Applications for projects starting in September 2024 have now closed.

For fully funded studentships starting in September 2025, projects will be advertised in October 2024.

Below are the projects that were advertised last year, to give you an idea of projects that could be advertised in the future.

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 time with each of the partners. You will be asked to apply to one of the partners (as listed in the ‘Host Institution’ column), but this is just for administration purposes. You will then be registered for your postgraduate studies at one of the partner universities of the lead supervisors.  Your registered university will be confirmed by the DTP following the interview stage of the selection process.

*JD: This project in collaboration with the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England (UWE) is subject to a joint degree award. Successful applicants will be registered at both these institutions, and graduates will be awarded a joint degree from these two institutions upon successful completion of the PhD programme.

You can find out more about the project supervisor listed below and the research team by visiting our meet our supervisors webpage.

PROJECT TITLE	MAIN / ROTHAMSTED / LEAD SUPERVISOR(S)	HOST INSTITUTION	KEYWORDS
Applying deep learning to salmonella genomics: A new horizon for source tracing of pathogens in the food chain	Prof Kristen K Reyher	University of Bristol	Genomics, food safety, machine learning, bioinformatics, disease
Automated prediction of health and welfare in captive fish using behaviour from video *AP	Prof Christos Ioannou / Prof Carlos Garcia de Leaniz	University of Bristol (apply here) / Swansea University	Fish, aquaculture, computer vision, Machine learning, Deep learning
Branching Out: Genetic and epigenetic control of axillary bud fate in berries *CASE	Prof James Murray	Cardiff University	Plant breeding, genomics, epigenetics, plant architecture, gene expression
Can we predict and optimise the assembly and succession of host microbiomes? *CASE	Dr Elze Hesse	University of Exeter (Penryn)	Microbiomes, crops, sustainable agriculture, disease suppression, yield
Climate change impacts on Fusarium Head Blight disease and mycotoxin risk in wheat production	Prof Daniel Bebber	University of Exeter (Streatham)	Climate change, plant disease, mathematical modelling, mycotoxins, Fusarium
Developing markers of sentience in animals: Affect heuristics, interoception and valence detection	Dr Elizabeth Paul	University of Bristol	Affect heuristic, interoception, rat, sentience
Elucidating transposon-fungus pathogenomics to deliver more productive, sustainable, and resilient agriculture	Dr Alex Hayward	University of Exeter (Penryn)	Genomics, bioinformatics, evolution, pathogenic fungi, agriculture
Epigenetic mechanisms regulating post-harvest strawberry quality and aroma *CASE	Prof Hilary Rogers	Cardiff University	Food quality, fruit development, gene expression, epigenetic control, plant breeding
Evolution of critically important aminoglycoside resistance in humans and farmed animals and transmission between them	Prof Matthew Avison	University of Bristol	Bacteriology, molecular biology, structural biology, protein chemistry, genomics
Evolution of pesticide resistance as a complex trait: understanding genetic architecture to improve global health and sustainable agriculture *CASE	Prof Jason Wolf	University of Bath	Experimental evolution, resistance management, quantitative genetics, applied evolution, population genetics
Exploiting animal personality to reduce chronic stress in captive fish populations	Prof Alastair Wilson	University of Exeter (Penryn)	Personality, stress, fish, behaviour, genetics
Feeling the heat: understanding plant-pathogen interactions in a changing climate	Dr Richard Haslam	Rothamsted Research (Harpenden) (apply to University of Exeter)	Abiotic stress, Triticum aestivum, Zymoseptoria tritici, virulence, disease resistance
From cognition to nutrition and health: how do bees differ in their choices for plants? *CASE	Prof Natalie Hempel de Ibarra	University of Exeter (Streatham)	Diet and health, insect cognition, navigation, pollination, sustainable agriculture
Functional analysis of pollen expressed ligand-like peptides during plant reproduction	Dr Barend de Graaf	Cardiff University	Reproduction, ligands, communication, pollen, pistil
Fungal-bacterial interactions in wetwood of British broadleaf trees *AP	Dr Sarah Christofides / Dr Carrie Brady	Cardiff University (apply here) / University of the West of England; UWE	Wetwood, tree health, bacterial-fungal interactions, microbiology, ecology
Grow fast, die young: coordination of plant stem elongation and leaf senescence *CASE	Prof Kerry Franklin	University of Bristol	Photobiology, growth, PIFs, senescence
How are peroxisomes attached to the ER in plants?	Dr Imogen Sparkes	University of Bristol	Plant, confocal, physiology, cell biology, bioinformatics
How do insect microbial communities affect insecticide resistance?	Dr Bram Kuijper	University of Exeter (Penryn)	Evolutionary theory, simulations, insect experiments, microbiota, transgenerational inheritance
Impact of fungal antioxidants on crop disease	Dr Michael Deeks	University of Exeter (Streatham)	Phytopathogen, fungicide, wheat, bioimaging, antioxidant
Innovative approach to producing cell-free serotype 2 and 3 Marek’s Disease virus vaccines	Prof Shahriar Behboudi	University of Bristol	Poultry vaccine, Marek’s disease virus, cell-free viral vector, Protection
Linking plant nutritional ecology with insect chemical ecology to promote regenerative agriculture *AP	Dr Jozsef Vuts / Dr Pete Maxfield	Rothamsted Research (Harpenden) / University of the West of England; UWE (apply here)	Pest, food security, microbiology, ecology, fertiliser
