Doctoral Training Programme

We’re supporting Queen Mary University of London to develop the next generation of biomedical researchers, whose focus will be on improving the health of East Londoners.

We’re committed to invest £4.85m over the next five years to establish the Barts Charity Doctoral Training Programme, a new non-clinical programme. It forms a key part of our strategy to enhance healthcare research and build research leadership in East London. The Programme will enhance our current investment in non-clinical PhD students by bringing them together into one cohort.

About the Barts Charity Doctoral Training Programme

The Barts Charity Doctoral Training Programme will fund five PhD students every year for the next five academic years.

This will be a cohort-based PhD programme. This means that, rather than pursue their studies separately, the students will be brought together as a group, both for training sessions and to provide a more supportive environment.

What will be unique about this Programme is its focus on the health challenges and diseases that are experienced by our local community.

The Programme will also appoint an equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) champion and a student lead. These appointees will ensure that a diverse group of students are recruited, and that EDI best practice is followed.

The future impact of this funding

The programme will develop a host of world-class researchers, who will have a focus on the needs of East London – and will have great connections with the local community. It’s hoped that this programme will have long-term impact by motivating these researchers to continue focusing on underserved communities as their careers develop beyond their PhDs.

The Doctoral Training Programme will offer students a robust training programme that will provide training in many areas including:

Research skills
Collaborating across different disciplines – including roundtables with clinicians and patients
Career development training, including transferable skills to prepare them for diverse career paths from academia to industry, and from policy to public engagement

“This next generation of biomedical researchers will investigate and understand the complex health needs of our East London community, develop innovative solutions, and contribute new insights to their fields. We look forward to working with Queen Mary on this locally-relevant PhD programme – which will deliver real health benefits to East London.”

Fiona Miller Smith, Chief Executive of Barts Charity

PhD students

focused on improving the health of East London over the course of five academic years

£4.85m

investment

to develop the next generation of biomedical researchers.

How this helps our community

Engagement with patients and the local community will be integral to this new programme. In collaboration, they will be co-producing research themes that will inform project development and selection. They will also be engaged in research projects as they are delivered.

The students will gain valuable insight into health challenges for the East London community through training, events and interaction with clinical facing roles. As part of their PhDs, they will also regularly present and provide feedback on their work to the local community.

“Community engagement will be a cornerstone of the programme, which, combined with a cutting-edge research training programme, will equip the next generation of researchers to deliver new treatments targeted at improving health for our local population.”

Professor Amrita Ahluwalia, Queen Mary University of London

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