MRC renews Doctoral Training Partnership

08 Jul 2021

University to benefit from multi-million pound MRC funding investment to support doctoral training.

As a result of the renewal bid co-ordinated by Dr Anna Woollams in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, the University has been successfully awarded a share of the £79 million committed by the Medical Research Council (MRC) to support doctoral training.

MRC’s vision for the Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) awards is to support high-quality doctoral training programmes that take a student-centred approach, focusing on scientific excellence, positive research culture and wider training opportunities.  This investment from MRC (plus significant matched funding contribution from the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health) will fund 90 four-year studentships (standard and CASE) over three annual cohorts starting in October 2022, with an additional two intake years subject to a mid-term review.

FBMH Vice-Dean for Research, Professor Neil Hanley, commented: ‘This is tremendous news. Well done to all the team involved.  I am really pleased we can continue with this fantastic training programme, especially when there is such pressure and competition on the numbers of studentships available’.

Research within the DTP will be focused upon themes relating to Disease Mechanisms, Detection & Diagnosis, and 'Developing Interventions' and projects will be complemented by an innovative programme of bespoke training in transferrable skills with additional opportunities for individualised training (including placements, internships and collaborating with industry).  The Manchester DTP includes associate partners Bionow, Alderley Park and Medicines Discovery Catapult.

The University's Associate Vice-President for Research, Professor Melissa Westwood, commented: "I am extremely proud of the achievement of the PGRs from our current cohorts both in terms of their research impact and their contribution to our culture and environment. 

"I am really looking forward to welcoming more PGRs to the new programme, designed to achieve not only excellent scientific research, but innovation in industry and impact on society, which will enable them to move on to a diverse set of career directions and become our research leaders of the future.”

Recruitment to the 2022 studentships will be underway shortly.