News from the PhD committee
This issue highlights two key initiatives at AGRO: a course for supervisors on strengthening PhD guidance and collaboration, and the launch of the 2026 PhD course programme — ten in-house courses designed to build strong scientific and professional foundations.
For the supervisors:
The AGRO PhD committee has again this year organized an intensive ½ day PhD supervisor course for both experienced and new PhD supervisors. For experienced supervisors this course can be regarded as an intensive brush-up course.
The course will be held November 26 from 8.30-12.00 in the Auditorium in AU Viborg. More than 60 have signed up for the course and we are serving morning bread and coffee.
Course description:
Supervising a PhD student means much more than overseeing a project. It’s about guiding and encouraging the development of independent researchers — helping them find their voice and make meaningful contributions to their field.
But how do we, as supervisors:
🔹 Work effectively as a team to support the student in navigating the many (and sometimes conflicting) expectations of the modern PhD?
🔹 Provide meaningful guidance on academic writing to help students become efficient and confident scientific writers?
🔹 Create a strong, inclusive research environment that fosters both progress and academic identity development?
The course invites you to reflect on these key questions. Through short presentations and collegial discussions, we’ll explore:
💬 Clarifying roles and relationships in the supervisor group – Why? What? And how?
📝 Effective guidance of academic writing – Tools and guidance techniques that can support the PhD students in becoming efficient scientific writers.
🏛️ Integrating the PhD student into the research environment – to foster academic identity development and boost scientific contribution.
For the students:
The PhD committee has just finalized the AGRO PhD course programme for 2026 and are proud to present the following 10 PhD courses:
- February 3-13: Biostatistics modelling for Ag. Science (5 ECTS)
Responsible: Franca Giannini-Kurina, Maarit Mäenpää, and Rene Gislum - April - June: Isotopes for nutrient, organic matter cycling and plant-microbial interaction studies – theory and applications (5 ECTS)
Responsible: Kirsten Lønne Enggrob, Leanne Peixoto, and Jim Rasmussen - May 18-22, 2026: Root Methods (5 ECTS)
Responsible: Eusun Han - June 8-19: Hands-on Liquid Chromatography–Mass spectrometry course in the analysis of small molecules (phytochemicals, contaminants, primary metabolites) (8 ECTS)
Responsible: Benjamin Fuchs - June 15-20: Merging Measurements and Modelling in Soil Physics (5ECTS)
Responsible: Trine Nørgaard & Lis Wollesen de Jonge - August 3-8: Electromagnetic Soil Sensors - Theory and Applications (5 ECTS)
Responsible: Triven Koganti & Mogens Greve - September 7-12 2026: Wetlands (5 ECTS)
Responsible: Shubiao Wu - October 26-30 2026. Assembly and functioning of crop microbiomes (5 ECTS)
Responsible: Mogens Nicolaisen - November 16-20: Nitrogen in agroecosystems: from microbial transformations to global budgets (5 ECTS)
Responsible: Diego Abalos - November: Agroecology and agri-food system transition (5 ECTS)
Responsible: Martin Thorsøe
The courses are ready for sign-up so please do so and enjoy that our colleagues will be doing there utmost to provide you with high-level PhD courses in house.
You can sign up here: https://agro.au.dk/en/education/phd-programme