Project Proposal Form

MIBTP 2026 PhD Project Proposal

The Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership 2025 (MIBTP2025) partnership between the University of WarwickLink opens in a new window, University of BirminghamLink opens in a new window, University of LeicesterLink opens in a new window, Aston University,Link opens in a new window Harper Adams UniversityLink opens in a new window and Coventry UniversityLink opens in a new window, is recruiting students for four-year studentships starting in Oct 2026. Selected students will undergo structured training throughout their PhD, including an intensive induction at the University of Warwick during the first few weeks of year 1.

An overview of the MIBTP training programme

MIBTP 2026 PhD projects should fit within the Strategic Plan of the BBSRCLink opens in a new window. In MIBTP2025, we are supporting research in the following areas:

1. Sustainable Agriculture and Food: spanning the areas of Plant and Crop Science, Animal Health and Welfare, and Microbial Food Safety - 35% of studentship allocation.

2. Understanding the Rules of Life: spanning areas of Immunology, Microbiology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, Plant Science, Soil Science, Stem Cells, Structural Biology and Systems Biology - 35% of studentship allocation.

3. Renewable Resources and Clean Growth: spanning the areas of Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy - 10% of studentship allocation.

4. Integrated Understanding of Health: spanning Ageing, Diet and Health, Pharmaceuticals and Regenerative Biology - 20% of studentship allocation.

Exploiting New Ways of Working is a cross-cutting theme throughout MIBTP2025, reflected in the taught component, mini-projects and the main research component of the programme. MIBTP 2026 PhD projects should have two academic supervisors, usually in different disciplines, or who approach the biological topic from different research directions.

It is expected that research groups hosting MIBTP students will be well resourced in terms of current personnel, equipment and consumables and there is a section of the proposal form for supervisors to describe the research environment.

A requirement for MIBTP2025 is that potential supervisors provide evidence of suitable supervisor and pastoral training. The MIBTP Management team will then assess whether additional training is to be completed before the student begins the project.

If you would like to offer a PhD project, please complete this form by Thursday 4th September 2025. Only the highlighted information in the form will be used to advertise each project.

Please note that while each student is allocated a project budget (approx. £3,000 p/a for consumables, facility use etc.), it is expected that Supervisors will also contribute to the funding of the project if the annual costs are higher than this. Supervisors are also expected to contribute to training of MIBTP PhD students by offering masterclasses and 3-month research placements.

If you have any questions regarding this form please contact one of the UoW MIBTP directors:

Aston

Alan Goddard:
Alice Rothnie:

Birmingham

Florian Busch:
Yin Chen:

Coventry

Jennifer Greaves:
Mark Wheatley:

Harper Adams

Martin Hare:

Leicester

Jonathan McDearmid:

Warwick

Erin Gorsich:
Vardis Ntoukakis:

Full name

Supervisory Team Details (advertised information)

Primary Supervisor

Title

Full Name

Pronouns

School / Department

Email Address

Link to Staff Profile / Lab Page

Secondary Supervisor

Title

Full Name

Pronouns

School / Department

Email Address

Additional Supervisors

Please provide details (as above) of any additional supervisors:

Project Details

PhD Project Title (advertised information)

University of Registration (advertised information)

Is this proposal for a new project, or updating a previous one?

Wet lab

Dry lab

If you are submitting multiple project proposals this year, you may choose one to be advertised on Find A PhD. Please indicate below if you would like to select this project as your advertised project. If you do not indicate a preferred project, we will choose one at random to be advertised.

Please advertise this project on Find A PhD (please only tick this box for one project)

If you have ticked the above box, please can you identify up to 10 categories below from the FindAPhD subject areas list for the FindAPhd advert

Find A PhD Subject Areas:

Project Outline (advertised information)

Please write a project outline below, describing the scientific rationale of the project. Project outlines should contain no more than 2,000 characters, including spaces and returns, and should conform to the project description criteria. There is no need to be too detailed about individual projects - a general background, objectives and methods should suffice.

Project Outline

Relevance to BBSRC and Approvals

Please consult the UKRI webpages and BBSRC strategic delivery plan for more information on the BBSRC's remit and research priorities.

How does this project fit within the remit of the BBSRC (3 – 4 lines)

Sustainable Agriculture and Food

Renewable Resources and Clean Growth

Understanding the Rules of Life

Integrated Understanding of Health

Please select the relevant research areas for the project, sorted below under the research priorities (advertised information):

Animal Health and Welfare

Microbial Food Safety

Plant and Crop Science

Bio-energy

Industrial Biotechnology

Immunology

Microbiology

Neuroscience and Behaviour

Plant Science

Soil Science

Stem Cells

Structural Biology

Systems Biology

Ageing

Diet and Health

Pharmaceuticals

Regenerative Biology

How does this project comply with BBSRC’s requirement for projects to be multidisciplinary? (~3 lines)

How does this project comply with BBSRC’s requirement for projects to exploit new ways of working? (~3 lines)

How will this project use quantitative techniques? (~3 lines)

Student Support

Please list the techniques that will be undertaken during the project (advertised information):

Please describe how your lab can further support an MIBTP student if appointed (personnel, resources, grants from BBSRC and elsewhere):

Please give up to 5 examples of training you have completed, or professional development events you have attended, relevant to your role as a supervisor, within the past 5 years. These could include institutional, pastoral training, equality diversity and inclusion training, supervisor best practise events, Athena SWAN events, etc.

Please enter the name of the training, the training provider and the date that the training took place. Please put each entry on a separate line.

Example: Unconscious bias training, University of Warwick, 20/03/2019

Training, Provider and Date:

37.5 hours per week, 9am – 5pm on campus

37.5 hours per week, with flexible working arrangements (please provide details below)

Other, e.g. a requirement for field work, night shift requirements etc. (please provide details below)

The project can be carried out on a part-time basis (please provide details below)

Additional working pattern details:

Additional Details

If you have supervised MIBTP students in the past, please list them below. For each please note any publications, patents, grants, public outreach, or other impacts which have arisen from their project in the last 12 months. Please also list their next destination information (their first position after completing their PhD). This information is being collected as part of the requirement to measure DTP impact.

Previous MIBTP Students (one per line):

Yes

Privacy notice

This form will be read by programme directors to determine the suitability of your project for advertising to potential applicants. Only the sections labelled with "(advertised information)" will appear on the project advert. All other information will only be seen by programme admin and directors. The names of the supervisory team will appear alongside the project information on the MIBTP webpages and on FindAPhD. You may opt to withdraw your project from advertisement at any time and project information will be removed immediately from any outward-facing webpages. If you have any questions about our use of the data you've provided in this form, please don't hesitate to contact us at mibtp@warwick.ac.uk. Please see our Staff Privacy Notice or Student Privacy Notice for further information.

The University of Warwick is the Data Controller of any information you have entered on this form and is committed to protecting the rights of individuals in line with Data Protection Legislation. The University's Data Protection webpages provide further information on your rights and how the University processes personal data. If you wish to submit a data subjects rights request, make a complaint or report a suspected personal data breach, please contact the University’s Data Protection Officer by email at infocompliance@warwick.ac.uk.

Spam prevention