Plant Biosystems Design

Four partners share responsibility for this doctoral programme. Bristol, Cambridge and York universities take part, as does the John Innes Centre. The partnership aims to bring researchers from different disciplines together and to apply engineering thinking to plant biology and biotechnology. Projects aim to build knowledge, talent and tools that make plant-derived products more sustainably available, improve how crops perform and open up new uses of plants through deliberate design. The focus fits with the national engineering biology effort in the UK. Funding comes in two forms. Standard studentships are overseen by university academics, whereas industrial case awards add a co-supervisor from a company. Every student completes a placement of at least three months, which may be split into separate periods, and for the industry-linked awards that placement is with the sponsoring company. Because plants are approached as systems that can be planned and built, students practise moving between fields and turning laboratory findings into practical applications. Doctoral researchers also gain contacts across the partner institutions.