Biological Sciences

Last modified: 24. October 2023

Mission of Doctoral School of Biological Sciences (DSBS)

The mission of the Doctoral School of Biological Sciences is to conduct, organize, manage and supervise scientific training (teaching and research), as well as the doctoral degree and habilitation process, in the basic and applied research areas of biology from the molecular to the supra-individual level.
The quality of doctoral training at the Doctoral School of Biological Sciences is primarily reflected in the scientific performance of its doctoral students and supervisors. Therefore, the Doctoral School of Biological Sciences publication requirements have been established according to the criteria of the internationally recognized standard for doctoral education in biology. Also, to ensure the quality of the school's operations, the habilitation process in the disciplinary areas of the Doctoral School of Biological Sciences follows the concept of the requirements of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
 
Doctoral programs of the Doctoral School of Biological Sciences
 
The DSBS is currently organized around the following four doctoral programs:
- Fundamentals of Agricultural Biotechnology (head of program: Prof. István Papp DSc)
- Microbiology (head of program: Prof. Katalin Posta DSc)
- Plant Ecology, Ecophysiology (head of program: Prof. Zoltán Nagy DSc)
- Zoology, Animal Ecology (head of program: Prof. Péter István Nagy DSc)

The research topics also indicate the current main training profile of the Doctoral School of Biological Sciences, which we intend to gradually broaden in the future.
Fundamentals of Agricultural Biotechnology:
Relationship between enzyme structure and function, regulation of proteolytic enzyme activity. Molecular genetics of nitrogen fixation. Applied developmental genetics. Gene regulation. Site-specific recombination. Genetic mapping and markers. Transgenic and genetically engineered organisms in agriculture, their environmental and health risks. Bioremediation. Bioenergy production from plant sources. Basics of biotechnological processes based on tissue culture and fermentation. Molecular biology of production and effects of bioactive compounds. Molecular mechanisms of stress responses. Postharvest biotechnology.
Microbiology:
Diversity of soil and gut microorganisms and their involvement in biotic and abiotic stress responses. Isolation and characterization of microorganism with ecological and practical importance. Environmental microbiology regarding climate change and antibiotic resistance. Genomic studies on microbial populations and isolated microorganism. Investigating the effects of organic and inorganic compounds on microorganisms and their communities.
Plant Ecology-Ecophysiology:
Vegetation dynamics, community organization, succession, degradation. Plant taxonomy, floristics, plant geography and botanical conservation. Production ecology of agricultural systems, coupling of carbon, water and N-cycles. Greenhouse-gas emission of agricultural systems. Global climate change and environmental problems, plant stress physiology, plant ecophysiology.
Zoology, Animal Ecology:
Zootaxonomy, systematics basics, faunistics and zoogeography. Taxonomy of invertebrate groups. Population ecology of animals, population dynamics. Population interactions. Synzoology with special emphasis on community organisation and biogeochemical cycles. Zoological-animal ecology of global environmental problems, agriculture, conservation, ecology and ecotoxicology.

Course of training
The doctoral school regulates the study obligations as follows:
The doctoral program consists of 8 semesters, during which 240 credits shall be completed.
Doctoral students in full-time training shall complete the first two years of the program by passing the courses approved by the school. Each student shall have accumulated a minimum of 90 credits by the time of the mid-term exam and a minimum of 240 credits by the end of the program and shall have passed the required examinations.
Normally 1 hour of work per week = 2 credits. An exception to this is the subject "Publication", where the credit value is shown in the publication points table.
Students may take the units announced in NEPTUN system.
 
There are three main sets of courses for doctoral students:
1. Type A (research) courses, which are compulsory for all doctoral students. Since the aim is to train researchers, the majority of the credits must be obtained by this unit.
2. Type B (study) courses: compulsory study courses. The Doctoral School of Biological Sciences does not prescribe such units due to the wide range of research.
3. Type C (study and teaching) courses: elective courses. Some of these units have to be taken by students (minimum 18 credits), as without them the required 240 credits cannot be obtained.
 
