Aim
Our aspiration is to support organisations which are outside of academia to deliver doctoral training in partnership with higher education institutes (HEIs) for the next generation of bioscience researchers. These training partnerships aim to identify and address short and long-term skills challenges faced by the bio-industry sector and foster interdisciplinarity between industry, academia and other employers.
The overall aims of the Industrial Doctoral Landscape Award scheme are to support a high standard of collaborative research training through:
- delivering world-class doctoral research, training and development within dynamic and supportive research and innovation environments
- advancing current understanding, generating new knowledge, and developing the breadth of bioscience expertise for future economic and societal impact
- supporting capacity building across sectors and industries of the bio-based economy by giving non-HEIs greater autonomy in the selection, development and implementation of studentship projects they would like to support and supervise
- preparing students to follow a diversity of career paths
- supporting a diverse doctoral community, which includes addressing areas of underrepresentation (for example protected characteristics, types of professions, career stage and porosity within the research and innovation system)
This funding opportunity replaces our collaborative training partnerships (CTP) awards.
Scope
In May 2022, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) announced its transition to collective talent funding across talent initiatives, with the UKRI Doctoral Investment Framework launching in November 2023. From January 2024, all UKRI doctoral support will be framed around two types of awards – doctoral landscape awards and doctoral focal awards.
Doctoral landscape awards provide:
- broad, flexible funding to support talented doctoral students to contribute to a vibrant, internationally attractive and world-leading research and innovation system
- breadth and diversity in the research supported and to ensure that as a community we are rapidly responsive to new and emerging research ideas and areas
- opportunities for a variety of engagement with non-academic partners
We are looking for innovative and inclusive doctoral programmes designed to train students to undertake research and gain the core skills needed for a variety of careers.
You will be expected to deliver leading edge, frontier research and innovation training across Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)’s remit and address strategic challenges faced by the bio-industry and bio-based economy. Your application must demonstrate that the Industrial Doctoral Landscape training programme offers a scientifically excellent training environment and sufficient, high quality research capacity to deliver that training.
We explicitly encourage applications describing innovative models of doctoral training to be led by partners outside of academia, including recruitment, the co-creation of projects and the delivery of training elements designed to meet the objectives of the programme.
Collaboration with an administrative lead
A key component of the Industrial Doctoral Landscape Award is the mandatory collaboration between the project partner lead organisation, which is not typically eligible for UKRI funding, and the project lead organisation, which is typically eligible for UKRI funding. The project lead organisation must submit the application and will act as the training grant holder for the award.
As directed by the lead project partner organisation, the project lead must host at least one studentship per year, provided they have the capacity. However, this does not imply that the administrative lead will be the dominant partner, or that they will host the majority of the allocated studentships.
While it is required that at least one student per year be based at the administrative lead, we strongly encourage that the student cohort should be distributed among additional Project co-lead (host) organisations and that the entire cohort is not concentrated solely at the administrative lead. Organisations who will host studentships should be named on your application as Project co-leads.
Any project co-leads which will host studentships will receive a relative proportion of the funding from the Industrial Doctoral Landscape Award via distribution from the project lead or grant holder. You should outline the strategy for how the studentships you have requested will be distributed within your consortia and where they will reside as part of your application.
The studentship projects should be truly collaborative in nature, meaning that they have been jointly conceived by the project partner lead and the additional partner(s) to address strategic skills challenges in the bio-based economy. The projects should also be governed and structured in such a way as to be delivered as a joint programme of work. The non-HEI project lead and any associated HEI partners should play an equal role in shaping, supervising and supporting any studentship project in which they are involved.
Training remit
Applications must outline a coherent training programme which demonstrates how students will both undertake individual research projects and receive cohort-level training.
Training delivered by these industrial doctoral landscape awards may build on existing infrastructure where applicable and we encourage engagement with other relevant centres for doctoral training, doctoral landscape award training partnerships and end-user networks.
These industrial doctoral landscape awards should provide PhD training in areas of research relevant to BBSRC’s remit and priority research areas. These are covered in BBSRC’s Strategic Delivery Plan and the Forward Look for UK Bioscience report. Please also see BBSRC’s research portfolio and priorities. We encourage interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary doctoral training programmes and advise against single discipline or narrowly focused applications. Applications may additionally include training at the interface between BBSRC’s remit and other disciplines, where major research challenges exist.
