Collaboration with Industry | EastBio Doctoral Landscape Award

Are you a business looking for opportunities to develop a PhD project in collaboration with a world-leading research institution?

EastBio welcomes collaboration with industry and other eligible non-academic organisations through UKRI BBSRC-funded CASE studentships.

The EastBio training programme funds a number of PhD studentships which are developed as partnerships between academia and industry. These are known as Collaborative, or CASE, Studentships.

CASE studentships bring together academic expertise and external partners to co-develop innovative research, strengthen knowledge exchange and train the next generation of bioscience researchers. They provide organisations with the opportunity to help shape research that addresses their own priorities while building long-term partnerships with leading researchers across the EastBio Partnership.

Whether you are exploring collaboration for the first time or already working with an EastBio academic, we would be delighted to discuss opportunities with you.

What is a CASE studentship?

A CASE (Collaborative Awards in Science and Engineering) studentship is a collaborative four-year PhD project jointly developed by an academic supervisor and an industry or non-academic CASE partner.

The CASE partner works with the academic supervisor to help shape the research project, contributes expertise throughout the studentship and hosts a mandatory student placement lasting between 3 and 18 months.

This collaborative approach ensures that the research remains academically excellent while addressing real-world challenges relevant to the partner organisation.

Financial commitment

EastBio offers several CASE funding routes to support organisations of different sizes.

Standard CASE studentship

Organisations with 50 or fewer employees are not required to contribute financially towards the studentship itself.

Organisations with more than 50 employees contribute a minimum amount towards project costs.

In all cases, the CASE partner is expected to support costs associated with the student's placement.

50% Industry Match-Funded CASE studentship

Organisations wishing to make a greater strategic investment may choose to contribute 50% of the total studentship costs, creating a fully co-funded CASE studentship.

Part-time Collaborative studentship

Designed for existing employees, enabling organisations to support doctoral training while strengthening long-term research collaborations.

Full details of all funding routes are available in the EastBio CASE Guidance.

EastBio CASE Guidance (66.33 KB / DOCX)

Existing collaborators

EastBio has collaborated with organisations across biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, food production, engineering, data science, animal health and the public sector.

We have built collaborations with the following industrial partner organisations and companies:

AbascusBio Ltd.	Mikota Ltd.
AB VISTA, a division of AB AGRI Ltd.	Mole Valley Feed Solutions Ltd.
Aparito Ltd.	Moredun Scientific
Aquanetix Ltd.	MSD Animal Health
BIRDS EYE Ltd.	MV Diagnostics Ltd. - Roslin Innovation Centre
Cairn Instruments	Nevrargenics Ltd
Cairn Research Ltd.	PIC (UK) Ltd
CEFAS	Proteon Pharmaceuticals SA
CyanoCapture Ltd.	Roslin Technologies
Cypralis Ltd./Selcia Eurofins	Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service
Drax Power Station	SEM Energy
Edward Vinison Ltd.	Syngenta Ltd.
EpitogenX	The Scotch Whisky Research Institute
Forestry and Land Scotland	Tocris Cookson Ltd.
Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies UK	Veterinary Medicines Directorate
Genus plc	Zenith AI
Massive Analytics	Zoetis Ltd.
Mialgae Ltd.