BBSRC EastBio Partnership

Call for applications for 2025

• Would you like to study for a PhD as part of a supportive and collaborative partnership in Scotland?
• Would you like to experience enhanced professional development and training opportunities in new technologies and techniques, industrial collaboration and public engagement?
• Would you like to join a vibrant community of bioscience students and supervisors working together on cutting edge research of global importance?

How we support prospective students

We believe that diversity is an essential driver of good science and we are committed to broadening participation so that our diverse body of students can access and benefit from broad research opportunities, in their home institution and across EastBio, one of the largest doctoral partnerships in the UK.

Our programme is designed to equip our students to compete with the best in the world in their future employment. We provide excellent research across the following key areas, including access to broad expertise, facilities and researcher development opportunities:

• Clean Growth
• Crops and Soil
• Health
• Livestock & Aquaculture
• Transformative Technologies
• Understanding the Rules of Life

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at EastBio

Our recruitment is based on the whole-person approach. We have implemented EDI-specific measures to expressly serve the needs of a diverse body of prospective students, whether they come from unconventional backgrounds, have additional support needs or caring responsibilities. We strongly encourage such applications and we are open to discussing early queries or concerns, including any arrangements that would enable candidates to compete equitably.

Find out more

About EastBio recruitment process

We invite applications for PhD projects advertised via FindAPhD across the EastBio partnership, in one of our partner institutions: the Universities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, St Andrews, Stirling, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and the James Hutton Institute. If your application is successful, you will be funded by BBSRC UKRI/EastBio (led by the University of Edinburgh) and will be based at the partner institution hosting your PhD project.

EastBio offers 38 fully funded 4-year UKRI BBSRC studentships to start in October 2025. Up to 25% of these will be collaborative with industry (CASE). Up to 30% of our awards will be available to international students.

We encourage candidates with strong interests in industry to check our CASE projects (collaborative with industry), advertised across our partner institutions.

You can only apply for one project and you should seek the support of the project’s supervisor before you submit your application.

Successful candidates will be nominated by project supervisors before being shortlisted for an EastBio interview – interview panels involve academic representatives from each institution and a member of the Management Group (chair person).

Candidate eligibility

Regardless of your citizenship or fees status (home or international), you are eligible to apply for an EastBio studentship. However, if you are an international citizen, note that UKRI restricts the number of international students to a maximum of 30% of our overall students’ number.

We would normally require applicants to have a minimum of 2.1 undergraduate degree or equivalent. The EastBio selection panels may take relevant work experience and/or a Master's degree into account.

For full eligibility criteria for the EastBio funding, please refer to the UKRI guidance and Annex B of the UKRI Training Grant Terms and Conditions.

How to Apply for an EastBio funded studentship:

Submit your application to the EastBio partner institution hosting the PhD project of your choice, as advertised on FindAPhD. Although you may be asked for additional documentation during your application (i.e. a CV or a research statement), EastBio will shortlist candidates on the basis of the documents listed on the EastBio How to Apply web-page.

To seek advice on your application, email the institutional contact provided on the FindAPhD project advert.

For EastBio queries, email recruitment@eastscotbiodtp.ac.uk.

Application Deadline: 17 January 2025

See all our EastBio Projects

Click here to see the EastBio projects available.