Overview The National Institutes of Health / Karolinska Institutet Doctoral Program in Neuroscience combines the substantial resources of two leading institutions to collaboratively train future leaders in neuroscience research. The Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden is among the very best neuroscience research centers in Europe. The NIH is the largest and best-equipped biomedical research facility in the world, and 20% of its faculty describe themselves as neuroscientists. Students perform their thesis research as a collaborative project between the two laboratories, and under the joint supervision of a mentor from each institution. We strongly believe that future leaders in biomedical research should have multi-disciplinary training, learn to work in research teams, and have strong international exposure. Via this collaborative doctoral program between two institutions renowned for neuroscience research, we are confident that our PhD students are being trained to become the scientific leaders of the 21st century. Two Mentors. Students have two mentors (one from the NIH and one from the KI); thesis research is performed as a collaboration between these two mentors. Multidisciplinary. Although the two mentors may use the same technologies to study the same scientific target, students are encouraged to obtain multidisciplinary training – e.g., molecular biology of the target with one mentor and behavioral studies of the same target with the other. Length of PhD. Students are expected to defend their thesis within 4 to 5 years, which is much less than the average of almost 8 years for a biomedical PhD in the USA. Most (typically > 80%) of the student’s tenure is spent directly in research: experimental design, data acquisition and analysis, and writing papers. Training at Two Institutions. A major advantage of this program is that students are trained at two world-renowned institutions, which have both overlapping and specialized areas of research. Students must spend a minimum of one to two weeks each year at each institution, so as to become better acquainted with the techniques and staff of the two laboratories. Although research time in the two laboratories may be flexibly distributed, we recommend that most research be planned for relatively long blocks (12 – 24 months) of time. For example, a useful pattern for many students recruited via NIH would be to spend the first half of the PhD program at the NIH, and the last half at the KI (with yearly visits of 1 to 2 weeks at the corresponding institution). Didactic Training. Students are required to complete classroom training in both core courses (e.g., ethics, statistics, scientific writing, etc) and elective courses. These courses can be taken at KI, NIH, or elsewhere. This required didactic training is much less than that required by most typical PhD programs in the USA and is often taken over the entire course of the PhD. Classes at KI often entail one to two weeks of full-time work. Classes at NIH are often given in the early evening, once a week, for one to two semesters. Fully Funded. All students receive a stipend, health insurance coverage, and up to $3,000 per annum for travel. PhD education in Sweden is part of the public school system and is provided without tuition.	Program Overview PhD Program Program Funding How to Apply Two Routes of Entry NIH/KI Mentors FAQs and Helpful Links Student Publications Graduate Theses
Site Map Staff Directories Contact NIMH DIRP Employment Opportunities Privacy Notice Policies FOIA Accessibility
The KI-NIH Doctoral Program in Neuroscience is managed and supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.