Our Programme

NorthWestBio DTP recognises the potential synergy in research and training between our complementary research communities and our areas of research excellence, including the balance in our respective expertise, facilities and resources that add value to students’ opportunities and experiences.

The collaboration is founded upon four institutions located in the northwest of the UK, a key region for the life sciences in terms of academic excellence, technology and innovation, industry support, and investment.

NWB DTP fills this gap and harnesses this untapped potential to create a new doctoral training environment that will transform promising doctoral candidates into sector-ready, world-class graduates who are equipped to lead and drive the growth of UK bioscience. Our strategic rationale closely fits the ‘innovative economy’ agendas of the UK government  and  devolved  administrations, particularly  those  concerning the  importance  of investing in an entrepreneurial and broadly skilled workforce to create an innovative economy that delivers health and wealth for the nations

NorthWestBio TRAINING PROGRAMME OVERVIEW

NorthWestBio’s three pillars of training are:

These will be supported by credit bearing bi-monthly cohort skills activities. These activities will be student-led but facilitated by an individual supervisor from one of the partners. They aim to enable students to learn from each other, to develop as a network and to broadly engage with programme supervisors in the cohort. Each pillar will enable students to tailor their own development as they progress through their  PhD, and to  advance  their core  skills  and expertise by undertaking credit-awarded activities that are of most relevance to them.

Our training programme aims to provide students with an environment that will enable them to reach their career goals while acquiring integrated  skills using cutting-edge bioscience technologies  to study animals, plants, and their pathogens. We also aim to create an ecosystem that will empower students to fulfil their ambitions and that equips them with:

  • broad training in science communication,
  • project management,
  • entrepreneurship and,
  • innovation.

We envisage this set up in a supportive and collegial environment, built on diversity, inclusivity and shared values, and enriched by ambition, creativity and enterprise. 

Our network brings together outstanding and complementary expertise in science and technology, underpinned by a range of supporting and enabling technologies at each institution that relates to our core aims through  the  careful  selection  of  collaborative  projects and through  robust,  bespoke training, NWB DTP aims to create multi-disciplinary bioscience researchers, with quantitative skills and the training to analyse and interpret complex biological data sets. Our graduates will exhibit an outward-looking, team-based approach to delivering impactful research and be equipped with the skills needed to communicate with peers, stakeholders and the public.