CIC-START PhD Programme

The Crop Innovation Centre - Skills, Technology And Research Training Programme (CIC-START) is an industrial doctoral landscape award (IDLA) funded by BBSRC that tackles skills shortages in UK agriculture by training researchers who can translate crop science into practical innovations.

This collaboration between the Universities of Dundee, Nottingham, Harper Adams and the James Hutton Institute brings on board more than 20 industrial partners from across the barley, potato and cereals sectors. The programme will support resilient, sustainable production and will deliver benefits across crop supply chains with research projects aligned to three broad themes:

• Sustainable agricultural systems - resilient production via crop management and genetics, using precision phenotyping, new breeding technologies, AI and big data.
• Crop and soil health - resistance and integrated pest management (including AI-driven prediction) and improving the root-soil interface (carbon, water and nutrient availability; cover crops).
• Waste and GHG reductions - reducing inputs and losses, improving resource-use efficiency, mitigating emissions, and reducing post-harvest damage (e.g., bruising/spoilage).

Our 4-year PhD programme offers students the opportunity to become part of a collaborative community of researchers from both academia and industry. Each studentship covers full tuition fees, a stipend at the UKRI rate and a research grant to support project costs.

What you will gain

• A high-quality PhD project embedded in a wider programme with strong academic and industry engagement - projects and training are co-created with industry to stay focused on real-world needs and include an industrial placement
• Structured training in general and specialist skills and individual development planning aligned to the Vitae Researcher Development Framework.
• Knowledge-exchange opportunities through placements and programme events, with regular chances to present your work to academic and industry stakeholders.
• A positive, supportive culture with clear feedback routes, and a commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion (including flexible participation options for many projects).

How to apply

Projects available for September/October 2026 entry, more details on the individual projects are below, you can select up to three choices in your application form.

Complete your application form through the Apply Now link

The deadline for applications is Monday 10^th August 2026

Project 26G - Exploiting pathogen interactions to boost potato defence and develop sustainable pest management solutions

Supervisors 

Lead Supervisor –James Price(James Hutton Institute)

Additional Supervisors – Ashleigh Holmes, Matthew Back (Harper Adams University) and Dawn Arnold (Harper Adams University)

Industrial Supervisor – Don Pendergrast, Agrii

Location 

This project will be based at the James Hutton Institute with some time spent at Harper Adams University, Centre for Crop and Environmental Science 

The Project

Potato cyst nematodes (Globodera spp., PCN) are among the most damaging pathogens to potato production globally. Blackleg, caused by Pectobacterium and Dickeya spp., causes downgrading of seed potatoes and soft rot storage losses. While both potato cyst nematode and Pectobacterium spp. infections are common in some areas, simultaneous infection of both pathogens in the same host are almost never seen. As obligate, sedentary parasites, PCN must protect their feeding site to complete their lifecycle. Comparatively, bacterial pathogens are mobile with short generation times.

Both PCN and Pectobacterium are known to respond to host root exudates facilitating host invasion. PCN hatching is controlled by chemical cues produced in potato root exudates. Younger plants produce root exudates with a higher ratio of hatch inhibitors to hatch factors meaning that fewer nematodes infect earlier, thus reducing infection pressure on young immature plants. After successful invasion, PCN are known to modify their host to produce a suitable feeding site. It is possible that this modification by PCN also changes  the composition of host root exudates, producing products that deter infection from other pathogens that may threaten the viability of the host. Similarly, PCN may not perceive Pectobacterium infected hosts in the same way, avoiding them where possible.

This project will look at two groups of host elicitors, namely proteins and metabolites. Novel 3D-printed chemotaxis chambers will help identify the presence of chemical attractants/deterrents in root diffusates following infection by different pathogens. Diffusates demonstrating unusual activity towards different pathogens will be analysed by tandem mass spectrometry. Concurrently, a library of plant defence response elicitors will be used to develop assays evaluating whether all elicitors induce the same form of defence response. Finally, commercial and newly identified elicitors from this project will be used to validate whether elicitors from one pathogen could be used mount a plant defence response, deterring different pathogens (PCN, blackleg and late blight). Greenhouse studies will identify whether these effects could be scaled up, producing novel, biologically-derived, management options for IPM toolkits.

