Programme Overview
The Rosalind Franklin Institute (the Franklin) is a national institute for technology development for the life sciences in the UK – funded by the government through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The principal goal is to bring about transformative changes in technologies which will allow us to see the biological world in new ways: from single molecules to entire organoids. The insights generated will speed up drug design and development and push forward our understanding of human health and disease.
Students on the EPSRC UKRI-funded Franklin PhD Programme are fully funded for four years, including stipend, tuition fees, training and consumables. Franklin PhD students are immersed at the Franklin hub as a cohort where they experience a vibrant, interdisciplinary research environment that draws strength from a network of UK academic partners and industrial collaborators. This combination of features (the immersion, the cohort, the interdisciplinarity, the university networks and the Harwell Science Campus) is unique.
The main programme aims are:
- To achieve an outstanding student experience marked by excellence in science, technology, training and mentorship
- Graduation of doctoral students with a technology focussed skillset leading to employment in high-value academic and industry positions
- To make a difference in the technologies used to study life.
The Franklin consists of a hub at Harwell Campus in Oxfordshire with partner spokes at leading UK Universities, including University of Edinburgh. University of Edinburgh are our training partners for the first year of the PhD programme.
Projects
Early during their time at the Franklin, students will receive a catalogue of potential ideas for their PhD projects which are aligned with the Franklin Challenges, from which they are asked to shortlist their preferred options.
The ideas in the project catalogue are very much starting points, as students are expected and encouraged to take an active role in co-developing their assigned idea into an interdisciplinary research project. This should be informed by their time spent rotating around the Franklin’s various scientific areas during their first weeks on programme. Initially, students will have the opportunity to explore their research idea via the mini-12-week project that takes place from January.
Following this mini project in the Spring, students will have the opportunity to develop it into a full PhD project, incorporating recommended revisions, based on initial data, and student interests and skills. Students are asked to write a report and research proposal outlining how they would take the PhD work forward for evaluation by a panel, led by the University of Edinburgh. In pursuing their research, students will work with a supervisory team comprising academics that are both internal and external to the Franklin, including a primary internal supervisor and a primary external supervisor that are invested in the success of the student’s research and professional development.
International students will be registered with University of Edinburgh throughout their time at the Franklin and so must select a project with a University of Edinburgh academic supervisor. They will go through the same process as the cohort, with the exception of the university transfer.
Affiliations
Our collaborators include research institutes, universities and industrial companies from across the breadth of the UK. For the PhD programme, we are collaborating with Franklin member and non-member universities. Some of our PhD collaborators are shown here:
Although Franklin students will have a multi-institutional supervisory team, they will spend the majority of their time in our central Hub in Harwell Campus (Oxfordshire), to ensure that they have access to the resources and technologies which will be instrumental for their research. However, visits to their awarding university and other external facilities are expected to give them the appropriate training.
Supervision
Franklin students will each have a supervisory panel throughout their PhD journey. This includes Franklin scientists and university scientists. Each student will also have a personal tutor to meet with informally on a frequent basis. Our Early Careers Lead, Reshma Roy, and PhD coordinator, Phil King, who manage the PhD programme, will also be supporting students’ experience and professional development.