2025/26 Thematic Programme

Themes

EastBio student projects are designed around three key themes:

1. Healthy People, Animals and Plants
2. Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems
3. A Resilient Bioeconomy

Meetings

Meetings among the members of a thematic group are a mandatory element of the training programme, which primarily aims at cohort-building throughout the first year.

These meetings are student-led and should take place at different partner institutions 3 times over the course of the year, ideally in alternate months.

The final thematic meeting will take place during the EastBio symposium, to reduce travel for attendees. This may be a joint meeting across groups if there is shared interest in a topic such as industry-collaboration, science communication or big data in life sciences.

Second-year students are expected to attend at least one of these sessions, and can attend any meeting that is interesting and relevant to them.

Healthy People, Animals and Plants

Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems

A Resilient Bioeconomy

Highlights from recent thematic meetings:

Healthy People, Animal & Plants: Ethical and Sustainable Uses of Generative AI in Biosciences

Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems: What does sustainability mean to you?

First year PhD students recently attended the Sustainable Agriculture Thematic Meeting at the James Hutton Institute in Dundee, an inspiring and highly informative event. The day showcased a diverse lineup of expert speakers exploring the theme ‘what does sustainability mean to you?’. The meeting provided an excellent opportunity for first year PhD students to engage with interdisciplinary perspectives and consider how sustainability frameworks can be applied across their own research projects.

Professor Hamlyn Jones from the University of Dundee presented a compelling case study on using thermal sensing to monitor vegetation, while Stephanie Arnott, Technical Business Development at Veramaris, explored sustainable growth in aquaculture. Dr. Noel Juvigny-Khenafou, Lecturer in Aquatic Environmental Science at the University of Stirling, highlighted the effects of multiple stressors across scales in agroecosystems, and Debbie Fielding, Research Assistant at the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen, shared valuable insights from the long-term upland grazing experiment at Glen Finglas.

The presentations were followed by an engaging panel Q&A and a lively discussion on sustainable agriculture, making the day both thought-provoking and rewarding event. Discussions ranged from the practical challenges of implementing sustainable practices to broader questions around policy, scale, and long-term impact.

Overall, the thematic meeting offered valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities of sustainable agriculture and encouraged students to critically reflect on how their own research can contribute to more resilient food and land-use systems.