Programme Structure

Professional Internships for PhD Students (PIPS)

In addition to the PhD research, every BBSRC-funded student is required to gain real world working experiences outside of the academic research laboratory through the BBSRC's Professional Internship for PhD Students. The DTP student, in consultation with the supervisors and with support from Imperial's Careers Services, will pursue a minimum of three months at a placement site either in the UK, EU, or Overseas. Imperial College’s Careers Service has a successful track record of managing placement schemes and exposing students to non-academic environments through real-life workplace experience. All DTP students, whether based at Imperial or RHUL, will be able to take advantage of this service. The PIPS placement is between 3-18 months in length and is suggested to occur between the second and third year of the programme. For more information on Your PIPS within the DTP programme click here. 

Quantitative Skills Training 

Quantitative skills education provides maths and computing training for bioscience researchers developed to support the quantitative skills training needs of the the DTP Cohort. 

Professional Development Courses

The Graduate School at Imperial has a robust professional development skills programme offering over 60 different courses with over 300 individual sessions from which students can choose depending on their needs and requirements. Courses are organized into Masters and PhD levels with both offering tailor-made sessions in writing, presentations/communication, research effectiveness, business acumen as well as an overseas Global Fellows Programme. For additional information on types of courses, please visit the Graduate School website. DTP students from both institutions have the option to select any number of Graduate School courses.

Cohort Workshops & Activities

We expect to derive synergies from maintaining students as a cohesive cohort—crossing departmental, faculty and institutional divides—both for the training of the students, as well as the generation of novel scientific insights and impact. Students will be expected to participate in cohort activities to develop peer support networks and exchange information and experiences. Examples of cohort activities include a programme induction, a theme-based welcome back social, DTP Speaker Series, PIPS informational sessions, DTP in-house training workshops, an annual DTP Project Showcase, and a number of social events to foster inter-cohort relationships and building networks.