Wellcome boost for postgraduate scientists

The Wellcome Trust announced its backing for two major post-graduate programmes at the University including a new three-year PhD for clinical scientists which forges new links between the College of Life Sciences and the School of Medicine.

The University will share in a £137 million investment the charity is making in training the next generation of top-level scientists.

"The Wellcome Trust should be complemented on its forward-thinking in supporting these prestigious programmes," said Professor Mike Ferguson, Dean of Research in the University's College of Life Sciences.

"The clinical PhD programmes are a great idea. Biomedical science moves at a fantastic pace and it is crucial to produce medical doctors with research science training to drive future medical developments and ensure that the public benefits from scientific discoveries and technological developments."

"The College of Life Sciences at is delighted to collaborate with our Medical School to provide an innovative and dynamic PhD programme for clinicians and we look forward to receiving the first intake in 2008."

Professor Irene Leigh, Head of the College of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing, welcomed the "highly significant contribution" from the Wellcome Trust to provide future academic clinicians with a robust training in biomedical research.

"This consolidates research collaborations with the College of Life Science particularly in the fields of translational and experimental medicine," she said.

The Wellcome-funded projects are among the most prestigious PhD programmes in the UK.

The University has been running the Wellcome-funded four-year PhD programme in Molecular and Cellular Biology for the past seven years. The programme accepts five students each year.

The new Clinical PhD programme will accept five students each year for the next three years. It gives clinical PhD students access to the established best practice that has proved so successful for the training of basic scientists.

The Dundee programmes are part of a major investment announcement from the Wellcome Trust in postgraduate biomedical research training in the UK. The Trust, the UK's largest medical research charity, is making available £137 million over 9 years for four-year PhD programmes for basic biomedical scientists and PhD Programmes for Clinicians.