As part of our regular blog series, PhD student Marine Folgoas reflects on the first year of her PhD and the important role training has played in developing her skills as a researcher.
I’m now in the second year of my PhD in fungal genomics here at the Earlham Institute. My PhD project - funded by the John Innes Foundation - focuses on understanding the infection spread, population structure, and biocontrol of wheat take-all disease, caused by the root fungus Gaeumannomyces tritici.
In January 2026, I had the opportunity to participate in the Workshop on Genomics organised by Evomics in Český Krumlov, Czechia. This intensive workshop covered essential methods in modern genomics, including sequencing data analysis, genome assembly, annotation and alignment, bringing together researchers from around the world.
This workshop was both challenging and stimulating. The fast pace enabled me to expand my knowledge quickly and gain practical experience with tools (software, scripts etc) that I could use in my own project.
Beyond the technical skills, the exchanges with other attendees and the instructors were highly enriching, and allowed me to make new connections whilst expanding my understanding of the field.
The first year of a PhD is a good moment to consolidate our knowledge and learn lots of new things, while launching our research project. This should then give us all the tools and skills we need to carry out our research successfully in following years.
I think it’s impossible to know everything before you start a PhD. But, that's also what makes it so interesting: we are making progress with our project, but above all we are learning a great deal through training and our research.
At the beginning of my thesis
Before starting my PhD, I already had laboratory skills (molecular biology, genetics, etc) thanks to my studies at the Polytech Clermont engineering school in France. Thanks to my two internships, at QGG, Aarhus University, Denmark, and Limagrain, France, I acquired strong skills in statistics and bioinformatics (R, Python). These skills gave me a solid foundation for my initial research.
While reading papers is a good starting point, nothing replaces hands-on training to truly understand and apply these methods to your own research, which is what this workshop in the Czechia provided.
Identifying the gaps
As my PhD project was quite broad and multidisciplinary, I quickly realised that it required skills that I had not yet had the opportunity to fully develop. For example, I had never done any fieldwork or conducted laboratory experiments involving plants in plots or soil samples.
Similarly, certain aspects of genomics, such as genome assembly, alignment, and RNA-seq analysis, were still relatively new to me, as my degrees in France had focused more generally on biological engineering.
I had already carried out statistical analyses before, but never population genomics, which constitutes an entire chapter of my thesis. While reading papers is a good starting point, nothing replaces hands-on training to truly understand and apply these methods to your own research, which is what this workshop in the Czechia provided.
Depending on the project and degrees obtained, the skills required during a PhD can vary considerably. The most important thing is to be able to identify them, early, through conversations with your supervisors, colleagues in your group, and other PhD students in your organisation.
But technical skills are not the only ones to develop during a PhD. Knowing how to discuss science, present your results and exchange ideas with other researchers is just as essential. These skills can be acquired through training, but also simply by practising.
For example, I had the opportunity to present my project in different contexts during the first year: within my research group, to the Plant Genomics group at EI, at a student symposium, and to the public at the Microbe Zoo during the Norwich Science Festival.
From general to specific skills
At the beginning of your thesis, you arrive with a general set of skills. But as the months go by, your needs become clearer: you then need to identify more specialised training courses that are directly related to your project. It is this transition from the general to the specific that really structures your progress in the first year.
From machine learning courses at Earlham Institute, to field training at Rothamsted Research, the summer school in Bologna and the genomics workshop in the Czechia, each experience has helped prepare me for the challenges of my project.
In house: through your PhD programme or project partner
It’s always worth starting by exploring what your research institute has to offer (often free!). That’s how I was able to attend a three-day training course in November 2025 organised by Earlham Institute's Advanced Training team on machine learning and deep learning - a rapidly expanding field.
Partner institutes are also an excellent source of training. In my case, as my project was in collaboration with Rothamsted Research, I undertook a week-long training course in April 2025 focusing on field sampling, as well as the laboratory handling of root and soil samples, skills that are essential to my research project.
Discussing with research colleagues
Networking with colleagues (PhDs, postdocs, researchers or PIs) is a valuable source of opportunities. Their advice and connections can lead to targeted training opportunities that are difficult to find on your own. This is how I came to attend a week-long summer school in June 2025 at the University of Bologna, in Italy, specialising in plant pathogenomics, a niche field particularly relevant to my research project. It was also thanks to Dr Rowena Hill, a postdoctoral researcher in my group, that I discovered, and was then able to join, the Workshop on Genomics in the Czechia, mentioned earlier in this article.
The cost can be a barrier to accessing certain training programmes, particularly abroad. Fortunately, there are several options available.
Within a research institute or organisation, additional funding resources on top of department budgets may be available to help fund travel. In my case, to support my training at Rothamsted Research the Business Development and Impact Team at Earlham Institute were able to support me through a KEC (Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation) Strategic Placement Grant. Grants like these help further develop partnerships and collaborations that will continue to be important during my PhD and research career.
There are also numerous external opportunities for funding from societies, charities and other grants. To help fund my trip to Czechia, I contacted the Centre for Microbial Interactions (CMI), based at Norwich Research Park. The CMI supports and promotes the microbiology research network within Norwich Research Park.
Their flexible funding programme awarded me £500 to cover part of the costs.
I also applied for the Genetics Society Training Grant, which supports PhD students and early-career researchers to attend training courses and conferences, they awarded me £1,200 to attend the workshop, and without both of these grant opportunities this training abroad would not have been possible.
Applying for these grants was also a learning experience: it required me to write a concise summary of my PhD project, to justify the relevance of the training, and in some cases to provide a detailed budget. All these skills will be useful for a career in research.
I would like to extend my warmest thanks to both CMI and the Genetic Society organisations, whose support enabled me to undertake this highly enriching training in the Czechia!
Training courses play a vital role during the first year of a PhD; they provide the tools needed to make steady progress on your research project. From machine learning courses at Earlham Institute, to field training at Rothamsted Research, the summer school in Bologna and the genomics workshop in the Czechia, each experience has helped prepare me for the challenges of my project.
If I had to give just one piece of advice to a PhD student starting out: draw up a list of the key skills required for your project right from the start, and identify which ones you’ve already mastered and which ones you still need to develop. It’s a simple starting point, but a very effective one!
Tip: Start looking for funding sources well in advance of your application, as the approval process can take a long time.
