BBSRC Doctoral Training Partnership

The University of Nottingham, in collaboration with Rothamsted Research (RRes) and its consortium partners: East Malling Research ; Diamond Light Source; Research Complex at Harwell ; Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) National Industrial Biotechnology Facility; and Crops for the Future Research Centre in Malaysia, have devised an integrated four-year Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) that provides PhD students with a world-class training programme in Biotechnology and Biological Sciences.

Applications are invited to join this innovative four-year PhD training programme with research opportunities in Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy (IBB). The future is set for renewable and waste feedstocks to play an increasing role as a source for chemicals, therapeutics and in energy production. The University of Nottingham is a global leader in Bioenergy, Biorenewables and Sustainable Chemistry, and has a strong focus on solving real-world problems using tools from synthetic biology, in partnership with major fuels and chemicals manufacturers and related biotechnology and pharma industries.

• Synthetic biology approaches to manufacture chemicals, biochemicals, therapeutics and biofuels from waste or sustainable natural resources.
• Solving problems with product toxicity in microbial fermentations using both biological and process-based approaches
• Biocatalytic processing of biomass- and waste-derived feedstocks to produce viable substitutes for synthetic materials and polymers.
• Sustainable bio-based and chemoenzymatic manufacturing processes, including distributed manufacturing

The Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary PhD training programme for an annual cohort of around 50 students. In the first six months you will gain experience of working in different research areas by undertaking a series of 3 mini-projects. During this time you will be provided with the fundamentals of IBB research including statistics and experimental design and more advanced techniques including protein chemistry, bio-imaging and in vivo work. There is also a comprehensive series of generic training which ranges from the basics of how to create a research poster to an interactive two-day course on communicating your science to the public. The 2014 programme provides you with some details of what the DTP provides.

At the end of the first six months, you will choose a PhD project that develops from one or more of your mini-projects­. Details are available for some of the projects on offer for 2015/16. The research expertise within these areas can be found under the research pages of the Schools of Life Sciences, Chemistry, Pharmacy, Biosciences, Psychology, Mathematics, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and Science, Biorenewables and Bioprocessing Research Group, Rothamsted Research and East Malling Research. In your third year you can decide which one of a portfolio of national and international external placements you would like to undertake.

Applications are invited from students with backgrounds in Bioscience, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Chemical/Biochemical/Process Engineering, Environmental Science, Pharmacy, Computer Science, Maths or related disciplines who have/expect to graduate with a first/upper-second UK Batchelor honours degree, or equivalent qualifications gained outside the UK. Students with an appropriate Masters degree are particularly encouraged to apply.

Funding details Funding is available for four years from Autumn 2015. This studentship includes a three-month full-time placement outside of the research environment. A full award would be fees plus an annual stipend. This is set by the Research Councils and was £13,863 for 2014/15.

Eligibility for full funding is restricted to UK and EU students.

How to apply Applications should include: a fully completed application form; a CV of no more than two A4 pages; a transcript of module marks achieved at the time of submission; and two references. Application forms and CVs should be named in the following format: SURNAME-initial-DTP_IBB-application.doc (.docx or .pdf) and SURNAME-initial-DTP_IBB-cv.doc(.docx or.pdf)e.g.SMITH-A-DTP­_IBB-application.doc

Applications should be sent via email with the subject line ‘BBSRC DTP IBB’ to bbdtp@nottingham.ac.uk by the deadline: 21st December, midnight.

References should be sent directly from the referees to bbdtp@nottingham.ac.uk by the deadline: 21st December, midnight. Please note it is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure that the references are sent in good time for the deadline. Further details are on the reference form.

Enquiries should be sent to: bbdtp@nottingham.ac.uk