UKRI-BBSRC East of Scotland Doctoral Training Partnership 3

The UKRI-BBSRC East of Scotland Doctoral Training Partnership 3 funds a cohort of PhD students across multiple research organisations. This grant addresses the critical need to train the next generation of scientists in fundamental bioscience. Without sustained investment in doctoral training, the UK risks losing its capacity to generate new knowledge and skilled researchers who can tackle complex biological questions. The partnership creates a pipeline for early-career scientists to develop expertise in areas from molecular biology to ecology. If successful, this training programme will produce highly skilled researchers who go on to work in academia, industry, and policy. Their work could eventually improve agricultural sustainability, develop new biomanufacturing processes, or advance medical diagnostics. The immediate impact, however, is on the people trained—not on a specific technology or product. This is primarily an education and skills investment, not a research project with a defined output. Similar doctoral training partnerships have historically produced the researchers who later made unexpected breakthroughs in areas like gene editing and synthetic biology.