Maastricht University, Faculty of Science and Engineering
BSc Sustainable Bioscience
Maastricht, Netherlands
BSc
DURATION
3 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2026
TUITION FEES
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
Explore how bioscience can power a healthier planet. Study the future of food: how to grow, improve, and make it more nutritious. Think beyond traditional biology. With hands-on, interdisciplinary methods, you will learn to engineer sustainable solutions.
The right programme for you?
- Learn to use Earth's natural resources responsibly for a better world.
- Explore the power of plants and technology to make food sustainable.
- Design your study path in this small-scale, student-focused programme.
Your future
- You will be a multidisciplinary bioscientist, working with modern tech.
- Help deliver healthy, safe, and eco-friendly food to people everywhere.
- Create real change for a sustainable future for people and the planet.
Why is Sustainable Bioscience special?
Sustainable Bioscience uses science and technology to solve big real-world problems. You will learn to mix biology with tech, earth science, and social views to help tackle issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and food sustainability. It’s hands-on, collaborative, and focused on impact. You will learn to think in systems, work across disciplines, and explore cool careers like sustainable food design or restoring nature. This isn’t just about being a scientist; it is about becoming a changemaker who can connect the dots and help build a better future for people and planet.
Concentrations
The programme offers three concentrations, so you can focus on the area of Sustainable Bioscience that interests you most.
- Planetary Systems - Explore global issues like climate change and biodiversity loss and how they impact nature and human health. Study Earth as one connected system and learn how nature and society interact through eco, bio, and environmental science lenses.
- Agricultural Systems - Study plant biology, soil health, greenhouses, biotech, and sustainable food systems. Learn how crops grow in different environments and how science and technology can improve farming. This concentration links biology, climate, and innovation to build resilient agriculture.
- Food Systems - Learn how food shapes health, sustainability, and society. Through nutrition science, food tech, and consumer behaviour, you explore how to create safe, healthy, and sustainable food. This concentration connects biology with health and innovation in the food industry.
Research-Based Learning
In Sustainable Bioscience, you learn by doing. Working on small research projects, you build skills through real-life challenges. As you go, the challenges grow, and you get to explore, research, and create real solutions. It all leads up to your own final research project: the bachelor thesis.
Research-based learning encourages you to:
- Formulate questions with yet unknown answers.
- Make your own discoveries by studying new techniques and processes with a scientific attitude.
- Design solutions for the challenges in the transition towards sustainable agriculture.
Sustainable Bioscience offers a dynamic curriculum that empowers you with the knowledge, skills, and mindset to take on complex challenges from multiple perspectives. It’s designed to prepare you to think critically and creatively in tackling real-world problems.
Programme structure
The bachelor's programme is structured over six semesters. Each semester is divided into three parts: two 7-week periods and one 3-week period. During the two 7-week periods, you take courses and participate in skills training. In the final 3-week period, you work on a project where you apply what you've learnt from the courses and skills training.
Curriculum overview
Year 1, semester 1: Building your foundation
Build a solid foundation with courses about biological and earth systems, food, nutrition, and plant biology. You will gain laboratory skills, like in biology and biochemistry. The semester ends with a team-based project where you apply your skills to a real-world challenge.
Year 1, semester 2: Diving into behaviour, data, and ecology
Explore in depth the value of consumer behaviour, data analysis, and mathematics. Your skills training will include statistics, and in the field, you will discover landscape ecology. This semester will also end with a collaborative research project.
Year 2, semester 3 and 4: Choose your topics
During your second year, you tailor your curriculum by choosing courses and skill training from over 30 options. You will also start to think about the concentration you want to choose in year three and take a preparatory course. As in year one, you will end every semester with a collaborative research project.
Year 3, semester 5: Pick your concentration
In the third year, you built your personal profile by selecting one of the three concentrations: Planetary Systems, Agricultural Systems, or Food Systems. You end the semester with a grand challenge, a sustainable systems design.
Year 3, semester 6: Bachelor thesis research
You finish your bachelor's programme with an individual, practical project: the bachelor's thesis research. With this project, you will show what you have learnt over the past few years and that you are ready to graduate.
Since the bachelor’s programme is brand new, the courses and their titles might be subject to (slight) changes.
During the programme, you will learn through answering questions such as:
- How can we use natural resources within planetary boundaries to meet society’s needs?
- How can we use what we know about plants, nature, and the environment to grow food more sustainably?
- How can we make sure people around the world get healthy, safe food without harming the planet?
As a BSc in Sustainable Bioscience you will be highly valued in today’s job market because you graduate with a unique combination of deep scientific knowledge, interdisciplinary thinking, and real-world problem-solving skills.
You will stand out because:
- You understand how biology connects to climate, food, and health. You can solve complex problems (systems thinker).
- You are ready to tackle global challenges like biodiversity loss, food security, and public health (sustainability-minded).
- You have hands-on lab work, technology, data analysis, and research experience that make you job-ready from day one (skilled in science).
- You speak the language of science, tech, behaviour, and policy. You know how to work across these disciplines (interdisciplinary team player).
- You have intercultural experience and strong communication skills, prepared for the global job market (internationally orientated).
Jobs
No matter if you start your career after your bachelor’s, subsequent master’s programme or even PhD track, you want to know what kind of jobs you can apply for.
- Researcher at a university or research institute in biodiversity, nutrition and behaviour or plant biotechnology
- Biotechnologist at a plant breeding company
- Specialist in agricultural transitions at a consultancy firm
- Project Leader for sustainable development goals at non-governmental organisations (like a nature conservation organisation)
- Science Communicator
- Policy Officer at a government ministry
- Lifestyle Advisor in Mental Health Care
- Food Product Developer at a company