East England PhD Studentships: The NEEDL Partnership is offering up to 20 four-year BBSRC-funded PhD studentships starting in October 2026, providing an excellent opportunity for candidates interested in diverse bioscience research themes. Applications are invited from eligible candidates eager to contribute to innovative projects across various institutions.
Designation
PhD Studentships
Table
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Number of Positions | Up to 20 |
| Funding | BBSRC-funded |
| Stipend | Tax-free stipend at UKRI rate (£21,383 in 2026-27) |
| Research Costs | Covered |
| Tuition Fees | Paid on behalf of the student |
| Application Deadline | 5 PM (GMT) on February 27, 2026 |
Research Area
- 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
- Regenerative Biology, Neuroscience, and Aging
Location
Newcastle University (applications managed centrally) – Projects available across Durham, Northumbria, and Teesside Universities.
Eligibility/Qualification
- Candidates must possess or expect to attain at least an upper second class (2.1) honours degree (or equivalent) in a relevant biosciences subject.
- Applications are also welcome from students with physical science and mathematical backgrounds.
- Open to Home (UK) candidates; a limited number of awards for outstanding International applicants (up to 30% of total).
Description
The NEEDL PhD studentships aim to support high-caliber research in biosciences through a multidisciplinary approach. Candidates will engage in cutting-edge research, contributing to vital projects significant for the advancement of science and technology. Suitable candidates are those who show passion for research and possess the qualifications needed to thrive in a competitive environment.
Here’s a table summarizing the various research projects, their respective supervisors, and contact information:
| Institution | Project Title | Supervisor | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Durham University | Watering the Flowers: Gene x Environment Control of Water Use During Brassica Napus Inflorescence Development | Dr. Jo Hepworth | jo.a.hepworth@durham.ac.uk |
| How Does RNA Modification Affect Ageing Process? | Dr. Ting-Yu Lin | ting-yu.lin@durham.ac.uk | |
| Metals, Microbes, and Mathematics: Understanding Coexistence with Toxic Nutrients | Dr. Denis Patterson | denis.d.patterson@durham.ac.uk | |
| The Ageing Brain’s Window: Subiculum Circuitry and Memory | Dr. Steven Poulter | steven.poulter@durham.ac.uk | |
| Cic Structures; Hungry Cells or Suicidal Cells? | Dr. Patricia Muller | Patricia.Muller@durham.ac.uk | |
| Dissection of the Mode-of-Action of Miltefosine – A Potent Anti-Fungal and Anti-Leishmanial Chemotherapeutic | Prof. Paul Denny | p.w.denny@durham.ac.uk | |
| Understanding Ageing-Related Deficits in Hippocampal Boundary and Object Spatial Coding | Prof. Colin Lever | colin.lever@durham.ac.uk | |
| The Role of Mitochondria in Age-Related Decline of the Diet-Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis | Dr. Rebecca Clark | rebecca.clark2@durham.ac.uk | |
| Nutrient Uptake in Commensal Bacteria: Exploring Uncharacterised TonB-Dependent Transporters | Dr. Karrera Djoko | karrera.djoko@durham.ac.uk | |
| Angry and Alone: How Social Experience Shapes Female Aggression in Flies | Dr. Eleanor Bath | eleanor.bath@durham.ac.uk | |
| Newcastle University | Control of Top-Down and Bottom-Up Information by Serotonin: A Combined Experimental and Computational Approach | Dr. Srikanth Ramaswamy | Srikanth.Ramaswamy@newcastle.ac.uk |
