TWO of the North East’s leading universities have been given £5½m to invest in bioscience postgraduate training to help bring top-class scientists to the region.

Universities and Science Minister David Willetts has announced that the money will be divided between Newcastle and Durham universities to pay for training into a host of research projects.

Newcastle University is leading the collaboration and over the next three years the investment from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) will focus on studies into lifelong health and wellbeing, diet and health, microbial food safety, animal health and crop science.

It is expected that as many as 30 PhD students will be funded per annum as the two universities join with Liverpool University for a Doctoral Training Partnership – in which 60% of the postgraduates will head to the North East.

Prof Barry Hirst, of Newcastle University and lead for the Doctoral Training Partnership, said the scheme will begin this autumn.

He said: “This is a fantastic investment for training bioscientists.

“It is very important that we are involved in the training of scientists, as they are our future.

“There is no doubt that this funding will offer huge benefits to the region as it’s bringing new blood to the North East – people with new, exciting ideas.

“Once people have been attracted to our region, they also see first-hand the quality of life and the quality of research going on, which helps to keep them in the area for the long-term.”

Over the next three years, there will be 14 Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTPs) across the UK which will support 660 four-year PhD students across 44 research organisations, as well as 70 industrial CASE studentship awards.

The programmes will provide highly-skilled scientists for academia, policy and industry and support the BBSRC mission to further scientific knowledge for economic growth, wealth and job creation – improving the quality of life in the UK and beyond.

The students at Newcastle University will undergo their research in departments such as the Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, the Institute of Genetic Medicine and the Institute of Neuroscience.

Prof Hirst said: “Training will focus on our world-class research in national strategically important research areas, including into lifelong health and wellbeing, diet and health, microbial food safety, animal health and welfare and crop science.

“It will bring top-class scientists from all over the country and further afield to train in the North East.”

An integral element of the programme, built in to enhance the employability of the DTP students, is the requirement for them to undertake a three-month professional internship outside of the laboratory to widen their experience of the areas of work in which they can apply their PhD training.

Dr Celia Caulcott, BBSRC director of innovation and skills, said: “We believe that this approach is a great way of doing things, enabling us to support the very best students working in the most important areas from food security through to crucial underpinning bioscience.

“DTPs are all about training researchers to be the best they can be. By doing this we can make real inroads into answering global conundrums which will ultimately have a massive impact on the UK economy and further afield.”

The DTP funding allows institutions to recruit the best students and secure additional funding from other sources, such as industry or charities to increase the impact of public investment.

This funding will offer huge benefits to the region, it’s bringing new blood to the North East