North East England Doctoral Landscape (NEEDL)

North East England Doctoral Landscape (NEEDL) is a BBSRC-funded strategic Partnership in Biosciences doctoral training between four universities based in the North East of England, Durham University, Newcastle University, Northumbria University and Teesside University.

The Partnership is offering up to 20 four-year BBSRC-funded PhD studentships starting in October 2027. A wide range of projects across the Partnership are available for application under the broad themes of ‘Engineering Biology, Computational Biology and Industrial Biotechnology’, ‘Structural Biology, Chemical Biology and Anti Microbial Drug Discovery’, ‘Microbes, Microbiomes and Host-Microbe Interactions’, ‘Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition’ and ‘Regenerative Biology, Neuroscience and Aging’.

Applications for studentships starting in October 2027 are now open. Please see below a list of the projects available at Durham University. For more information and details of how to apply please visit the NEEDL website.

The deadline for applications is 24th November 2026 5pm (GMT).

SUMO code: deciphering how SUMOylation enables plants to adapt to their environment

Supervisor: Prof Ari Sadanandom

 

A circular economy for metals - engineering bacterial strains for metal tolerance and recovery

Supervisor: Dr Peter Chivers

 

A mechanism for CO2 sensing: Epigenetic regulation of the primary cilium

Supervisor: Prof Martin Cann

 

Deciphering how ant-farmed plants break the rules of nitrogen uptake

Supervisor: Prof Guillaume Chomicki

 

Decoding Biofilm Adhesion and Cohesion on Next-Generation Marine Coatings

Supervisor: Dr Kislon Voitchovsky

 

Designer proteins for synthetic immune signalling for enhanced plant disease resistance

Supervisor: Dr Adam Bentham

 

From condensates to infection: spatial phase behaviour of aggresomes in pathogenic Escherichia coli

Supervisor: Prof Mark Leake

 

From Electric Fields to Cell Fate: The Electrified Membrane Hypothesis

Supervisor: Dr Margarita Staykova

 

Genetic and environmental factors controlling barley development

Supervisor: Dr Peter Etchells

 

Getting Sox on to regulate cell number and organ size

Supervisor: Prof Alistair McGregor

 

How Does the Embryonic Heart Learn to Beat?
From Xenopus embryos to bioprinted systems: dissecting the origins of cardiac synchronisation

Supervisor: Dr Francesco Boselli

 

Mapping translational stress-signalling networks in plant tissues using Bio-orthogonal non-canonical amino acid tagging (BONCAT)

Supervisor: Dr Uli Bechtold

 

Nitrogen pollution sources and pathobiome dynamics in aquatic invertebrates of Windermere: an isotopic and multi-omics approach

Supervisor: Prof Darren Grocke

 

Unravelling the Ubiquitination Code: Connecting Phosphate Signalling and Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Symbiosis

Supervisor: Dr Jeongmin Choi