Published: 24 Oct 2019 | Last Updated: 24 Oct 2019 11:07:29

The London Interdisciplinary Doctoral Training Partnership, (LIDo) has been commissioned for a further five years by the UKRI Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) as part of the 2019 Doctoral Training Partnerships Programme 3 (DTP3) competition.

This means that from 2020, 190 PhD studentships will be funded, representing an investment of over £20M in the development of future bioscience researchers.

LIDo partners, who will benefit from the funding, include The Royal Veterinary College (RVC), University College London (lead institution), King's College London, Queen Mary University London, Birkbeck College and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in addition to two new members: Royal Holloway University London and Greenwich University's Natural Resources Institute.

LIDo also welcomes four new ‘Associate Partners’, Unilever, Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, the Food Standards Agency and the Animal and Plant Health Agency. Each Associate Partner will be contributing at least three additional studentships as well as providing projects and collaborative opportunities for LIDo students.

LIDo has a particular emphasis on combining biology with computational, materials and physical sciences and provides intensive training in coding for biologists and biology for students with a physical/computational sciences background. Funding 190 PhD studentships overall, a minimum of 55 will be earmarked as industrial collaboration ‘CASE’ studentships.

Around half of the studentships will be for projects jointly supervised in two different LIDo institutions, reflecting the highly collaborative and interdisciplinary training mission of the programme. LIDo emphasises equality and diversity through outreach activities and coaching for minority applicants as well as summer undergraduate placements for students studying at less research-intensive institutions across London and the South East region.

Professor Jonathan Elliott, Vice Principal for Research and Innovation, RVC said: “The RVC is delighted to remain part of one of the most successful UKRI-BBSRC doctoral training partnerships. Training future scientists to think and work across disciplines in tackling major global challenges, such as antimicrobial resistance and food security, is something the RVC is committed to and being part of LIDo enables us to meet that commitment.

“We are a proud beneficiary of such a major investment in researcher skills development and are determined to use this wisely to benefit the health and welfare of animals and people throughout the world.”

Notes to Editors

For more information please contact:

• Ploy Radford (ploy.radford@plmr.co.uk) or Jasmin De Vivo (Jasmin.DeVivo@mangomarketing.com)
• Press Line: 0800 368 9520

About the RVC

• The Royal Veterinary College (RVC) is the UK's largest and longest established independent veterinary school and is a Member Institution of the University of London. It was the first in the world to hold full accreditation from AVMA, EAEVE, RCVS and AVBC.
• The RVC is ranked as the world’s number one veterinary school in the QS World University Rankings by subject, 2019.
• The RVC offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in veterinary medicine, veterinary nursing and biological sciences.
• In 2017, the RVC received a Gold award from the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) – the highest rating a university can receive.
• A research led institution with 79% of its research rated as internationally excellent or world class in the Research Excellence Framework 2014.
• The RVC provides animal owners and the veterinary profession with access to expert veterinary care and advice through its teaching hospitals and first opinion practices in London and Hertfordshire.