South West Doctoral Training Partnership
The application deadline for SWDTP studentships starting in September 2012 has now passed. Applications for studentships starting in 2013 will be available next year.
About the SWDTP
These fully-funded studentships are available in a range of academic disciplines, commencing in September 2012. The studentships provide funding for fees and stipend at the Research Council UK rate.
Background
The South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP) is led by the University of Bristol, with the University of Exeter, the University of Bath, and Rothamsted Research. Together, these institutions present a distinctive cadre of bioscience research staff and students, with established international, national and regional networks, and widely recognised research excellence. As research leaders, we have a strong track record in advancing knowledge through high quality research and teaching, in partnership with industry and government.
The SWDTP is one of a limited number of doctoral training partnerships funded by the BBSRC to provide PhD training across the UK in areas of strategic relevance. The SWDTP provides training in two key areas: Food Security, and World Class Bioscience. About 20 studentships are available each year across the partnership. The scheme particularly aims to provide students with excellent cross-disciplinary research training in line with the current BBSRC strategy.
The first cohort of SWDTP students have already been selected and will commence their training in October 2012.
Programme overview
- The Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) projects are designed to provide outstanding interdisciplinary training in a range of topics in Food Security and World-Class Bioscience, underpinned by training in mathematics and complexity science. They are designed to raise the aspirations of students by equipping them with the generic and employability skills needed to become future leaders in academia and industry.
- The SWDTP will allocate approximately two thirds of its studentships to training in World-Class Bioscience and one third to Food Security.
- The SWDTP will follow a four-year PhD model. In their first year students will receive a range of directed training individually tailored to support their PhD project. This will include a series of skills-based training units available across the partner institutions. In addition students will experience two assessed laboratory rotations in year one, each designed to provide focused training tailored for their PhD project. Students will be able to use these experiences to refine their PhD projects on which they will concentrate from week 46. They will also continue their skills development training throughout their PhD via the PIPS (Professional Internships for PhD students) scheme, an annual SWDTP Research Conference, journal clubs, and online skills training provision.
- To help identify ongoing skills development, students will generate individually tailored Professional Development Plans that will be incorporated into an interactive website (Postgraduate Skills Development Portal).
- A bespoke graduate skills training programme is designed to provide research and transferable skills linked to academic progression, personal development and career aspirations. Each DTP cohort will be assigned a PG Tutor who will be responsible for academic support and development for the duration of the programme.
- The PhD thesis must be submitted within four years of starting the programme.
Projects on offer
To view projects on offer based in Bristol, please select a discipline:
Projects are also avaliable in our partner institutions:
Projects based in Bath:
Projects based in Exeter:
Projects will be supervised by an interdisciplinary team of academic staff.
Note: some of the documents on this webpage are in PDF format. In order to view a PDF you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader
Eligibility
Applicants for a studentships must have obtained, or be about to obtain, a first or upper second class UK honours degree, or the equivalent qualifications gained outside the UK, in an appropriate area of science or technology.
These studentships are available to UK and other EU nationals (due to funding criteria, EU nationals MUST have resided in the UK for three years prior to commencing the studentship). They provide funding for tuition fees and stipend, subject to eligibility.
Apply
The deadline for applications for 2012 entry has now passed.
Notes
When completing the online application form, you will be asked "Which Programme are you applying to?". To ensure that your application for funding is considered, please select the PhD programme which best matches your proposed project choice. You should also indicate your preferred project choice in your Research Statement as part of your online application. Please also identify 'SWDTP' as your fee payer in the Funding section of the online application.
Partners
The South West Doctoral Training Partnership comprises the following institutions:
