Bath Engineering & Design Studentships: FARM: Food-cell Adaptation, Reprogramming and Manufacturing
ThisprojectisoneofanumberincompetitionforastudentshipfromtheFacultyofEngineeringandDesignattheUniversityofBath.Ifsuccessful,thisstudentshipisexpectedtocommence04October2027.
AnalternativestartdatemaybepossibleifagreedwithyourintendedsupervisorsandtheDoctoralCollege.
The UK food system relies heavily on livestock-derived products, particularly meat and dairy, which contribute significantly to the agricultural economy but also drive substantial greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water demand, and vulnerability to climate and supply-chain pressures. Cellular agriculture offers an alternative route to producing animal-derived foods by growing and engineering mammalian cells directly under controlled biomanufacturing conditions.
The FARM project (Food-cell Adaptation, Reprogramming and Manufacturing) will develop mammalian cell lines engineered for scalable cellular agriculture, relevant to both cultivated meat and cell-based dairy production. Rather than focusing on a single food product, FARM will address a shared challenge across the sector: many animal cells are poorly suited to industrial manufacturing because they grow slowly, have limited proliferative capacity, require complex culture conditions and can lose important functional characteristics during prolonged expansion.
FARM will establish a cell-engineering framework to create high-performing food-production cell lines. The project will progress through three key stages:
- Adaptation: establish animal cell populations capable of sustained growth in food-compatible, serum-free culture conditions and scalable culture formats.
- Reprogramming: modify cellular traits associated with replicative lifespan, growth, survival and maintenance of food-relevant phenotypes.
- Manufacturing: evaluate engineered cell lines under scalable culture conditions and determine how cell engineering influences growth, cell yield, metabolic performance and product-relevant function.
The project will use cell types relevant to both meat and dairy applications, enabling common engineering principles to be identified across cellular agriculture rather than developing a process around a single end product.
By engineering the cell alongside the manufacturing process, FARM aims to reduce a major barrier to economically viable cellular agriculture: the limited manufacturability of current animal cell lines. The project could generate intellectual property around engineered cell lines and manufacturing strategies while supporting translation into the emerging cellular-agriculture industry. Ultimately, FARM will help establish the scientific and engineering foundations required for scalable, lower-carbon production of animal-derived foods and strengthen UK capability in sustainable biomanufacturing.
Entry Requirements
Applicants must have, or be about to obtain, a UK Honours degree 1st or 2.1, or international equivalent. A master’s level qualification would also be advantageous.
Applicants from chemical engineering, food science, mechanical engineering, or similar areas are particularly encouraged to apply.
Applicants should have hands‑on experience in mammalian cell culture, gene delivery techniques, and cell expansion, along with familiarity with cell characterisation methods such as flow cytometry, qPCR or molecular cloning. CAD design experience for this project is a plus.
Non‑UK applicants, who are not currently studying in the UK, must meet the programme’s English language requirement before the application deadline – no exceptions will be considered.
Fees
Applicants will be considered for a studentship. Studentships cover tuition fees, provide a £1k per annum training support fee, and a maintenance stipend (£21,805 2026/27 rate). International students will be required to cover the cost of a Student visa and Immigration Health Surcharge from personal funds.
Who is eligible to apply?
The Faculty of Engineering and Design at the University of Bath has studentships available for Home and Overseas students. However, in line with UKRI policy, the number of studentships available to Overseas students are capped.
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