| Dissecting Gram-Negative Envelope Biogenesis to Understand Drug Delivery in Gram-Negative Pathogens | Dr. Manuel Banzhaf | manuel.banzhaf@newcastle.ac.uk | |
| Characterising Antibacterial Toxins in the Food-Borne Pathogen Listeria Monocytogenes | Prof. Tracy Palmer | tracy.palmer@newcastle.ac.uk | |
| Understanding Structure, Dynamics, Formation and Properties of Complex Sphingolipid-Asyn Proteolipid Fibrils | Dr. Agnieszka Bronowska | agnieszka.bronowska@ncl.ac.uk | |
| RNA Sensing at the Powerhouse: Mitochondrial Drivers of Innate Immunity | Prof. Gavin Hudson | Gavin.Hudson@newcastle.ac.uk | |
| Climbing the Ladder: Establishing the Biosynthetic Origin of Ladderane Lipids | Prof. Paul Race | paul.race1@ncl.ac.uk | |
| Energy for Life: Cardiac Metabolic Adaptation from Development to Ageing | Dr. Helen Phillips | Helen.Phillips@newcastle.ac.uk | |
| Exploiting the Bacterial DNA Damage Response as an Alternative Antimicrobial | Dr. Charles Winterhalter | Charles.Winterhalter@newcastle.ac.uk | |
| The Impact of the RNA Exosome on Ribosome Specialisation in Different Cell Types | Dr. Claudia Schneider | Claudia.Schneider@newcastle.ac.uk | |
| Project Graviage: The Gravity of Aging – Using Microgravity as a Model for Metabolic Aging | Dr. Adam Wollman | adam.wollman@newcastle.ac.uk | |
| Mechanisms of Chromosome Alignment and Error Correction in Bovine Oocytes | Dr. Suzanne Madgwick | suzanne.madgwick@newcastle.ac.uk | |
| Structural and Functional Investigations into a Putative Cobalt Transporter Conserved in Mycobacteria | Dr. Kate Beckham | kate.beckham@ncl.ac.uk | |
| Forged by Iron: Synthetic Protein Binders to Decode Bacterial Iron Transport Mechanisms | Dr. Kesha Josts | kesha.josts@newcastle.ac.uk | |
| Microbial Metal-Head: The Integrated Roles of Metal Homeostasis in Host-Pathogen Interaction | Dr. James Connolly | James.Connolly2@newcastle.ac.uk | |
| Northumbria University | From Polymorphism to Phenotype: Integrative Analysis of Retrotransposon Insertions in Human Populations | Dr. Ruchi Shukla | ruchi.shukla@northumbria.ac.uk |
| The Molecular Basis of Age-Related Changes to Lumbosacral Spinal Autonomic and Motoneurons | Dr. Rachel Ranson | rachel.n.ranson@northumbria.ac.uk | |
| Resistance, Resilience, and Redundancy in the Human Gut Microbiome | Prof. Christopher van der Gast | chris.vandergast@northumbria.ac.uk | |
| Novel Bacterial-Host Stress Pathway Interactions: Targets for both Novel Anti-Microbial Resistance and Anti-Inflammatory Therapeutics | Dr. Antony Antoniou | antony.antoniou@northumbria.ac.uk | |
| Unravelling the Molecular Basis of Phenotypes Resulting from Deletion of NAD(P)H Quinone Oxidored reductase in Pseudomonas Aeruginosa | Dr. Ali Ryan | ali.ryan@northumbria.ac.uk | |
| Teesside University | Dissecting the Molecular Mechanisms of Toxoplasma Gondii ROP Kinases in Host Cell Invasion | Dr. Kalesh Karunakaran | k.karunakaran@tees.ac.uk |
| Autophagy-Driven Stemness Landscape in Stressed Brain Organoids (ATLAS) | Dr. Sreejith Raveendran | Sreejith.r@tees.ac.uk | |
| Engineering and Optimisation of Actinobacterial Petases Using AI Approaches | Dr. Hong Gao | h.gao@tees.ac.uk | |
| Investigating the Roles of mtDNA Mutations in Healthy Ageing | Dr. Tora K. Smulders-Srinivasan | t.smulders@tees.ac.uk | |
| CASE Projects | SUMO Code: Deciphering How Sumoylation Enables Plants to Adapt to Their Environment | Prof. Ari Sadanandom | ari.sadanandom@durham.ac.uk |
