UPSC. The visit is scheduled for the 26th of August and will include several talks, activities and a poster session.
Read more: Visit of the Wallenberg Wood Science Center summer school
Do you like to visit the Viikki Plant Science Centre (ViSP) in Helsinki?
All PhD students and Postdocs from UPSC are invited to go to Helsinki and participate in a joint meeting between the Doctoral Programme in Plant Sciences (DPPS), ViSP and UPSC. The meeting will be on the 25th to the 27th of September and will include a poster session combined with short talks and a science fair on the Viikki campus.
Read more: PhD and Postdoc visit to the Viikki Plant Science Centre in Helsinki on September 25-27
What colours are hidden in the leaves of plants? Why are the interactions between plants and insects so important? What are microalgae and how can they be used? Prepare your own seed paper and isolate DNA from berries. We invite you to a day filled with different activities around plants and plant research. Pass by and get fascinated by the world of plants!
On the 18th of May, the Fascination of Plants Day is arranged for the fifth time in Umeå. It will take place this year in Kafé Fika at Väven. Plant scientists will present their research in short lectures, you can see the plants they are doing research on and you can also experiment yourself.
The Fascination of Plants Day is an international event. More than 500 scientific institutions, universities, botanical gardens in more than 50 countries will open their doors to visitors. The aim is to get as many people as possible fascinated by plants and plant research. Get an impression from the previous Fascination of Plants Day in 2017 here.
For information in Swedish, please have a look on the national homepage of the Fascination of Plants Day: www.fascinerandeväxtersdag.se
On April 28 1999, the application to form Umeå Plant Science Centre was formally filed to the universities. Now - 20 years later - UPSC is a leading research centre for experimental plant biology. We want to celebrate this with an anniversary party for past and current employees and others who have had connections to UPSC.
The symposium is free of charge but registration is required. If you would like to participate in the symposium and/or the anniversary party but missed the registration deadline, please contact Anne Honsel (
Illustration: Carolin Seyfferth
Welcome to the PhD and Postdoc Retreat 2018 in Skeppsvik!
We would like to invite you to the UPSC PhD and Postdoc Retreat 2018. It will take place on August 23-24 in Skeppsvik herrgård (close to Sävar, 30km outside of Umeå; http://www.skeppsvik.se/herrgarden/).
During the retreat, we will discuss our individual research projects in a relaxed atmosphere using creative presentation methods. We will have a problem solving and a community building session. The highlight will be an interactive workshop with an invited speaker.
Read more: Joint meeting with the PhD students from Helsinki University