Newcastle Liverpool Durham BBSRC DTP2

This grant funds a network of three universities—Newcastle, Liverpool, and Durham—to train the next generation of bioscience researchers through a shared doctoral training partnership. The problem is straightforward: the UK needs a steady pipeline of skilled scientists to keep its bioscience sectors competitive, but no single university can offer the full breadth of expertise required. By pooling resources, these three institutions can provide students with access to a wider range of supervisors, techniques, and research environments than any one could alone. If the partnership succeeds, it will produce PhD graduates equipped to tackle complex challenges in areas such as sustainable agriculture, biotechnology, and disease biology. These are not abstract concerns—they underpin food security, pharmaceutical development, and environmental management. The training itself is fundamental: students will learn how to design experiments, analyse data, and communicate findings, skills that transfer directly into academic, industrial, and policy roles. This is primarily a capacity-building project rather than a specific research programme. It does not aim to produce a particular discovery. But the scientists it trains will go on to do the work that does.