Industrial Doctoral Landscape Award applicants must demonstrate high quality provision across the breadth of BBSRC’s remit. However, there is no expectation that a single application will cover the entirety of BBSRC’s remit. Applicants are advised to identify where they have world-class expertise and infrastructures to develop their doctoral candidates. As with previous awards, BBSRC will reserve the right to manage the balance of the overall studentship portfolio to ensure broad coverage of all aspect of our remit.
Defining an excellent collaborative studentship
All industrial doctoral landscape studentship projects must be conducted in collaboration between a non-HEI project partner lead and a project lead, as defined above. Applications can also include additional project co-leads and project partners. These collaborative projects should be characterised by:
- excellent research: a challenging, feasible and realistically achievable doctoral project that stimulates excellent research, providing tangible benefits to all partners through a truly collaborative approach
- a high-quality training environment: access to distinctive but complementary high-quality training environments across the partnership stimulates collaboration and encourages students to acquire novel skills and expertise
- a focus on student experience: partners will enrich the integrated training experience through joint supervision of students, wherein the student gains a greater understanding their research impact and is supported throughout their research journey
Training requirements: project co-development and management
Industrial doctoral landscape award studentships and projects should be strategically led by the non-HEI project partner lead and delivered in collaboration between the project partner lead, project lead and additional co-lead and project partners, if applicable. The non-HEI project partner lead should:
- provide strategic oversight of the training programme and project development
- host students during placement, which can be between three and eighteen months during their PhD, unless the student has opted for a Professional Internships for PhD students (PIPS) type placement (see Placements for more information)
- provide co-supervision of the student for their PhD project
The non-HEI project partner lead is also encouraged to make a financial contribution to the project including:
- any costs incurred by the student when visiting and working within their establishment
- the costs of necessary material
- facilities not possessed by the student’s host research organisation that are integral to the studentship
Alignment with UKRI core offer
The UKRI core offer sets out the expectations for all UKRI studentships, including support and student experience, research skills and methods and professional and career development. This information has been used to define the assessment criteria for this funding opportunity. See the section ‘How we will assess your application’ for further details. All applications must clearly state how the requirements outlined within the UKRI core offer will be delivered as part of their application.
UKRI good practice principles in recruitment and training at a doctoral level
Applications should also demonstrate how they will deliver UKRI good practice principles in recruitment and training at a doctoral level. These principles aim to make the doctoral pathway accessible and attractive to a diversity of potential applicants and outline good practice principles in EDI across the following four key stages of the doctoral recruitment and training process:
- finding talent: to make the doctoral pathway accessible and attract potential applicants who may not currently view a PhD as accessible to them
- shortlisting and interviews: to ensure the applicant shortlisting and interview process is fair and transparent
- nurturing talent: to make the student training experience as inclusive as possible
- monitoring and reporting: to be used effectively to foster a diverse and inclusive environment
Management and governance
Partnerships will be expected to describe the governance arrangements that will enable effective decision-making and engagement with all relevant stakeholders to achieve the vision.
The applications must commit to providing sufficient support for appropriate administrative resources. Applications should explicitly outline how administrative structures will be managed and funded. Funds may be allocated for programme management including administration and placement support.
Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)
EDI is a core feature of this funding opportunity. In line with UKRI’s principles on EDI, we want to work with our partners to shape a dynamic, diverse, and inclusive system of research and innovation that is an integral part of society.
Your industrial doctoral landscape programme should work to provide everyone involved with an opportunity to participate in, and benefit from, the award.
Applicants must demonstrate how their EDI strategy will embed the core principles of EDI at all levels and across all aspects of the doctoral programme, including:
- increasing PhD access, including recruitment
- working practices, including individualised student support
- wellbeing support, including mental health
- monitoring and evaluation, including a baseline and plans for improvement
We would expect your EDI strategy to describe how your doctoral programme is accessible to a diverse range of people and needs, and how you will be removing barriers to participation across your doctoral programme and associated processes. Your application should demonstrate how you will create and maintain a positive, inclusive, and supportive environment for all students and staff.
You should refer to equality, diversity and inclusion at UKRI and BBSRC’s equality, diversity and inclusion action plan. As a mandatory requirement, the EDI strategies, activities and commitments stated by successful applicants will be regularly reviewed by BBSRC, including but not limited to, information on characteristics of current and prospective student cohorts. These data will be collected on at least a yearly basis via annual reports, and we will reserve the right to access these data across the lifetime of the award. See the UKRI data collection policy for more information.
Partnerships
Applications are encouraged to represent a consortium of organisations, which might include industry, academia, charities, and public sector organisations. There is no stipulation regarding size or geographical spread of consortia.
All partners need to demonstrate that there is significant added value from their inclusion within the partnership. This may include, but is not limited to, financial commitments to underwrite a proportion of studentship placements, a commitment to provision of access to facilities, or training that cannot be otherwise provided by another organisation, or strategic links to an important stakeholder or user.
Partnerships must show a clear and joint strategy for delivering their vision and fostering the growth and maturation of collaborations over the funding period. Successful applications should demonstrate how students will benefit from engaging with various organisations, both individually and as part of a cohort, utilising diverse mechanisms. Applications must also justify their structure, providing a clear case for the partnership’s size.
Funding opportunity specific training requirements
In addition to the expectations set out within the UKRI core offer, there are specific training requirements for this funding opportunity:
- access for all students to placements, internships or other relevant work experience opportunities, including UKRI policy internships. See the section on Placements for more details
- support capacity building and development of digital and data skills in the biosciences, including artificial intelligence and machine learning
- develop commercialisation, enterprise and entrepreneurial skills across the student cohort
- contextual skills across the business sector, such as management and leadership, markets, supply chains, intellectual property, policy and regulation
Your application must clearly state how the funding opportunity specific requirements will be delivered as part of your application.
Cohort management
Training as part of a cohort is a highly effective way to ensure that doctoral candidates have opportunities to collaborate, exchange ideas and benefit from peer-to-peer support.
Applicants are expected to outline their strategy for developing a cohort identity across all partners.
For this award, we expect applicants to support a minimum of five studentships per year equating to 15 studentships total across the lifetime of the award.
We expect applicants to consider the cohort size they can accommodate in relation to the training and experiential needs of their students.
Placements
Placements are a key feature of the Industrial Doctoral Landscape Award and BBSRC expects all doctoral candidates to undertake a placement. The aim of the placement is to expose students to diverse work environments beyond their academic research. This cultivates transferable skills, enhances their understanding of a variety of career paths and contributes to their personal and professional development.
All students must undertake a placement which lasts a minimum of three-months. This placement does not need to occur in one single continuous period. Students have the option of undertaking:
- a Professional Internships for PhD students (PIPS) where they work outside of academia and conduct work outside of their research project for a minimum of three months. See evaluation of the PIPS programme
- an internship with their non-HEI project partner, where they work on their PhD project in a non-academic setting for between three and 18 months
- a combination approach, where the student spends part of their placement time on their research project or with their industry partner and also undertake a PIPS-type placement
If the student chooses a combination approach, the PIPS element of their placement should be a maximum of three months, whereas the time spent with the industry partner can be up to 18 months.
Alternative doctorate models such as professional doctorates, PhDs by Portfolio, and industrial doctorates in which students spend most of their time in the industrial setting, are permitted and will count as placement time.
Regardless of the type of placement, all students must be fully supported by the Industrial Doctoral Landscape Award partnership throughout the placement period. All placements should be developed in collaboration between the partners with input from the doctoral candidate. Placements can be based overseas. All costs (for example, travel, accommodation and lab costs) associated with the placement should be met by the placement host.
The placement host partner is required to make a financial contribution to the training of the student. This includes all additional expenses, such as the cost of travel and accommodation, incurred by the student as a direct result of attendance at the premises of the host during the student’s placement.
Collaborative agreements
At the time of application, collaborative agreements should be in place regarding management of the doctoral candidate’s work, and agreements concerning any intellectual property that may arise as a result. This collaboration should be effectively managed, to maximise the benefits for all parties concerned.
Legacy and impact
Landscape awards are supported with the intention of developing a legacy of training excellence. Applications must demonstrate consideration of the legacy and impacts of the doctoral training programme beyond the lifetime of UKRI investment.
Reporting requirements and monitoring
The monitoring and evidencing of progress towards the vision and objectives of these partnerships, as well as their impact, is an important component of this award. Information gathered from training grant holders will be used by BBSRC to review the success of our training investments, to provide assurance that the awards are being managed appropriately and are progressing in accordance with the original funding application. This will be conducted in various ways, including:
- mandatory annual reports
- hosting regular visits by BBSRC staff, in meetings or in person
Successful applicants will be expected to respond to other reporting requirements when requested.
BBSRC will request key information from Industrial Doctoral Landscape grant holders, such as diversity statistics for doctoral candidate recruitment, collaborative partner engagement, financial leveraging, training and development activities offered, and examples of doctoral candidate achievements.
Partnerships are expected to describe their approach to monitoring and evaluation, outlining their success measures and baselines and a continuous improvement process built in within their applications.
