Biocenter Oulu Doctoral Programme (BCO-DP) was first established as the Biocenter Oulu Graduate School in 1995 at the University of Oulu and has continuously been ranked high by external evaluators. It is one of the largest and oldest doctoral programmes in the field of bioscience and biomedicine in Finland. From the 1st August 2011, BCO-DP has been operating as one of the doctoral programmes of the University of Oulu Graduate School, UniOGS. This means that all the BCO-DP students are registered in the UniOGS.

BCO-DP gives postgraduate education in cell and molecular biology, developmental biology, molecular medicine, molecular genetics, population genetics, structural biology, bioinformatics, biobusiness and bioethics. BCO-DP organises PhD training courses and events, runs thesis committees, and gives travel grants to the registered BCO-DP students for visits in foreign and Finnish laboratories and for participation in courses in Finland and abroad. All education is given in English and is open for all the researchers at the University of Oulu.

All the Ph.D. students affiliated with any of the BCO research projects may apply and be registered to the Biocenter Oulu Doctoral Programme (BCO-DP). That makes the total number of current registered BCO-DP students to approximately 120.