Call for DDLS Academic PhD Projects 2026

SciLifeLab invites researchers in Sweden to submit academic PhD project proposals for the 2026 Data-Driven Life Science Research School call.

Who Can Apply

To be eligible, applicants must:

• Researchers in Sweden who can act as a main supervisor or co-supervisor for a PhD student.
• The main supervisor must have secured employment at a Swedish university during the proposed PhD period.
• The same applicant may be the main supervisor in only one academic project application and one industrial project application, while serving as co-supervisor on applications by other principal investigators.
• Researchers with ongoing or awarded DDLS funding for a DDLS PhD student from the 2023, 2024 or 2025 academic project calls are not eligible to apply as main supervisors.
• DDLS fellows who started during 2022 may apply; other DDLS fellows may apply as co-supervisors for academic and industrial projects but not as main supervisors for academic projects.

Fields of Study

Data-driven life science, including cell and molecular biology; evolution and biodiversity; precision medicine and diagnostics; and epidemiology and biology of infection.

Value

• Up to 25 academic PhD projects will be selected.
• Each project receives 3.25 MSEK in total KAW funding.
• The funding supports either a four-year full-time PhD position or a five-year position at 80% effort.
• A maximum of 165,000 SEK of the total funding may be allocated to running costs during the defined project period.
• A maximum of 20% of the KAW grant may be allocated to premises and overhead costs, with maximum coverage of 52.5% for payroll overhead on personnel costs.
• PhD students become members of the DDLS Research School and can participate in national courses, networking events, scientific visits and other training activities.

Selection Criteria

Applicants are assessed on:

• Scientific quality of the project.
• Merits of the applicant and co-applicants in research and training.
• Fit and contribution of the project to the DDLS program.
• Quality of the supervision plan and training environment.
• Inclusiveness and diversity will also be considered.
• Projects must have a novel and original data-driven perspective, combine life science and data science, align with a DDLS strategic area and provide an excellent training environment.
• The project must include a clear data science component, such as advanced data analysis, statistics, machine learning, method development or novel application of data science methods to life science problems.

Required Documents

• Research project proposal, maximum four pages including references, using the application-system template.
• Description of the research and training environment, maximum one page, using the application-system template.
• CV of the main supervisor, maximum two pages, plus one page listing the top 10 publications.
• CV of each co-supervisor, if applicable, maximum one page per co-supervisor.
• Letter of commitment from the head of department or faculty, using the application-system template.
• The research proposal must describe the research field, central questions, aims, materials and methods, data analysis and computational approaches, supervisor contributions, additional costs and their funding sources, and the project’s contribution to DDLS goals.
• The proposal must include a separate subsection titled “Description of Data-driven Methods Used and/or Developed within the Project”.
• The research and training environment description must cover the local environment, its links to DDLS goals, the supervision collaboration and training plan, and any relevant local graduate school or doctoral program.

How to Apply

Eligible researchers should submit a project proposal through the application system using the required templates and page limits. Applications must be submitted by 16 November 2026 at 23:59 CET. Questions may be sent to ddls-rs@scilifelab.se.

Application Deadline

16 November 2026 at 23:59 CET.

Apply via the official page: https://www.scilifelab.se/data-driven/ddls-research-school/call-for-ddls-academic-phd-projects-2026

See more PhD Position opportunities on CoachScholar.