| Phytoimage: Next-Generation Plant Bioimaging Technology for Cytoskeletal Coordination, Signalling and Stress-Responsive Morphogenesis | Dr. Tim Hawkins | t.j.hawkins@durham.ac.uk | |
| Novel Behavioural Assays to Study Mosquito Pheromone Signalling | Dr. Olena Riabinina | olena.riabinina@durham.ac.uk | |
| Synthetic Biology for Light-Activated Smart Materials | Dr. Thomas Howard | Thomas.Howard@newcastle.ac.uk | |
| Harnessing Genome Engineering, Structural and Computational Biology to Discover How an RNA Binding Preserves Transcriptome Integrity | Prof. David Elliott | david.elliott@ncl.ac.uk | |
| The Effect of Stress on Pollinator Behaviour | Dr. Vivek Nityananda | vivek.nityananda@newcastle.ac.uk | |
| Establishing a Glyco-Enzyme Toolkit for Designer Glycoproteins | Dr. Tom McAllister | tom.mcallister@newcastle.ac.uk | |
| Survival of the Oldest: Mitochondrial Remodelling and Stress Resistance in Pathogenic Yeast | Dr. Alessandra da Silva Dantas | alessandra.da-silva-dantas1@newcastle.ac.uk | |
| Developing High Content Imaging Technologies to Capture the Complexity of the Innate Immune System | Dr. Kate Harris | kate.harris@newcastle.ac.uk | |
| Can Natural Feed Supplements Improve Stress Resilience in Commercial Laying Hens? | Dr. Tom Smulders | tom.smulders@ncl.ac.uk | |
| Understanding How Management Drives the Virulence of Varroa Destructor in the European Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera) | Dr. Giles Budge | giles.budge@newcastle.ac.uk | |
| Investigating How Ageing Affects Host-Pathogen Interactions in a C. Elegans Model of Fungal Infection | Dr. Elizabeth Veal | e.a.veal@ncl.ac.uk | |
| Northumbria University | Design and Evaluation of a New Class of Fluorescent Cellular Probes for High Content Imaging | Dr. Jonathan Knowles | jonathan.p.knowles@northumbria.ac.uk |
| Cholinergic Function and Ageing: Establishing Normative Data and Associations with Gait and Cognition | Dr. Rodrigo Vitorio | rodrigo.vitorio@northumbria.ac.uk | |
| Skin Microbiome Reporter Models for Studying the Effects of Consumer Good Actives on Healthy Microbiomes | Dr. Paul James | paul.b.c.james@northumbria.ac.uk | |
| Harnessing Bacteria as Green Chemical Factories: Engineering Surface-Display Systems in Rhodococcus for Efficient Cell-Based Biocatalysis | Dr. Lynn Dover | lynn.dover@northumbria.ac.uk | |
| How Does Replacing Meat with Alternative Sources of Protein Affect Colonic Genotoxicity? | Dr. Daniel Commane | daniel.commane@northumbria.ac.uk | |
| Teesside University | Interpretable Precision Phenotyping for Sustainable Livestock Systems | Dr. Mengyuan Wang | mengyuan.wang@tees.ac.uk |
| Unlocking Mangiferin: Engineering Ultraviolet (UV) Protection for Skin and Hair | Prof. Muhammad Safwan Akram | safwan.akram@tees.ac.uk | |
| Digestibility and Health Impacts of Ultra-Processed Foods | Dr. Jibin He | jibin.he@tees.ac.uk |
Feel free to ask if you need more information or modifications!
How to Apply
The application process consists of two steps:
- Complete the online Google Form.
- Email supporting documents to needl@newcastle.ac.uk, including:
- CV with references
- Cover letter outlining project choice and relevant information
- Relevant degree transcripts and certificates
- IELTS/TOEFL certificate (if applicable)
- Passport copy
Last Date for Apply
5 PM (GMT) on February 27, 2026
For more details and to access the application form, please visit the NEEDL website.