The courses have to be taken in agreement with the supervisor.
1. The course is assigned by the supervisor.
2. Not announced by the Doctoral School of Biological Sciences.
3. Type "C", units may be taken in the first four semesters. The PhD student may take PhD courses from other doctoral schools on the recommendation of his/her supervisor. Courses running in BSc and MSc training may be taken, but no credit may be awarded for their completion.

With the permission of the supervisor, doctoral students may also undertake teaching activities in addition to their studies and research. A maximum of 45 credits can be obtained for teaching over the 8 semesters.
A list of subjects is published as curriculum on the doktori.hu, while the ones that are announced in a given year are available to students in NEPTUN system.
Under the right conditions and subject to the relevant legislation, the school supports the participation of its doctoral students in training abroad or in study visits on a topic that is closely related to the researcher's work.
The doctoral student will take a complex examination at the end of the 4th semester, as specified in the University Doctoral Rules.
 
The topics of the complex examination of the doctoral programs:
Fundamentals of Agricultural Biotechnology:
-    Plant biotechnology
-    Plant molecular biology
Microbiology:
-    Soil and gut microbiology
-    Microbial stress responses
-    Genomic studies on microorganisms
-    Environmental microbiology
-    Microorganism with ecological and practical importance
-    Microorganisms regarding biotic and abiotic stress.
Plant Ecology-Ecophysiology:
-    Plant physiology
-    Plant ecology
Zoology, animal ecology:
-    Zoology
-    Animal ecology
In the case of an individual training program, the candidate’s eligibility for the award of a degree is decided by the Council of the Doctoral School on the basis of the candidate's scientific and academic record.
 
Publication requirements
The Doctoral School of Biological Sciences sets the following minimum publication requirements for the award of the degree:
At least three scientific journal articles relevant to the candidate's field of specialization are required for the award of the degree.
Two of the three articles shall be published in an international journal with impact factor registered by SCI. The candidate shall be first author in at least one of these two articles. The third journal article shall also be published in a peer-reviewed journal (but impact factor and first authorship are not required).
In the case of shared/split first authorship, the first author performance is divided by the number of first authors. Specifically, if a student appears in an article as a shared first author with another author, it will be accepted as a half first author IF article for him/her, i.e. he/she shall publish at least one more shared first author IF article to meet the minimum of one full first author requirement. It is understood that even in the case of more than two shared first authorships, at least enough shared first authors are expected to be published so that the sum of the partial first authorships will account for at least one full first author.
There are no specific requirements for conference posters and presentations, but students are expected to present their research results in international scientific conferences.

Thesis (doctoral dissertation) requirements
The doctoral candidate shall submit the dissertation within maximum three years of the mid-term examination after complying with the home defence and publications required by the doctoral school. The requirements of the thesis can be found in Annex 6. (Guildeline - The style and content requirements of the doctoral dissertation and thesis) of the Doctoral Rules of MATE.
There is also a possibility to submit a brief thesis (publication-based thesis type) as described in Section II, Paragraph 5, point b) of the University Doctoral Rules. This type of dissertation is a short summary of several scientific publications in the form of a thesis, including the original works (published scientific papers) in an annex. The submission of this type of dissertation shall in all cases be preceded by an approval procedure. The candidate shall submit to the Doctoral School Council a number and quality of articles (basic publications) meeting the following requirements, which will form the basis of the dissertation. Based on the publications submitted, the Doctoral School Council and the University Doctoral and Habilitation Council will approve the possibility of submitting a dissertation of thesis type.
The publication-based thesis type must be based on at least three or more scientific publications in English with impact factor or accepted for publication (in press) (core publications), in which the candidate is listed as first or last author in addition to one first-authored impact factor article. In addition to the three core publications, the publications accompanying the dissertation may be in other languages if they have been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
One of the three or more core publications may, where justified, be a submission to the journal, under peer review, but not yet accepted for publication. This is sufficient to submit the dissertation and start the doctoral process, but the dissertation can only be defended if the third basic publication is accepted for publication in a journal that meets the above requirements. The scientific publications included in the theses must be related to the subject of the doctoral thesis and there must be sufficient justification for grouping them around a research topic. The evaluation of a doctoral thesis in this format can only be carried out on the basis of the scientific publications related to the thesis.