The University of Warwick’s School of Life Sciences will welcome the next generation of scientists from across the United Kingdom as part of a Headstart Life Sciences Summer School.

Taking place between the 19th-23rd July at the University’s Gibbet Hill campus, the Headstart Life Sciences course will provide the 17 year olds the opportunity to explore different biological disciplines taught within the School of Life Sciences and introduce them to a flavour of the academic side of undergraduate life.

Across the five days the 30 students will take part in a wide range of hands-on laboratory experiments and lectures led by researchers from the School of Life Sciences, including the opportunity to explore microbiology, disease diagnosis and cell biology.

Discussing the Summer School’s aim and programme Dr Kevin Moffat, Director of Outreach in the School of Life Sciences and summer school organiser, said:

“We are delighted to be hosting the first UK summer school funded by the Engineering Development Trust in the area of Life Sciences. It’s clear that we need to expose and attract as many youngsters to the field of biology in all its amazing diversity – From medicine, to crop science, from the simple fascination of how plants, animals and humans work, through to dealing with disease and ageing and how emerging fields such as synthetic biology might impact on society in the future.

“It will be four days of intensive interaction – I will be telling them that it is my aim to make them sleep well on the way home and wake up with the inspiration to follow a career in the Life Sciences.”

Organised by the EDT, Headstart has been established for more than 16 years as a charitable trust providing hands-on Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) activities and engineering taster courses to encourage young people into technology-based careers.

In addition to funding from the EDT, the summer school is being generously supported by donations from Micropathology Ltd, Dow AgroSciences, G’s Fresh, Campden BRI and the Society of Biology.

During a mini-careers event taking place on the last day of the summer school, the students will learn about the wide range of exciting jobs available in the industry and all the opportunities a degree in biology offers.

Warwick will also be hosting the Headstart Summer School in both 2016 and 2017.

The School of Life Sciences is one of the most research-intensive in the UK, having recently ranked second in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework for Agriculture, Veterinary and Food Science. As well as its laboratories at the Gibbet Hill campus, the School also has an extensive field station at the University’s Wellesbourne campus.

PR 164 22 July 2015

Campden BRI website: https://www.campdenbri.co.uk/

For more information please contact:

- Tom Frew, International Press Officer:

E: a dot t dot frew at warwick dot ac dot uk

M: +44 (0)7785 433 155