UiB sends two biotechnology PhD students for industry internships through Digital Life Norway
This year, Centre for Digital Life Norway received 35 applications from around the country for its three-month PhD internship program. From UiB the two PhD students Parveen Gartan and Belén Garcia Pascual were selected for the Digital Life Norway PhD internship program.
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Internship placements for outstanding PhD candidates
This year, Centre for Digital Life Norway received 35 applications from around the country for its three-month PhD internship program. The students selected for the internship all showed a high level of motivation to explore opportunities outside the academic “bubble.”
The goals of the internship program include strengthening links between higher education institutions and non-academic organizations across biotechnology sectors, including health, marine, industrial biotech, and innovation. Students are given the opportunity to receive training that is relevant to the professional world and working life.
“It is highly gratifying that two PhD candidates from UiB have been accepted into Digital Life Norway's Internship program. This is a prestigious program, and I want to congratulate the two candidates and their respective research environments. Through the internship program, DLN facilitates valuable industry experience for talented young researchers, providing them with unique work experience and insights into the future job market. At the same time, companies greatly benefit from the candidates' research expertise. This is a highly beneficial program for both academia and industry,” says Marit Bakke, Vice Dean of Research, Faculty of Medicine at UiB and board member in Centre for Digital Life Norway.
The program has been steadily expanding its network of host organizations internationally. This year, interns will head to Denmark, Sweden, and Slovenia, in addition to locations around Norway.
Here are the two PhD students from UiB selected for the Digital Life Norway PhD internship program in 2023:
- Parveen Gartan (Department of Chemistry) will conduct the internship at AstraZeneca with the project “Breaking it down: Molecular Fragmentation-Based Calculation of Absolute Binding Free Energies.”
- Belén García Pascual (Department of Mathematics) will join DNV with the project: Using large language models: Tabular data generation
Digital Life Norway PhD internship program
“The industry internship program presents a remarkable chance for aspiring researchers to venture into career avenues beyond academia,” said Rosalie Zwiggelaar, Senior adviser for training and career development in DLN and coordinator of the DLN Research School. “The experience acquired by these doctoral candidates is highly valued, and a number of past participants have transitioned into successful roles within the industry.”
This is the fourth round of the internship program, which has so far given 24 PhD students the opportunity to explore biotechnology outside the academic setting.
PhD candidates through the Digital Life Norway PhD internship program have previously completed internships at AstraZeneca, ClexBio, Seaweed Solutions, Amicoat, IDL Biotech, STIM, Vectron Biosolutions, Xellia, GlucoSet, Theracule, Jotun, BioMar, MycoTeam, ArcticZymes AS, BioInnovation Institute Fonden, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, GreinDX, Morefish and others. This year’s interns also include PhD students from UiB, OUS, and UiT.
Selected students’ scientific backgrounds range from microbiology, molecular biology, neuroscience, medical imaging, aquaculture and food science, to mathematics, statistics, molecular modelling, and more.
NTNU Biotechnology and NORBIS Research School are also sponsors of this year’s Digital Life Norway PhD internship program.
About The Centre for Digital Life Norway
Centre for Digital Life Norway (DLN) is a national centre for biotechnology research, education and innovation. The centre facilitates transdisciplinary collaboration across institutions, fields of research and the research projects in the centre. The centre is a collaborative project between the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), the University of Oslo (UiO), the University of Bergen (UiB), the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Oslo University Hospital (OUS), SINTEF and UiT The Arctic University of Norway. The centre is run by a competence hub and includes a research school and research projects. The competence hub is funded by the Research Council of Norway, and the second funding period DLN 2.0 started in February 2021.
For more information, please contact
Media: Christoffer Hals
Industry: Elisabeth Hyldbakk
PhD students: Rosalie Zwiggelaa
