Millions to train new scientists

Life science students at the first pilot training centre in Oxford

More than �25m is being invested in training a new generation of scientists and engineers in Oxford.

It is part of �250m being invested nationally to help Britain tackle the major scientific challenges of the future.

The money will fund 44 training centres for PHD students, four of them at Oxford University.

Two of the centres in Oxford are already established and they helped 'pioneer' this new research project.

'Changing' science

The aim is to create 'communities' of researchers with a greater breadth of knowledge and understanding.

Each of Oxford's four Doctoral Training Centres (DTC) will take in 10 PHD students from different academic backgrounds each year.

Two students together are already more likely to be able to solve problems, than either of them would do alone. Charlotte Dean Oxford University

"It is changing the way we do science," said Charlotte Dean, the director of the Systems Biology DTC.

"They will be working together on problems and they can cross-fertilise in a way that traditionally, we haven't been as good at as we should have been.

"If you have a student who has done a great deal of biochemistry, working with someone who has done a great deal of mathematics, for example - two students together are already more likely to be able to solve problems, than either of them would do alone.

"Cancer modelling is really good example. It is very difficult to do. You need to be able to understand the biology of cancer, understand mathematics and engineering techniques and understand the devices you might like to build which would be helpful for curing cancer in the future."

OXFORD'S TRAINING CENTRES Life Sciences Systems Biology Industrial Biomedical Engineering

Physics graduate, Richard Mann is in his third year at Oxford's Life Sciences Interface DTC, one of the country's first pilot centres.

He is now working with zoologists looking at very large data sets from field studies.

"For the zoologists it is like they are getting something for nothing, as we can often get very interesting results out of data they have gathered just as a control for a particular study.

"Sometimes they think we are magicians."

Oxford University said it was very fortunate to have won a share of the �250m being invested by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) nationally.

The money will fund the centres over the next five years.

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