The University of East Anglia and its Norwich Research Park partners have been awarded £4 million to fund 39 new PhD studentships.
Announced today by the minister for universities and science David Willetts, the Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) award by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) will be coordinated by the John Innes Centre in partnership with UEA, the Sainsbury Laboratory, the Institute of Food Research and the Genome Analysis Centre.
The scope of the award will be substantially enhanced by a commitment over the next three years of an additional £2 million from the partner institutions and the Norwich Research Park Board, thereby supporting a total of 59 studentships.
The Norwich DTP is one of 14 across the UK, totalling £67M of new investment in postgraduate training and development in the biosciences.
Prof David Richardson, pro-vice-chancellor for research, enterprise and engagement at the University of East Anglia, said: “The award of this doctoral training programme is tremendous news and highlights the strength and critical mass of bioscience research on Norwich Research Park. This joint award not only recognises the NRP as a centre of excellence for bioscience research training, but highlights the truly integrated nature of the collaborations between the University of East Anglia, the John Innes Centre, the Institute of Food Research and the Genome Analysis Centre.”
John Innes Centre director, Prof Dale Sanders, said: “JIC is delighted to be leading the consortium of NRP Institutions that have been awarded a Doctoral Training Partnership. The award is a strong endorsement of the world-leading research in Food Security and Industrial Biotechnology not only at JIC but across the NRP. This new PhD studentship programme provides an exciting opportunity for research training and development in a framework of inter-institutional and inter-disciplinary collaboration.”
Welcoming the announcement, Prof Andrew Stewart Coats, CEO of Norwich Research Park, said: “This new investment is a further recognition of the development of NRP into a successful National Research Campus.”
Prof Richard Mithen, chair of graduate studies at the Institute of Food Research, said: “Postgraduate training plays an integral part in IFR's culture of encouraging both learning and knowledge transfer. IFR is very much looking forward to being able to expand the cohort of next-generation scientists equipped with the cross-disciplinary skills that are needed to tackle the rising challenges in food and health.”
Speaking at the University of Reading, Davd Willetts said: “This £67 million investment in postgraduate training is excellent news for students, research organisations, industry and the UK as a whole. The brightest and best students will be finding solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing us all, from food security through to renewable energy.
“The partnership approach means that many institutions are combining their strengths to provide students with improved training and relevant work experience. This will better equip them for future careers, be it in research, industry, or elsewhere.”
Over the next three years, the DTPs will support 660 four-year PhD students, and in addition the iCASE studentships will support 70 postgraduates from this Autumn. Both programmes will provide highly skilled scientists for academia, policy and industry and support the BBSRC mission to further scientific knowledge for economic growth, wealth and job creation - improving the quality of life in the UK and beyond.
The DTPs represent a new, more strategic approach from BBSRC to deliver highly skilled scientists for the UK research base. Taken as a whole, the DTP programme will deliver scientists with the training to meet major social and economic challenges in food security, sustainable bioenergy and renewable materials and improving lifelong health and wellbeing, as well as supporting those undertaking research in core underpinning bioscience.
An innovative and integral element of the programme, built in to enhance the employability of the DTP students, is the requirement for them to undertake a three- month professional internship outside of the lab to widen their experience of the areas of work in which they can apply their PhD skills and training. Destinations for these internships will include policymaking, media, teaching and industry.
BBSRC will be working closely with each DTP to support the delivery of excellent training and facilitate the development of a cohort of highly skilled BBSRC early career scientists. To provide greater support for the research training costs of each student ,and to recognise rising research inflation, BBSRC will provide funding of £5,000 per student, per year – up from a minimum of £1000 per year.
Dr Celia Caulcott, BBSRC Director of Innovation and Skills said: “We believe that this approach is a great way of doing things, enabling us to support the very best students working in the most important areas from food security through to crucial underpinning bioscience.
DTPs are all about training researchers to be the best they can be. By doing this we can make real inroads into answering global conundrums which will ultimately have a massive impact on the UK economy and further afield.”
The DTP funding allows institutions to recruit the best students and secure additional funding from other sources, such as industry or charities to increase the impact of public investment. Some of the research organisations, including the University of Reading, are matching the BBSRC investment from their own budgets to increase the number of PhD students they will train under the programme.
