Page 12 - Periodic Issue 04

New E lements in Graduate Training

An innovative approach to graduate training is enabling the Department of Chemistry to build strong links
with industry and train up a new generation of chemists with commercially-relevant expertise.

Graduate study is often regarded see some great progress in the projects
as a rather solitary pursuit – a and look forward to much more in
single student working alone on the coming months.” By enabling
his or her own research topic, and everyone to talk openly about the
liaising mainly with an academic science, it also promotes additional
supervisor. Increasingly, however, interactions outside the CDT (for
a new approach is being sought example, around research that may be
through Centres for Doctoral more confidential).
Training (CDTs), which offer The benefits both for graduates and
graduate students the chance industry are considerable. Students are
to get a broad overview of a field of study before choosing a admitted to the programme, rather than to a specific research
specific research topic. CDTs tend to be more interdisciplinary group, and in the first year they pursue an intensive course of
than standard DPhil courses, and often contain a substantial highly-focused training in all aspects of synthetic chemistry
taught element, especially in the first year.
– working as a single cohort for much of this time. This year
Based in the Department of Chemistry, the Synthesis for gives a comprehensive overview of the subject area and enables
Biology and Medicine CDT (SBM CDT) is now taking this the students to interact with all the key academics, as well as
approach a step further – by offering students joint academic- many of the industrial partners. One student comments: ‘We
industrial training in cutting-edge chemical synthesis and have six months of theoretical input, followed by two three-
its impact on significant problems in chemistry, biology and month lab rotations, and this is quite unique. Many people
medicine. The SBM CDT has twelve industrial partners, many have actually found that they are discovering interests that
of them major international pharmaceutical and agrochemical they didn’t even know they had, and may pursue completely
companies – including GSK, Novartis, Pfizer, Syngenta, UCB, different areas of chemistry.’
Takeda, Janssen, Vertex, Evotec, AstraZeneca and DSTL - Only in the second year do the students decide which specific
each offering specific expertise to enhance the CDT’s training. research group to join. All choices are student-led – a big
The partners contribute to the design and delivery of the improvement on a traditional 3-year DPhil (where the final
course, as well as providing industrial links, student funding research topic often has to be decided early, before the student
and placements. This means that, from the outset, students has the chance to explore all aspects of the subject). Here the
are interacting with major industrial players in the field of CDT has another innovative approach: research projects are
chemical synthesis.
clustered in six Project Fields that enable multiple researchers
Perhaps the greatest innovation is that this CDT is pioneering to approach substantial problems that are too challenging
an open-access and patent-free model to its research. for a single doctoral student. The aim is to create a network
Traditionally the issue of ‘intellectual property’ and the of interacting scientists; unlike a conventional DPhil course,
drive to patent good ideas can hamper both academia and the SBM CDT brings together students from different years
industry and lead to a restriction of the flow of ideas and to discuss research with each other through Project Field
solutions. Professor Martin Smith, Director of the SBM CDT, meetings. This may happen informally on other DPhil courses,
explains: “Our innovative academic-industry collaboration but here it is a fundamental aspect of the course.
model has facilitated the development of a vital collaborative As a result, graduates are likely to come out of the programme
network, encouraging exchange of information, know-how with skills that are directly relevant to industry and with the
and expertise between students and supervisors on different ability to tackle the problems that really need addressing.
projects and across our 12 industrial partners”.
The industrial partners have access to the Department and
The CDT’s open-access approach leads to free and transparent its academics, and to a pool of enthusiastic and interested
exchange of information, not just between the Department of graduates who will have the necessary expertise to solve the
Chemistry and individual partners, but between the partners synthesis problems of the future.
themselves, and out into the wider research community. Dr Text by Sarah Loving, Science Writer, Mathematical, Physical
William Whittingham, External Collaborations Portfolio and Life Sciences Division, University of Oxford.
Lead at Syngenta, commented on the benefits of this pre-
competitive model: “The open access model of the CDT, in W: www.oxfordsynthesiscdt.ox.ac.uk
which all partners see the results from all the projects, provides T: https://twitter.com/OxfordSynthesis
great opportunities for pre-competitive collaboration, not
just between individual companies and academics, but also F: www.facebook.com/SBMCDT
between the companies themselves. We are already starting to E: SynthesisCDT@chem.ox.ac.uk

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Periodic The Magazine of the Department of Chemistry