Introduction

Representation matters. For young students from the Global South who want to start a career in science, systemic knowledge gaps and other barriers persist, making access to higher education in North America and Europe more difficult. Evolutionary Biology is not an exception. To help address this, we created an online, free, and inclusive Evolutionary Biology Crash Course and other affiliated services and opportunities to help prospective students achieve a better understanding of and access to the field.

Our mission is to increase our participant's chances of obtaining access to high level master's programmes, and an opportunity at a career as future evolutionary biologists. We envision a future where evolutionary biology as a field is more inclusive, representative, and accessible to all those who want to make their mark and better the world.

We have already held four editions of the crash course and considered them a huge success, with over 300 students successfully completing the program. In addition to a crash course, we also have an active mentorship program and a mini grant program.

Practicalities

Registration

The 2026 edition of EvoBio Crash Course will run in the summer. The course is completely free and fully held online. Stay tuned for more information coming soon!

Funding

The SMBE IDEA Task Force is funding our crash course as well as our other endeavours. The first edition of our crash course was made possible thanks to funding provided by the Equal Opportunities Initiative Fund of the European Society of Evolutionary Biology (ESEB). Moreover, we are kindly supported by the Erasmus Mundus Master in Evolutionary Biology (MEME).

If you are an institution or organization who likes what we do, and you wish to provide support in some way (be it financial, prizes for our academic competitions, logistical support, etc.) please reach out to us. We would love to hear from you!