BBSRC Wessex One Health (WOH) Doctoral Landscape Award - PhD Studentships in Infection Biosciences

The BBSRC-funded Wessex One Health (WOH) Doctoral Landscape Programme provides up to 18 fully funded PhD studentships available for October 2026. This programme will train students in interdisciplinary approaches to infection biosciences across all classes of pathogens to combat current and future disease threats to human and animal health, including emerging infections, vector-borne diseases, antimicrobial resistance and food insecurity.

Start date

1 October 2026

Duration

4 years

Application deadline

23 January 2026

Funding information

All scholarships come with UKRI stipend (currently £20,780 pa), UK fees and research costs for 4 years. A small number of international fee waivers will be available for exceptional students. Note that Dstl, UKHSA and APHA each have their own nationality and residency requirements.

Supervised by

Prof Gill Elliott

Professor of Virology

About

WOH, brings together the expertise of three university partners and four major UK institutes with national capability for working on high-consequence pathogens.

University of Surrey (Guildford, Surrey)
University of Sussex (Brighton, East Sussex)
University of Exeter, MRC Centre for Medical Mycology (Exeter, Devon)
The Pirbright Institute (Woking, Surrey)
Animal and Plant Health Agency (Weybridge, Surrey)
UK Health Security Agency (Porton Down, Wiltshire or Colindale, London)
Defence Science Technology Laboratory (Porton Down, Wiltshire).

Highlights of WOH doctoral programme:

Wide range of research projects to choose from
Cross-institutional supervisory teams
Opportunities to train at high containment
Cohort training in genomics, bioinformatics, applied AI
Cohort-building activities across all partners
Opportunities for studentships working with industry (CASE)
Wide range of short industrial placement opportunities.

Available research projects

To view the details of available projects across all partners including individual project supervisor information, please visit the available studentships page.

View studentship details

Eligibility criteria

Open to any UK or international candidates. Up to 30% of our UKRI funded studentships can be awarded to candidates paying international rate fees. Find out more about eligibility.

Please note that applicants will have or expect to have an MSc, and/or first or upper second honours degree in a relevant subject.