Living on the edge: agrochemical pollutant contamination in tropical forest insects *CASE	Dr Filipe Machado França	University of Bristol	Sustainable agriculture, ecotoxicology, applied ecology, pesticides, tropical insects
Map based cloning and characterisation of plant loci conferring resistance to a root infecting fungus	Dr Kim Hammond-Kosack	Rothamsted Research (Harpenden) (apply to University of Exeter)	Plant root-pathogen interactions, genomic/pan genome analyses, marker development, map-based cloning, gene function validation involving AI-assisted bioimaging
Microbial solutions for tackling herbicide-resistant weeds	Dr Dana MacGregor	Rothamsted Research (Harpenden) (apply to University of Bath)	Plant-microbe interactions, herbicide-resistant weeds, arabidopsis MAGIC lines, molecular microbiology, weed molecular biology
Microbiome-parasite relationships and dynamics in livestock in response to pasture management and ecological stressors *AP	Dr Jordana Rivero / Dr Konstans Wells	Rothamsted Research (North Wyke) / Swansea University (apply here)	Host-parasite interactions, microbiome dynamics, livestock health and sustainability, pasture management, bioinformatics and ecological modelling
Molecular control of resource mobilisation in plants	Dr Vinod Kumar	University of Exeter (Streatham)	Environmental signalling, energy signalling, resource mobilisation, metabolic adaptation, crop yield
Multi-camera machine vision of a whole cattle herd for assessing the impact of interventions for environmental sustainability *CASE	Prof Andrew Dowsey	University of Bristol	Food security, net-zero, environmental sustainability, deep learning, artificial intelligence
Networking algal microbiomes for sustainable aquaculture and biotechnology *AP	Dr Fredric Windsor / Dr Eva Sonnenschein	Cardiff University (apply here) / Swansea University	Microbiology, biological interactions, metagenomics, ecology, networks
Plastic Fish: assessing the impacts of plastic pollution on aquaculture food security	Prof Jo Cable	Cardiff University	Plastic pollution, food security, aquaculture, fish welfare
Quantifying the impact of exposure to multiple anthropogenic stressors on bumblebee health *CASE	Dr Harry Siviter	University of Bristol	Pollination, pollinator decline, food security, bee decline,
Searching for the functional core for a microbiome-facilitated crop production: the case of Pseudomonas spp. in wheat rhizosphere	Dr Vanessa Nessner Kavamura Noguchi	Rothamsted Research (Harpenden) (apply to University of Bath)	Rhizosphere microorganisms, functional core, sustainable agriculture, Pseudomonas spp.
Sub-cellular localisation and functional effects of micro/nanoplastics on aquaculture fish with coherent Raman microscopy	Prof Paola Borri	Cardiff University	Optical microscopy, cell imaging, coherent Raman scattering, petrochemical plastics and bioplastics, aquaculture fish
Sustainable agriculture for the future environment (SAFE) – Optimising the nitrogen use efficiency of intercropping to mitigate pollution and climate change	Dr Ian Bull	University of Bristol	Efficiency, fixation, isotopes, legumes nitrogen
The effect of receptor like kinase mutations on wheat yield *CASE	Dr Jill Harrison	University of Bristol	Wheat, yield, receptor-like kinase, CRISPR
The genetic control of pea growth and yield under environmental stress	Dr Beatriz Gonçalves	University of Bristol	Plant architecture, branching, yield, environmental stress, pea
The mechanistic basis of sensory processing for bee-plant interactions	Prof Natalie Hempel de Ibarra	University of Exeter (Streatham)	Insect, pollination, neural and sensory mechanisms, learning and memory, behaviour
The visual ecology of crop pests and their interactions with pest control products *AP	Prof Martin Stevens / Dr William Allen	University of Exeter (Penryn) (apply here) / Swansea University	Animal vision, visual ecology, visual modelling, integrated pest management, horticulture
Time-resolved kinetic and structural understanding of essential enzymes to develop novel herbicides *CASE	Prof Nicholas Harmer	University of Exeter (Streatham)	X-ray crystallography, protein structure, biological sciences, plant sciences, biochemistry
Transient activation of herbicide resistance circuits via sugar-based nanomaterials in crops *CASE	Dr Heather Whitney	University of Bristol	Crops, herbicide, nanomaterials, synthetic biology
Understanding and improving the hailstorm resistance of crop plants	Dr Ulrike Bauer	University of Exeter (Streatham)	Plant science, hail, damage, biomechanics, physiology
Understanding plant chromosome architecture and evolution	Dr Hans-Wilhelm Nuetzmann	University of Exeter (Streatham)	Plants, chromatin, evolution, epigenetics, wheat
Understanding the epigenetic basis for variability in stress responses in plants	Dr Angharad Jones	Cardiff University	Genetics, environmental biology, plant cell biology, genomics, climate science
Understanding the molecular basis of Sitophilus olfaction: towards novel integrated pest management strategies for weevils *AP	Dr David Withall / Dr Joel Loveridge	Rothamsted Research (Harpenden) / Swansea University (apply here)	Sitophilus oryzae, Sitophilus granarius, chemical ecology, food security, insect olfaction
When to grow up? The spatiotemporal regulation of shoot maturation in plants	Dr Jim Fouracre	University of Bristol	Plant development, plant biology, genetics, transcriptomics, epigenetics
Why do plant organelles move? Generation and application of novel tools to study organelle dynamics in plants *CASE	Dr Imogen Sparkes	University of Bristol	Plant, cell biology, microscopy, plant physiology