The DTPs have been awarded by BBSRC following a competitive process including assessment by BBSRC’s independent Training Awards Committee. Each student in a DTP will have the benefit of working in an excellent research environment but the awarding criteria also focused on the ability of each partnership to provide the best possible training programme.
The scope of the award will be substantially enhanced by a commitment over the next three years of an additional £2 million from the partner institutions and the Norwich Research Park Board, thereby supporting a total of 59 studentships.
The Norwich DTP is one of 14 across the UK, totalling £67M of new investment in postgraduate training and development in the biosciences.
Prof David Richardson, pro-vice-chancellor for research, enterprise and engagement at the University of East Anglia, said: “The award of this doctoral training programme is tremendous news and highlights the strength and critical mass of bioscience research on Norwich Research Park. This joint award not only recognises the NRP as a centre of excellence for bioscience research training, but highlights the truly integrated nature of the collaborations between the University of East Anglia, the John Innes Centre, the Institute of Food Research and the Genome Analysis Centre.”
John Innes Centre director, Prof Dale Sanders, said: “JIC is delighted to be leading the consortium of NRP Institutions that have been awarded a Doctoral Training Partnership. The award is a strong endorsement of the world-leading research in Food Security and Industrial Biotechnology not only at JIC but across the NRP. This new PhD studentship programme provides an exciting opportunity for research training and development in a framework of inter-institutional and inter-disciplinary collaboration.”
Welcoming the announcement, Prof Andrew Stewart Coats, CEO of Norwich Research Park, said: “This new investment is a further recognition of the development of NRP into a successful National Research Campus.”
Prof Richard Mithen, chair of graduate studies at the Institute of Food Research, said: “Postgraduate training plays an integral part in IFR's culture of encouraging both learning and knowledge transfer. IFR is very much looking forward to being able to expand the cohort of next-generation scientists equipped with the cross-disciplinary skills that are needed to tackle the rising challenges in food and health.”
Speaking at the University of Reading, Davd Willetts said: “This £67 million investment in postgraduate training is excellent news for students, research organisations, industry and the UK as a whole. The brightest and best students will be finding solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing us all, from food security through to renewable energy.
“The partnership approach means that many institutions are combining their strengths to provide students with improved training and relevant work experience. This will better equip them for future careers, be it in research, industry, or elsewhere.”
Over the next three years, the DTPs will support 660 four-year PhD students, and in addition the iCASE studentships will support 70 postgraduates from this Autumn. Both programmes will provide highly skilled scientists for academia, policy and industry and support the BBSRC mission to further scientific knowledge for economic growth, wealth and job creation - improving the quality of life in the UK and beyond.
The DTPs represent a new, more strategic approach from BBSRC to deliver highly skilled scientists for the UK research base. Taken as a whole, the DTP programme will deliver scientists with the training to meet major social and economic challenges in food security, sustainable bioenergy and renewable materials and improving lifelong health and wellbeing, as well as supporting those undertaking research in core underpinning bioscience.
An innovative and integral element of the programme, built in to enhance the employability of the DTP students, is the requirement for them to undertake a three- month professional internship outside of the lab to widen their experience of the areas of work in which they can apply their PhD skills and training. Destinations for these internships will include policymaking, media, teaching and industry.
BBSRC will be working closely with each DTP to support the delivery of excellent training and facilitate the development of a cohort of highly skilled BBSRC early career scientists. To provide greater support for the research training costs of each student ,and to recognise rising research inflation, BBSRC will provide funding of £5,000 per student, per year – up from a minimum of £1000 per year.
Dr Celia Caulcott, BBSRC Director of Innovation and Skills said: “We believe that this approach is a great way of doing things, enabling us to support the very best students working in the most important areas from food security through to crucial underpinning bioscience.
DTPs are all about training researchers to be the best they can be. By doing this we can make real inroads into answering global conundrums which will ultimately have a massive impact on the UK economy and further afield.”
The DTP funding allows institutions to recruit the best students and secure additional funding from other sources, such as industry or charities to increase the impact of public investment. Some of the research organisations, including the University of Reading, are matching the BBSRC investment from their own budgets to increase the number of PhD students they will train under the programme.
The DTPs have been awarded by BBSRC following a competitive process including assessment by BBSRC’s independent Training Awards Committee. Each student in a DTP will have the benefit of working in an excellent research environment but the awarding criteria also focused on the ability of each partnership to provide the best possible training programme.
