education
The training programs of the Student Life Office to support doctoral students of the Institut Pasteur
The Doctoral Student Office, under the aegis of the Department of Education, accompanies PhD students from the Institut Pasteur campuses throughout their theses. It serves as a reference point for professional, administrative and integration issues, while helping to optimize training specifically aimed at young researchers.
The unit is organised around four complementary components:
the Academic Support Office for PhD Students, in charge of administrative matters,
the International Doctoral Programmes Office, notably dedicated to the Pasteur-Paris University (PPU) programme,
the Tutoring Office for PhD Students, which supports doctoral students throughout their journey,
the Student Life Office, supports doctoral students in their integration and daily life. It manages, in addition to accommodation and Master’s and student mobility programs, the provision of doctoral training courses, in conjunction with several campus entities.
The Student Life Office, at the heart of the training program for young researchers at the Institut Pasteur Among these components, the Student Life Office plays a central role. Coordinated by Stefaniia Ivashchenko. Its action in connection with training is based on three areas: centralizing mandatory and optional courses and workshops, directing doctoral students to the right contacts, and contributing to the issuance of valuable certificates of attendance at doctoral schools. These training opportunities cover topics that have become essential in the life sciences, such as artificial intelligence, bioinformatics, and open science. They enable PhD students to strengthen their knowledge, gain autonomy and adopt essential research practices from the very start of their thesis. The Student Life Office communicates and co-organizes training sessions for PhD students in collaboration with the HR Skills and Training Department (ethics and integrity, language training, the StartUp Department (DARRI), etc. | ||
Artificial intelligence applied to life sciences
The Artificial intelligence applied to life sciences programme is part of the Pasteur 2030 strategic plan and introduces both the theoretical foundations of AI and its applications in biology, from genomics to image analysis, including neuroscience and structural biology.
Ernest Mordret, researcher in the Molecular Diversity of Microbes five-year group, who studies the evolution of bacterial genomes using AI, Massimiliano Bonomi, head of the Computational Structural Biology five-year unit, and Laura Cantini, head of the Machine Learning for Integrative Genomics five-year group. Together, they remind us that AI has become a major tool for biology and that PhD students need to learn how to integrate it thoughtfully into their work.
Watch a short video gives the floor to three of the program’s directors
Maria Colonna, a first-year PhD student at the Institut Pasteur, highlights the value of this training in helping her better understand the models she already uses in her thesis: “It is useful to understand the mathematics behind the models and what happens when we use tools like ChatGPT. It also allows us to see how this same structure can be applied to biological sequences, such as proteins or DNA, as well as protein structures. In my case, the training was very constructive, because I work with large language models. It was therefore very valuable to learn more about how they work, what can be done with them, and how to protect our intellectual property. It is a good thing to have this from the first year of the PhD, to know what possibilities are available to us and to understand what is happening inside the black box.”
Introduction to Open Science
The Introduction to Open Science training helps participants better understand a scientific movement that is rapidly evolving. It raises awareness of the principles, values and tools of open science, within a logic of sharing and opening up knowledge.
Rania Sabo, an assistant program specialist at UNESCO and a participant in this training, recalls that open science is "an inclusive set of multiple processes and movements that converge to democratize the entire scientific research process." She also encourages all of your young researchers to start by consulting the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science in order to understand its foundations and scope, so that they can integrate it from the beginning of their careers.
This program includes a mandatory core curriculum, with two sessions per year and automatic registration for first-year doctoral students, as well as a practical workshop “Open Science: what’s in it for me?” and an overview of the resources available on campus provided by the CeRIS team. It is complemented by CeRIS training sessions, resources from the HR Skills and Training Unit, and several external tools such as OpenPlato the online training platform dedicated to Open Science and the Open Science MOOC.
Bioinformatics and Data Science
The Bioinformatics and Data Science programme complements this training offer with a foundation in bioinformatics, biostatistics, data management and image analysis. Designed for Institut Pasteur PhD students, it enables them to acquire or revisit the fundamental concepts in these areas through a combined theoretical and practical approach.
The programme is organised into several modules, including a common core, a biostatistics component, a bioinformatics component and an image analysis component. Depending on their background, PhD students are encouraged to take the data management, biostatistics and introductory bioinformatics modules, and then complete their pathway with more specialised modules.
Contacts
PhD Training Hub: phdtraining@pasteur.fr