image: Professor Martin Richards -- a leading archaeogeneticist -- heads an inter-disciplinary team at the University that will form the Centre for Evolutionary Genomics. The University has been awarded £1 million by the Leverhulme Trust under its new Doctoral Scholarships scheme, a major initiative designed to foster new generations of Ph.D. researchers at UK universities. view more
Credit: University of Huddersfield
A NEW £1million research centre at the University of Huddersfield will train the next generation of specialists in a field that uses the latest DNA science to delve into evolutionary history, from the origins of animals to the spread of modern humans.
Professor Martin Richards - a leading archaeogeneticist - heads an inter-disciplinary team at the University that will form the Centre for Evolutionary Genomics. The University has been awarded £1 million by the Leverhulme Trust under its new Doctoral Scholarships scheme, a major initiative designed to foster new generations of PhD researchers at UK universities.
The University of Huddersfield is one of 14 to have received funding under the first round of the scheme and over five years a total of 15 PhD candidates will carry out wide-ranging research under the supervision of Professor Richards and his colleagues. There will also be the appointment of two post-doctoral researchers.
Alongside Professor Richards in the Centre for Evolutionary Genomics are fellow archaeogeneticist Dr Maria Pala and Dr Martin Carr, who researches the early stages of animal evolution, plus the forensic scientist Dr Stefano Vanin, a world authority on the use of insect evidence in fields that include the investigation of mummified bodies.
The first cohort of five PhD students will be recruited in early 2015, and will begin their fully-funded doctoral research in October. Over succeeding years they will be joined by two further groups of five.
A revolution in genomics
The new Centre is a result of a major transformation in evolutionary studies that has taken place over the past decade, resulting from the development of new DNA sequencing technologies, according to Professor Richards.
"This led to a revolution in genomics, looking at whole human genomes or whole animal genomes rather than small numbers of individual genes," he said, adding that it had also stimulated major advances in the study of ancient DNA. Professor Richards has made a series of discoveries about the migration of prehistoric peoples across the world, in regions that include the Near East, Africa and Europe.
The focus of the research topics carried out by the Centre for Evolutionary Genomics will extend from the origins of multicellular organisms to the prehistoric peopling of Atlantic Europe. In several projects, the Centre will focus on both contemporary genetic variation in this region and DNA from human and animal remains.
The Leverhulme Trust Doctoral Scholarships Scheme
The Leverhulme Trust has stated that its new Doctoral Scholarships Scheme is motivated by the concern that the prospect of increased indebtedness might discourage graduates from undertaking doctorates.
Professor Gordon Marshall, Director of the Trust, said: "It is to be hoped that this first round of awards, modest though it is in terms of overall graduate student numbers, will kick-start a solution to the still unresolved problem of how adequately to fund graduate studies in the United Kingdom."
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