Professional Internships for PhD Students (PIPS) Opportunities

Role overview These professional internship placements give eligible UK university PhD students practical experience in crop research, biotechnology, or plant genetics data science. Projects span lab-based genome editing and tissue culture through to remote work on AI models, offering opportunities to collaborate across disciplines and contribute to research connected to sustainable agriculture. Applicants must be enrolled in a PhD programme at a UK university.

Responsibilities - Help develop and optimise gene-editing methods and test approaches for targeted changes in potato. - Support tomato gene-editing and regeneration work using protoplast-based methods. - Contribute to new genome-editing tools and plant trait engineering projects. - Depending on placement, carry out laboratory work such as tissue culture, DNA extraction, PCR, sequencing, or cloning. - For the data placement, work with plant genetics datasets and help develop models that predict genetic outcomes. - Keep organised experimental or project records and communicate findings with collaborators.

Requirements - Current enrolment as a PhD student at a UK university. - Relevant interests or background in molecular biology, biotechnology, molecular or synthetic biology, plant science, data science, or a related area, depending on the project. - For lab placements, attention to detail and an interest in sterile technique and tissue culture; prior wet-lab experience is recommended for some projects. - For the tools and traits placement, experience with techniques such as DNA extraction, PCR, sequencing, or cloning is relevant. - For the data placement, coding ability (Python preferred), analytical thinking, and collaborative working skills.

Nice to have - Experience with CRISPR or other gene-editing approaches, tissue culture, bioinformatics, or statistics, depending on placement. - Familiarity with cloning methods such as Gibson or Golden Gate.

Benefits and work setup - Placements provide practical exposure to genome editing, tissue culture, experimental design, genomic analysis, scientific communication, or AI-driven plant science, according to project. - Lab projects are fully on-site at a research campus. The data project is fully remote, with optional monthly visits for presentations and team lunches.