Research outcomes offer the potential to guide development of new biologically-derived pathogen controls. The student undertaking the project will have access to expertise across potato production, host-pathogen interactions, nematode and bacterial biology in addition to top quality facilities provided by the James Hutton Institute and Harper Adams University including dedicated microscopy and genome technology facilities. The project will include a mixture of laboratory and greenhouse-based work, providing practical skills in molecular biology, microscopy, plant pathology and data analysis. 

In summary, the objectives for this PhD project are:

• Identify molecular interactions between common potato pathogens including Potato Cyst Nematodes and  Pectobacterium spp..  
• Characterise changes to host root exudates upon pathogen infection 
• Monitor disease complexes promoting host avoidance following bacterial or nematode invasion
• Assay development for comparing priming response from commercial plant defence response elicitors and test elicitors against a pathogen culture collection (bacteria, nematodes and oomycetes).

Training: The successful candidate will be embedded in a wider CIC-START training programme with strong academic and industry engagement - projects and training are co-created with industry to stay focused on real-world needs and include an industrial placement. The studentship will offer interdisciplinary training in soil biogeochemistry, plant physiology, and microbial ecology, with opportunities to engage with academia and industry. The student will also develop skills in classical chemical and advanced soil analysis, statistical data analysis, scientific communication, and experimental design in both the field and controlled environments. 

Project 26H - Towards a climate-smart Barley Breeding System

Supervisors
Lead Supervisor – Dr. Miriam Schreiber, James Hutton Institute
Additional Supervisors – Dr. Ruth Hamilton, James Hutton Institute; Dr. Sebastian Raubach, James Hutton Institute & Prof. Davide Bulgarelli, University of Dundee
Industrial Supervisor – Ian Archer, James Hutton Scientific Services

Location
This project will be based at the James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie and the appointed student will register at the University of Dundee as the Degree Awarding Institution.

The project
Barley is an important crop underpinning the brewing and distilling industries as well as providing feed for livestock. Decades of breeding effort have produced high-yielding, high-quality elite varieties, and extensive field trials conducted at the James Hutton Institute have generated rich datasets spanning yield, yield components such as thousand grain weight, flowering time, and detailed genotypic data derived from 50k SNP-chip and exome capture studies. This project will harness those accumulated field trial, genotypic, and environmental datasets to develop a climate-smart barley breeding system suited to northern latitudes.

The project will pursue two complementary aims:

1. Conduct a scoping study, in close collaboration with industry partner James Hutton Limited, to identify the requirements for a practical barley breeding application -- examining what such a tool would need to deliver and how it could be implemented in a real breeding context.
2. Apply advanced genetic and bioinformatic tools to build a predictive model of how environmental conditions, in the context of climate change, affect yield and yield components including flowering time and using this to identify genotypes best suited to future conditions and to inform the design of field and polytunnel validation trials.

The project offers a blend of bioinformatic and analytical experience alongside opportunities for field work, and can develop in directions that reflect the interests and strengths of the student. The successful candidate will be embedded in a wider CIC-START training programme with strong academic and industry engagement. Projects and training are co-created with industry to stay focused on real-world needs and include an industrial placement.

The student will be based in a new state-of-the-art research complex hosting the International Barley Hub, offering rich opportunities to interact with peers and scholars at the forefront of barley science.

Training: The successful candidate will be embedded in a wider CIC-START training programme with strong academic and industry engagement - projects and training are co-created with industry to stay focused on real-world needs and include an industrial placement. The studentship will offer interdisciplinary training in soil biogeochemistry, plant physiology, and microbial ecology, with opportunities to engage with academia and industry. The student will also develop skills in classical chemical and advanced soil analysis, statistical data analysis, scientific communication, and experimental design in both the field and controlled environments. 

Advert information