Entrance qualifications
Applicants may come from Universities or from Engineering schools.
- After a first year of master (M1), or an equivalent qualification (4 years of successful higher education after finishing high-school), in either Biology, applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Chemistry or Physics.
- Bi-disciplinary cursus including biology is favoured, but highly-achieving and motivated students in any of the cited disciplines can apply.
- Excellent English proficiency is mandatory (no official document proving it is required).
| former mSSB students main discipline studied before mSSB |  |
| former mSSB students nationality |  |
Applications
The applications for 2025-2026 academic are open from January 15th to July 4th 2025.
All students must apply online using the University Paris-Saclay master program application form (called Inception).
For mSSB, choose:
- Diploma selected: Master
- Program “Mention”: Life sciences and health / Biologie-Santé
- Diploma level: M2
- Program: Systems & synthetic biology (SSB)
Deadline: July 4th 2025
Several admission jurys will be organized every 6 to 8 weeks.
Required documents:
- CV in English or French, including diplomas, dates of obtention, class ranks, marks, languages spoken
- Motivation letter in English or French (one or two pages)
- University transcripts of all years of higher education (after the High School Diploma), and explanations on the grading system of their university.
- One or two recommendation letters
- For foreign candidates: the names and adresses of two referees that will provide online recommendations (during the application precess, you need to press “Contact referees” button on the respective page).
- VAP file only for students that do not have completed a first year of master (M1), or an equivalent qualification (4 years of successful higher education after finishing high-school)
For further information about the procedure, visit the University Paris-Saclay’s page dedicated to this subject.
Students whose application has been accepted will receive an official admission e-mail from the University Paris-Saclay. A formal acceptance letter is provided upon request at contact (at) mssb (dot) fr.
In addition to the University Paris-Saclay application, students from the countries listed below* must absolutely apply also through the CEF procedure (Centre for Studies in France). For this, once an admission approval is received from the University Paris-Saclay, the candidate must create an account on the French portal “Etudes en France” and complete their files from the tab “Je suis accepté” or “I am accepted”, by following the procedure indicated here.
* Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Georgia, Ghana, Guinea, Haiti, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Ivory Coast, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Qatar, Republic of Congo, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America, Vietnam according to the list of nationalities concerned by the CEF procedure available at: https://pastel.diplomatie.gouv.fr/etudesenfrance.