Plant Biology

Training and educating the next generation of plant biologists

How do plants develop and respond to temperature and water? How can we make plants resistant to pathogens, so we don鈥檛 have to use pesticides anymore?  Or how can we make sure we still have food in 30 years? Dive into these questions within the track 鈥淧lant Biology鈥.

The Plant Biology track is designed for students with an interest in the molecular biology of plants. One of the strengths of the track Plant Biology is that knowledge of molecular and cellular mechanisms is placed in an ecological or agricultural context. In many projects, we explore natural diversity to understand the genetics underpinning important for plant resilience and crop yields for the future. By using this knowledge we can address pressing societal challenges such as food security, biodiversity decline and the transition to sustainable agriculture.

This programme gives students the possibilities to explore other sides of plant biology, like science communication, data science or education during the minor electives or internship. The possibilities to explore what you enjoy and what you would like to do in your future are endless within this programme!

Student Femke explains why she chose the Plant Biology Track in the Environmental Biology programme.

Admission and Application

The Plant Biology track is part of the two-year Research Master's in Environmental Biology. To enroll into the Plant Biology track you have to apply for the Master's in Enviromental Biology.

Read more here

Plant Science Research and Education at Utrecht University

The Plant Science Research is embedded in the Institute of Environmental Biology in the Department of Biology of the Faculty of Science at Utrecht University. During the Plant Biology track you will be closely working with our researchers. Their mission is to discover novel molecular, genetic and physiological mechanisms of how plants interact with and adapt to their biotic and abiotic environments. By using this knowledge we can address pressing societal challenges such as food security. Our plant biologists will take you along in their research, place it in societal context and show the future impact. This way, you get a good idea of the research process and working in a lab. Your major research project will take place in one of our research groups.

Get to know our research groups:  

NPEC: The Netherlands Plant Eco-phenotyping Centre

NPEC facility

facilitates state-of-the-art measurement of plant phenotypes to support research on genotype-phenotype associations. Establishing these associations is critical for the development of novel climate-proof crops and cropping systems. These novel crops and systems are necessary to secure our future high-quality food production, and improve the ecological sustainability of food production. Plant phenotyping is the game changer that will vastly contribute to make food security possible and sustainable agriculture available. NPEC offers high throughput and high resolution data from plants both above and below ground. Automatic phenotyping will allow for a dramatic increase in the speed of plant breeding, allowing for a very short time to market for novel crop varieties. The centre will enable you to make accurate, high-throughput studies of plant performance possible in relation to relevant biotic (microbiome interactions, competition, disease) and abiotic (light quantity and quality, nutrients, temperature, moisture, soil pH and atmospheric CO2 level) factors across a range of scales.

NPEC is a joint initiative of Wageningen University & Research and Utrecht University. This integrated, national research facility is housed by Wageningen University & Research and Utrecht University and is co-funded by The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).