The South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP) is to receive substantial new funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) for the training and development of bioscience PhD students.
The BBSRC has announced an investment of £125 million ‘for the next generation of scientists to drive the economy of the future’. This will fund the training of 1,250 bioscience students at 12 doctoral training centres in the UK, including the Bristol-led partnership.
The SWDTP comprising the GW4 universities of Exeter, Bristol, Bath, and Cardiff and the...
Be part of an exciting research and development project with Dreadnought South West:
Dreadnought South West – the organisation that brought you 'Oxygen', a play in celebration of the great 1913 suffrage pilgrimage – is researching and developing material through a range of activities, asking – what is a rebellious sound?
Dreadnought will be hosting a free workshop at Exeter Central Library on Tuesday 21st October to talk about Rebellious Sounds and how you can get involved.
Is there a particular woman or event – a speech, a book, a photograph – that...
A series of projects to investigate ways to increase farm productivity while reducing negative environmental impacts (sustainable intensification) will receive £4.5 million from Defra.
Three interlinked research projects will establish the Sustainable Intensification Research Platform (SIP).
The University of Exeter’s Centre for Rural Policy Research and BBSRC Rothamsted Research will lead a consortium of 22 organisations to deliver one of the SIP projects.
The £2m project will develop ways to understand the actions that are needed to ensure that landscapes can, at...
A pioneering new study has shown that water found on Earth predates the formation of the Sun – raising hopes that life could exist on exoplanets, the planets orbiting other stars in our galaxy.
The ground-breaking research set out to discover the origin of the water that was deposited on the Earth as it formed.
It found that a significant fraction of water found on Earth, and across our solar system, predates the formation of the Sun. By showing that water is ‘inherited’ from the environment when a star is born, the international team of scientists believe other...
‘Green’ offices with plants make staff happier and more productive than ‘lean’ designs stripped of greenery, new research by academics in Exeter, Cardiff, Holland and Australia have revealed.
In the first field study of its kind, published today, researchers found enriching a ‘lean’ office with plants could increase productivity by 15%.
The team examined the impact of ‘lean’ and ‘green’ offices on staff’s perceptions of air quality, concentration, and workplace satisfaction, and monitored productivity levels over subsequent months in two large commercial offices in the UK...
Damp and mould in homes could pose a significant health risk to people with asthma according to a new study by Exeter academics.
By critically reviewing the findings from 17 studies in eight different countries, the research published the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found that the presence of several types of mould can lead to breathing problems in asthma sufferers, as well as increasing the likelihood of developing the condition.
The research has been conducted by a team at the University of Exeter Medical School and is the first time all of the information...
A team led by researchers at the University of Exeter Medical School and King’s College London has uncovered some of the strongest evidence yet that epigenetic changes in the brain play a role in Alzheimer’s disease.
Epigenetic changes affect the expression or activity of genes without changing the underlying DNA sequence and are believed to be one mechanism by which the environment can interact with the genome. Importantly, epigenetic changes are potentially reversible and may therefore provide targets for the development of new therapies.
Scientists from the Universities of Exeter and Bristol have conducted a study that shows eels are losing the fight to survive when faced with marine noise pollution such as that of passing ships.
The study, published today (August 7th) in the journal Global Change Biology, found European eels were 50% less likely to respond to an ambush from a predator, while those that did had 25% slower reaction times. Those that were pursued by a predator were caught more than twice as quickly when exposed to the noise.
Lead author Dr Steve Simpson, Senior Lecturer in Marine Biology...
Youth charity The Prince’s Trust is urging more unemployed young people in the South West to embrace their inner entrepreneur and explore the option of self-employment thanks to financial backing from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
The Prince’s Trust Enterprise Programme, which helps jobless young people to start up in business, has already created more than £3.1 million in social value for the South West alone, according to research published by the charity last year .
Supported with investment from ERDF, from now until June 2015, over 1,300 more young...
Debilitating side effects associated with prescription medication for some of today’s most common conditions could be eradicated if they mimicked the body’s natural hormone secretion cycles, a new report has said.
Scientists from Exeter and Bristol have studied how conventional steroid treatments – commonly used to treat a range of conditions from steroid deficiency to inflammatory diseases such as asthma and arthritis – can have serious side effects due to the way in which they are delivered to the body.
The study concluded that many of these side effects could be...
