The 15th symposium on Applied Biological Sciences is jointly organized by Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and Universiteit Gent. The symposium encourages PhD students to meet and exchange ideas across departments and across universities. The floor is open to all researchers preparing a PhD in a field related to applied biological sciences. Furthermore it is an opportunity for young researchers to submit their work to the critical comments and questions from an attentive audience, and thus to improve the quality of their own research. For each observer it offers the possibility to participate in a symposium by evaluating and commenting on the work of others. Finally the symposium presents a snapshot of the broad variety of research, conducted at both faculties, to anyone interested.