Imperial College London is unique in having the expertise required to underpin the field of Cellular Bionics (Imperial College ranked 3rd in Europe [THES] and 8th in the World [QS 2018]). The LDSP brings together more than 60 worldleading researchers from five of Imperial's departments and six Imperial College institutes:

Students on the programme will therefore benefit from exceptional training and research ecosystem bring together expertise in additive manufacturing, bioengineering, bioethics, biomembrane engineering, biomaterials, biomimicry, bottom-up synthetic biology, cellular and molecular engineering, chemical biology, design engineering, experimental soft condensed matter, human experience science, imaging, inference, materials, mathematics, microfluidics, nanotechnology, single cell analysis, spectroscopy, stochastics, systems biology and theoretical statistical physics.

Students will be required to work at the interface between the physical sciences, life sciences and engineering, pushing the boundaries of multi-disciplinary training ever further.

The Leverhulme training programme will build on the synergies between research projects by helping to establish a cohort mentality and networked science ethos. At the heart of their training is:

  • a 3-month foundation course
  • a suite of bespoke transferable skills courses enabling students to meet the challenges associated with trans-disciplinary research
  • a jointly-supervised research projects (one supervisor each from the life/medical sciences, physical sciences and engineering)

This ensures students experience the research cultures, methods and working styles within each discipline. The transferable skills courses cover everything from Science Communication through to Bioethics, Human Experience Studies, Teamwork and Decision Making Skills, Creativity Skills Development and training in prototyping technologies such as 3-D printing (FAB Lab).

Imperial College Advanced Hackspace and the Graduate School

All students will also benefit from access to the Imperial College Advanced Hackspace, one of the largest prototyping technology warehouses in the world.

These will be further supplemented by transferable Skills Courses from the Graduate School.

Imperial College has an outstanding set of transferable skills courses available through the Graduate School. The students will be able to tailor this part of their training to fit their own plans and interests and the only guidance is informal and usually provided by the supervisors for this element of the training.