MRC invests £79 million to support doctoral training

The Medical Research Council (MRC) has announced that it will invest £79 million to support doctoral training for the next three years, through its Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) competition

The funding will go towards 17 DTP awards across 34 UK Research Organisations (ROs) to support high-quality doctoral training programmes that take a student-centred approach, focusing on scientific excellence, positive research culture and wider training opportunities, from 2022 onwards.

They include:

• Discovery Medicine North (University of Sheffield, Newcastle University, University of Leeds, University of Liverpool, University of York)
• Imperial College London
• Institute of Cancer Research
• GW4 (Cardiff University, University of Bath, University of Bristol and University of Exeter)
• King’s College London
• Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Lancaster University
• London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and St George’s University of London
• Trials Methodology Research Partnership (University of Liverpool, Institute of Cancer Research, Newcastle University, Queen Mary University London, University College London, University of Aberdeen, University of Bangor, University of Birmingham, University of Cambridge, University of Glasgow, University of Leeds, University of Plymouth)
• University College London and Birkbeck, University of London
• University of Birmingham, University of Leicester and University of Nottingham
• University of Cambridge
• University of East Anglia
• University of Edinburgh
• University of Manchester
• University of Oxford
• University of Southampton and Queen Mary University of London
• University of Warwick.

These awards will provide doctoral training for around 200 students per year.

This includes:

• Skills in data science at the interface of human health and biology
• Whole organism physiology to enable progress towards a cross-level approach to medical research in human health
• Interdisciplinary ways of working.

Professor Fiona Watt, Executive Chair, MRC, said:

“We are thrilled to announce our funding for the next generation of MRC PhD researchers through 17 new UK-wide Doctoral Training Partnership awards. Outstanding research is only possible when we invest in people to conduct that research.

“Our new awards are student-centred, setting out to increase the diversity of individuals pursuing research careers and providing opportunities for students to widen their horizons during and post-PhD.”