The Programme

Oxford Biomedica is leading on a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) funded Collaborative Training Partnership (CTP) doctoral training programme called Advanced Bioscience of Viral Products (ABViP), together with our academic partners at the University of Oxford (UOXF) and University College London (UCL). 

ABViP is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary degree programme designed and led by industry. It aims to deliver the next generation of bioscience leaders who will advance research of viral products for future gene therapies and vaccines. The ABViP-CTP will train a cohort of 24 PhD/DPhil students (18 x CTP-funded, 6 x partner-funded), over a seven-year time frame commencing in 2022 to address the acute viral vector skills shortage. We aim to initiate approximately 8x doctoral student projects in the years 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Our partners bring complementary expertise in lentiviral (LV) and adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector bioprocessing, novel analytics and data science methodologies and viral vaccine design, development, and characterisation. The academic institutions have extensive experience in leading high-quality, international doctoral training programmes including UCL’s BBSRC London Interdisciplinary Doctoral Programme DTP (LIDo) and EPSRC CDT in Bioprocess Engineering Leadership and UOXF’s BBSRC Interdisciplinary Bioscience DTP, MRC Interdisciplinary Medical Research DTP, and IBM/EPSRC Computational Discovery programme.

The first and second cohort of supervisory projects have now been chosen by the ABViP Management Board. The first cohort of students have started their doctoral training programme in October 2022 and the second cohort are due to start in the coming academic year (23/24). We are now seeking project proposals for PhD/DPhil studentships commencing in October 2024/2025.