Founded in 1965 as Sweden’s fifth university, Umeå University is a comprehensive research university with a strong international orientation. With more than 30,000 students and more than 2,000 teachers and researchers from all over the world, we are alive with enthusiasm, creativity and fresh ideas. The university is located in the northern Sweden city of Umeå. Umeå University is renowned for its comprehensive educational approach and creative learning environments, including its large ‘American style’ main campus and contemporary Arts Campus by the riverside. The university is characterised by its openness and approachability. International students have been surveyed as the most satisfied in Sweden for four consecutive years. Many of our more than 2,000 researchers and teachers are among the elite in Sweden and throughout the world. Designated environments of strong research include: Ecosystem changes, global health, infection biology, plant and forest biotechnology, solar fuels and welfare studies. The groundbreaking discovery of the CRISPR-Cas9 mechanism in bacteria, which became a gene editing tool now used in research labs worldwide, began in a laboratory here.