The School of Biological Sciences has received one of the BBSRC Doctoral Landscape Awards announced by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to support our Cambridge Biosciences Doctoral Training Partnership PhD Programme.

The grant, worth more than £11 million, will be further supported by the University of Cambridge, with the aim to maximise the number of studentships available. Over the next 3 years, the School will be offering between 25 and 27 PhD studentships per year, aiming to recruit the next generation of bioscience researchers.

“We are absolutely delighted with the news and very grateful for the support from the BBSRC. This is an outstanding achievement and I want to thank the academics and support teams from across the School and beyond for their dedication in developing this excellent training programme. Building on previous successes, this funding will allow us to strengthen our commitment to foster innovative research in a nurturing and inclusive environment supporting the next generation of biosciences researchers.” – Professor Jon Simons, Acting Head of the School of Biological Sciences

The Cambridge Biosciences Doctoral Training Programme offers a broad training programme across the biosciences, where motivated and talented students from all backgrounds undertake multidisciplinary research projects based in the University’s Schools of Biological Sciences, Clinical Medicine, Physical Sciences and Technology, or in our Partner Institutes, the Babraham Institute, National Institute of Agricultural Botany and the Wellcome Sanger Institute. We are also collaborating with the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) and Kew Gardens, offering students a wider and diverse range of projects available and innovative research opportunities.

With a focus on widening participation in postgraduate education, the programme is participating in the Project ‘Close the Gap’, an initiative by Cambridge and Oxford Universities to examine graduate admissions processes. As part of this project, we are creating and trialling new fair selection methods for doctoral candidates. We also host the ‘Experience Postgrad Life Sciences’ initiative, which is an 8-week research internship designed to enhance inclusivity in postgraduate education at Cambridge.

An additional NERC Doctoral Landscape Award has been funded at the University of Cambridge, with a focus on environmental science, including projects based across the School of Biological Sciences.