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he UK Pharmaceutical Sector lies at the heart of the life sciences ecosystem, providing one of the key growth engines in the UK economy. In 2022, the £9 billion of pharmaceutical R&D accounted for 18% of all R&D performed by all UK businesses - the highest of any product area (UK Government). GSK has invested heavily in data-driven approaches to pharmaceutical R&D that are both informed by and provide new insight into biological processes. The goal is simple: make R&D more productive by reducing drug failure rates and speeding up time to adoption. However, for these advances to transform our understanding of biology and health, a parallel shift in the way that we train future industrial and academic research leaders is needed.
GSK together with the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Southampton are delighted to announce that the BBSRC has awarded funding to launch a new doctoral programme to train the next generation of leaders in pharmaceutical science. The BBSRC Industrial Landscape Award in Transformative Technologies for Pharmaceutical Science (TTPS) will fund three cohorts of eight doctoral students each year from 2026 to 2028.
Students will be trained in cutting-edge, data-centred, mathematical and computational modelling approaches and commercial skills necessary to lead this new approach to pharmaceutical R&D, becoming future research leaders across this vitally important sector of the UK economy, and ultimately supporting the Government’s vision of the UK as a global hub for the Life Sciences. Students will gain the communication, business and social skills necessary to forge new partnerships and to create interdisciplinary teams that can tackle global challenges.
Read the full story on the University of Oxford website.