£12.5M investment for Norwich Research Park

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) has provided an additional £12.5M to the research institutions based at Norwich Research Park.

The funding announced by Business Secretary Vince Cable (Oct 3^rd) will fund 125 PhD students through the Norwich Research Park Doctoral Training Partnership over the next five years.

The application was made by five partners across Norwich Research Park: The John Innes Centre (JIC) who led the bid, The Sainsbury Laboratory, The Genome Analysis Centre (TGAC), the Institute of Food Research and the University of East Anglia (UEA). 

Associate partners are Plant Bioscience Limited, the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and The SAW Trust.

In addition to the £12.5M announced, the partners have themselves contributed £3M to the five year programme, increasing the total number of PhD students being trained from 125 up to 156.  

Professor Dale Sanders, Director of the John Innes Centre and lead partner in the bid said: “I am thrilled that the exceptional quality of PhD training on Norwich Research Park has been recognised by an award of this magnitude. 

"JIC has a long track record of training outstanding graduate students in the life sciences, and this award from BBSRC will continue to enhance the graduate environment through synergistic interactions with UEA and our sister research institutes on Norwich Research Park.”