Delivering more productive, healthy, resilient and sustainable agriculture and food systems
*CASE: These are CASE DTP studentships. As part of the programme, you will be required to undertake a placement with the CASE partner for a minimum of 3 months.
*AP: These are Standard DTP studentships with an associate partner where you will be required to spend approximately a total of 50% of your time with each of the partners. You will be registered at one of the partner universities of the lead supervisors.
| Project title | Main / Rothamsted supervisor | Host institution | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|
| A genomic approach to understand insecticide toxicokinetics in a global crop pest *CASE | Prof Chris Bass | University of Exeter (Penryn) | Crop pest, insect, aphid, insecticide |
| Agronomic efficiency and additional benefits of sustainable phosphate fertilizers *CASE | Dr Martin Blackwell | Rothamsted Research (North Wyke) | Sustainable fertiliser, phosphorus, micronutrients, agronomic efficiency |
| Answering key questions around One Health antimicrobial resistance using a new livestock research data platform | Dr Kristen K. Reyher | University of Bristol | One Health, antimicrobial resistance, data, epidemiology, computer science |
| Characterising the effect of root secretions in vertical farming systems *CASE | Dr Claire Grierson | University of Bristol | Root exudates, aeroponics, vertical farming, root hairs, plant growth |
| CRISPR for ultra-low acrylamide wheat *CASE | Prof Nigel Halford | Rothamsted Research (Harpenden) | Crop genetic improvement, Genome editing, CRISPR, Food safety, Plant breeding |
| CRISPR-Cas9 gene drives to eradicate antimicrobial resistance from bacterial communities | Dr Stineke van Houte | University of Exeter (Penryn) | Antibiotic resistance, AMR, CRISPR-Cas9, bacteria, microbial communities |
| Deriving social networks in cattle and their relation to health and sustainability | Prof Andrew Dowsey | University of Bristol | Food security, Sustainability, Animal Health, Social Networks, Artificial Intelligence |
| Developing a unified computational framework to evaluate biological, environmental and veterinary performances of livestock farms *CASE | Dr Taro Takahashi | University of Bristol | Veterinary science, agricultural science, sustainability assessment, life cycle assessment, antimicrobial resistance |
| Development of low cost, small scale, energy efficient biofilm systems for the treatment of agricultural wastes and remediation of aquatic systems *CASE | Prof Darren Reynolds | University of the West of England; UWE (apply to University of Bristol) | Rivers, bioremediation, agriculture, biofilms, nutrients |
| Enhancing the stress tolerance and shelf life of horticultural crops through light quality manipulation *CASE | Dr Kerry Franklin | University of Bristol | Plant Science, light signalling, UV-B, stress, crop |
| Exploring communication mechanisms between fungal pathogens and plant cells | Prof Kim E Hammond-Kosack | Rothamsted Research (Harpenden) | Bioimaging, Fusarium, Zymoseptoria, wheat, arabidopsis, rice, virus induced gene silencing (VIGS) |
| Fusarium disease of wheat – exploring tissue specific host-pathogen interactions using a systems biology approach | Dr Martin Urban | Rothamsted Research (Harpenden) | Computational network analysis, bioimaging, single cell transcriptomics, Fusarium, wheat, gene deletion, virus induced gene silencing (VIGS) |
| Identifying mechanisms for cell division plane orientation in plants | Dr Jill Harrison | University of Bristol | Plant development, CLAVATA, cell division plane, Physcomitrella |
| Intercepting CLAVATA receptor-like kinase function to engineer ear size in wheat *CASE | Dr Jill Harrison | University of Bristol | Plant development, wheat, CLAVATA, receptor kinase |
| Investigating the interplay of 3D chromosome structure and non-coding RNAs in plant defence | Dr Hans-Wilhelm Nuetzmann | University of Bath | Non-coding RNA, Epigenetics, Bioinformatics, Plant Science, Biophysics |
| Livestock grazing behaviour and impact on soil nutrients | Dr Laura Cardenas | Rothamsted Research (North Wyke) | Cattle, grazing behaviour, spatial heterogeneity |
| Long-term changes in the abundance and phenology of nocturnal insects as potential drivers of population change in bats in agricultural landscapes | Dr James Bell | Rothamsted Research (Harpenden) | Insect Biomass, Trophic Mismatch, Bioacoustics, Farmland, Sustainable Agriculture |
| Mass spectroscopy imaging of plant – fungi interactions: Understanding symbiosis for sustainable crop production *AP | Dr Peter Eastmond / Prof William Griffiths | Rothamsted Research (Harpenden) (apply here) / Swansea University | Biochemistry, mass spectrometry imaging, lipidomics, symbiosis, sustainable agriculture |
| Meaningful microbiomes: Investigation of host-microbiome interactions in liver fluke infections | Prof Mick Bailey | University of Bristol | Microbiome, Immunity, Parasitology, Ruminant, Bioinformatics |
| Metabolic engineering in mint plants: increasing essential oil yields through genetic manipulation of biosynthetic pathways | Dr Simon Scofield | Cardiff University | Metabolic engineering, genetic modification, Mentha, secondary metabolite biosynthesis, modular gene cloning |
| Nitrogen use efficiency in N2 fixing systems | Prof Richard Evershed | University of Bristol | Legumes, NUE, atmospheric nitrogen, BNF |
| Positive plastics: biodegradable plastic mulch films for enhanced crop production and environmental benefits | Dr David Withall | Rothamsted Research (Harpenden) | Plastic mulch film, soil quality, biodegradable, crop production, crop protection |
| Re-engineering Golgi dynamics in plants | Dr Imogen Sparkes | University of Bristol | Cell biology, myosin, microscopy, plants, biochemistry |
| Running to stand still; the ongoing evolution of a major agricultural weed | Dr Paul Neve | Rothamsted Research (Harpenden) | Plant ecology, evolutionary genetics, quantitative genetics, adaptation, weed biology |
| Salad contamination with Listeria – improving food safety through understanding plant-bacterial interactions and development of novel detection methods | Dr Carsten Muller | Cardiff University | Listeria, food borne pathogen, rocket salad, volatile organic compounds, plant-bacterial interactions |
| Soil microbiome transplantation | Prof Angus Buckling | University of Exeter (Penryn) | Soil health, microbiome, mathematics, evolution, omics |
| Structure-function studies of Coxiella burnetii O-antigen biosynthesis *CASE | Prof Nicholas Harmer | University of Exeter (Streatham) | Structural biology, crystallisation, synthetic biology, Coxiella burnetii, enzymes |
| The role of Rho GTPases in plant immunity | Dr Michael Deeks | University of Exeter (Streatham) | Cell signalling , cell polarity, plant immunity, cytoskeleton, mathematical modelling |