Students are trained in general academic skills and in understanding and critically evaluating specialist scientific literature. They are equipped with the necessary practical skills to outline, plan and execute experiments. They will learn to critically assess recent developments in the field and design creative approaches to tackle new scientific questions via experimentation. They will be able to use state of the art technology in microbial biotechnology. They are trained to analyse scientific data, to formulate scientific conclusions on the basis of these data and to present research results orally and in writing.

A major part of the master training is actively taking part in a running research project Microbial Biotechnology Department at the Institute of Biology or at other departments of the Faculty of Science. There are also many possibilities for an additional research project at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) or for external projects at affiliated institutes abroad.