We have been awarded a share of more than £24 million of national funding for the prestigious Industrial Doctoral Landscape Award (IDLA) to advance research into sustainable consumer goods.
The funding, provided by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), will support a new doctoral training programme called BiSCI (Bioconvergence for Sustainable Consumer Innovations).
BiSCI will train PhD students across three yearly cohorts, helping them develop the skills needed to shape the future of biosciences and the consumer products sector.
The programme brings together our bioscientists with major industrial and academic partners, including Procter & Gamble, Insiligence, Prozomix, Newcastle University, Northumbria University and Imperial College London.
The BiSCI programme focuses on four key areas: discovering new biological molecules, developing innovative research methods, improving sustainable manufacturing, and understanding how biological systems work.
Together, these areas will support the creation of greener, more sustainable products and technologies.
Students will work closely with industry from the beginning of their training, gaining experience in real-world research environments and tackling challenges facing the consumer goods sector.
By combining expertise across universities and companies, BiSCI aims to accelerate innovation that benefits both society and the environment.
The three-year project is led by our Department of Biosciences.
It forms part of a wider UKRI initiative that supports over 320 new PhD studentships across the country, strengthening the UK’s research talent in bioscience, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, data science and engineering biology.
This exciting programme will train three cohorts of PhD students in important skills for the future North East regional economy. Overall, BiSCI is an excellent opportunity to drive innovation in the UK consumer product and biocatalysis sectors. We are immensely pleased to work with Procter & Gamble and our other industrial and academic partners on this exciting programme and are looking forward to working with the first intake of PhD students next year.
Our Department of Biosciences is ranked third in the UK in the Complete University Guide 2026. Visit our Biosciences webpages for more information on our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
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