PhD students are recruited to the institute directly by group leaders as well as through our institute-level recruitment and training programme, the FIMM-EMBL International PhD Training Programme in Molecular Medicine and Bioinformatics. Regardless of the path to FIMM, PhD students apply for the right to pursue a PhD with a faculty at the University of Helsinki, join a doctoral programme in the Doctoral School in Health Sciences (DSHealth), and apply for salary funding from a University-sponsored doctoral programme within DSHealth. The majority of FIMM PhD students are registered at a faculty at the University of Helsinki. Some FIMM PhD students and group leaders are also affiliated with Aalto University or are members of international training consortia such as Marie Curie Innovative Training Networks.
FIMM PhD students are guided by their research advisor, FIMM Doctoral Training Committee (DTC) and a thesis committee approved by their doctoral programme. Scientific and transferrable skills training is readily available within FIMM, DSealth and the doctoral programmes. Typically, seven to ten dissertations are completed and defended annually at the Institute.
The FIMM PhD Student and Postdoc Council supports the PhD students and postdoctoral researchers at FIMM. This institute-level council serves as a voice for the student and postdoc community of FIMM. Their activities include the FIMM Scientific Coffee Breaks, annual FIMM Poster Session, a Young Investigators collaboration to enhance inter-node activities in the Nordic Molecular Medicine Network (NMMN) EMBL Partnership, peer mentoring, and the FIMM THINK DIFFERENT Seminar Series.
Most FIMM PhD students are in programmes DPBM, ILS, DocPop and KLTO.