BBSRC will oversee and engage with successful applicants to support the delivery of excellent doctoral training.
Duration
This award will support three years’ worth of student intake, starting in October 2026. Each studentship will last for four years, meaning that the total duration of the training grant will be six years (72 months).
Funding available
BBSRC will invest in industrial doctoral landscape awards via this funding opportunity. Applicants will need to state how many students you wish to support via this award, where payment will be on a notional studentship basis. We reserve the right to adjust these numbers to meet the requirements of the funding opportunity and to balance our overall studentship portfolio.
BBSRC will support notional studentships for four years in length, during which each student will also undertake a placement which lasts a minimum of three months.
BBSRC will award 185 students across three years. Each cohort intake will have a minimum of five, and no set maximum, of studentships each year per industrial landscape award.
A notional studentship consists of sufficient funds to meet the annual UKRI minimum stipend and fee levels, plus additional research, placement and management costs. Awards will be supplemented with London allowance, where eligible.
The student stipend and fees are indicative estimates only, based on the 2023 to 2024 UKRI minima multiplied by four, and excluding London allowance. At the time of award, stipend and fees will be indexed to accommodate rises in the minimum stipend and fees levels over the lifetime of the award. The indicative estimate funding per notional studentship is provided as:
Stipend: £74,488
Fees: £18,848
Research Training Support Grant (RTSG): £20,000
Programme management: £2,000
Total: £115,336
The programme management header can be used as a contribution towards placements, conferences, and administrative costs. A contribution towards operational management costs has been included within the indicative funding calculation in recognition of the need to manage the partnership. BBSRC acknowledges that this does not reflect the full cost of the industrial doctoral landscape training programme administrative structures. In line with the requirements in the management section, adequate funds must therefore be committed by you from either flexibility within the training grant, leveraged support, or a combination of sources.
If successful you will have flexibility in how you use the funding awarded and we encourage flexibility and virement between headings, subject to the standard UKRI terms and conditions of training grants. Be aware that the minimum numbers of students will still need to be supported each year.
Given the flexibility in use of funding, it will be possible for you to use the training grant to support more than the minimum number of students each year. For example, this could be achieved by having students undertake training over a variety of timeframes and by co-funding students from other sources.
To be classed as a BBSRC student, that student must be funded at least 50% by BBSRC. We support co-funding to be used from non-research council sources to part-fund additional industrial doctoral landscape students. The details of these students can be registered for reporting purposes.
You may use funding to leverage additional investment (either as cash or in-kind support) from multiple stakeholders, however, there is no formal requirement for match-funded studentships or cash leverage for this funding opportunity.
BBSRC will fund 100% of the FEC. However, we expect a minimum of an additional 20% of the total cost of delivering the Industrial Doctoral Landscape Award programme to be supplied by the non-HEI project partner lead organisation, if they are successful. These funds can be used to cover administrative resource, stipend top-ups, cohort training or any other costs of the training programme. These contributions may be a mix of cash and in-kind contributions.
Standard doctoral stipend levels and indicative fees are set annually by UKRI. Financial contributions to the academic partner, student or both, may vary and should be agreed in advance by all partners at the time of application.
BBSRC welcomes proposals which use this investment to leverage additional funding from other sources. The leverage of funding must be in line with the scope of the funding opportunity and under BBSRC’s remit.
Flexible fund
In addition to the funding for notional studentships awarded, the Industrial Doctoral Landscape Award will include a flexible fund. This fund is valued approximately at £110,000 per cohort intake equalling a total of approximately £330,000 for the three cohort intakes over the lifetime of this award. The flexible fund will be awarded to successful applicants on an annual basis as an additional funding stream. The exact proportion of this fund will be determined by the number of notional students supported per training programme per year.
The flexible fund can be used to support a range of activities, including support for skills development, network building, or addressing EDI challenges (see relevant EDI sections). Some examples of how these funds can be used is provided in the Flexible fund question section in How to apply.
Supporting skills and talent
If applicable to your application, we encourage you to follow the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the Technician Commitment.
Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I)
UKRI is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks. Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) is a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector by enabling partnerships to be as open as possible, and as secure as necessary. Our TR&I Principles set out UKRI’s expectations of organisations funded by UKRI in relation to due diligence for international collaboration.
As such, applicants for UKRI funding may be asked to demonstrate how their proposed projects will comply with our approach and expectation towards TR&I, identifying potential risks and the relevant controls you will put in place to help proportionately reduce these risks.
See further guidance and information about TR&I, including where applicants can find additional support.
