Program Overview

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Technology Enhanced Chemical Synthesis

Overview

Based at the School of Chemistry, our alternative to the traditional PhD offers a unique training period designed to strengthen your research techniques and introduce new technologies and digital methods for Chemical Synthesis through lab rotations. You will benefit from developing a range of transferable skills (including presentation, teamwork and problem-solving) and broader professional skills to enhance your employability.

After successfully completing the training element, you will embark on a research project related to Chemical Synthesis. During this time, your scientific development will continue to be enhanced by entrepreneurship training and further professional and academic courses provided by our industrial partners. As a result, you will end your PhD as a well-rounded candidate for careers in both industry and academia.

We are seeking applications from students with interests covering the whole breadth of the synthetic chemistry spectrum. We encourage applications from students who would like to carry out research in areas including:

• Chemical synthesis of bioactive molecules
• Sustainable catalysis and biocatalysis
• Synthetic methodology and mechanism
• Computational modelling and analysis
• Experimental and theoretical photochemistry
• Synthetic organic electrochemistry
• Designer ligands for catalysis
• Biological chemistry and synthetic biology
• Inorganic and materials chemistry
• Supramolecular & systems chemistry
• Modern reactor technology: automation and high throughput experimentation
• Synthetic materials chemistry
• Spectroscopy: structure elucidation and reaction dynamics.

Applications are welcomed from students with or expecting to gain a first or upper-second class honours MSci/MChem (or equivalent).

This is one of the two CDTs hosted by the School of Chemistry offering training in a number of different disciplines.

Key Information

Programme Duration

Up to four years full-time.

Start Date

September 2025

Application Deadline

Application deadlines will be advertised on our CDT in Technology Enhanced Chemical Synthesis website.

Delivery Method

On-Campus

Location

Clifton

Awards Available

PhD

Programme Structure

At the start of the PhD programme, you will participate in an 8-month taught training period in Synthetic and Digital Chemistry. The training programme is designed to strengthen your research techniques and introduce new technologies for chemical synthesis.

The main goal of Synthetic and Digital Chemistry training is to enable you to make an informed choice of PhD project. You will develop research proposals during brainstorming sessions, and undertake short rotations in synthetic chemistry labs - contributing to the group's research aims - before selecting your PhD project.

In addition, we provide training in automated and high throughput synthesis, computational methods for synthesis design and new reactor technologies, alongside research lectures by world-renowned academics, who are leaders in their fields.

You will also benefit from developing a range of transferable skills through a series of workshops, virtual lab experiments and a journal club.

A progression interview will be held in Spring, after which you will begin the process of selecting your PhD project area.

Having explored potential research projects in chemical synthesis during the brainstorming sessions, you will choose your preferred areas of research in May and will start working on your three-year PhD research project in June of the first year. Find out more about the PhD project areas.

Full details of the structure and unit content for the first year of this programme will be available in the unit and programme catalogue, subject to approval.

World-Leading Research

The University of Bristol is ranked fifth for research in the UK (Times Higher Education). 94% of our research assessed as world-leading or internationally excellent.

Entry Requirements

An upper second-class honours MSci/MChem degree in chemistry, or international equivalent.

Fees and Funding

Home: Full-Time

£4,850 per year

Home: Part-Time

£2,425 per year

Overseas: Full-Time

£26,700 per year

Fees are subject to an annual review. For programmes that last longer than one year, please budget for up to an 8% increase in fees each year.

Alumni Discount

University of Bristol students and graduates can benefit from a 25% reduction in tuition fees for postgraduate study. Check your eligibility for an alumni discount.

Funding and Scholarships

We have a number of EPSRC and university funded studentships, which will be allocated to successful candidates (national and international).

Career Prospects

This PhD programme has grown out of our previous Chemical Synthesis PhD. Graduates from this programme are currently working in a range of sectors, including further academic research, pharma, agro and biotech industries, patent law and teaching.

Meet Our Supervisors

The following list shows potential supervisors for this programme:

• Professor Varinder Aggarwal
• Professor Robin Bedford
• Professor Wuge Briscoe
• Professor Craig Butts
• Professor Jonathan Clayden
• Dr Beatrice Collins
• Professor Matthew Crump
• Professor Basile Curchod
• Professor Anthony Davis
• Professor Charl FJ Faul
• Professor David Fermin
• Dr Natalie Fey
• Professor Carmen Galan
• Professor Simon Hall
• Dr Alastair Lennox
• Dr Andrew McCluskey
• Professor Adrian Mulholland
• Dr Adam Noble
• Dr Tom Oliver
• Professor Andrew Orr-Ewing
• Dr Mike Price
• Dr Sebastien Rochat
• Dr Chris Russell
• Dr Harry Sansom
• Professor Chris Willis
• Professor Dek Woolfson

Research Groups

We cover the breadth of chemical synthesis and strongly encourage cross-disciplinary research projects. Our research activity is underpinned by the latest in synthetic chemistry technologies such as automated reaction optimisation, AI for synthesis design, data-driven discovery and predictive methods.

Research interests of our staff include:

• Medicinal chemistry
• Synthetic analogues
• Heterocyclic chemistry
• Supramolecular chemistry for recognition, transport and medicine
• Design of new peptide, protein and foldamer structures
• Molecular machines and out-of-equilibrium systems
• Transition metal catalysis
• Synthesis and design of new ligands
• Photocatalysis and biocatalysis
• Carbohydrates in synthesis
• Organo-boron and organo-sulfur chemistry
• Photochemistry, electrochemistry and flow chemistry
• Natural product extraction and characterisation
• Total synthesis
• Isotopic labelling and biosynthetic pathways
• Ultra-fast spectroscopy for reaction dynamics.

We currently work closely with several companies in the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors, including Astex, AstraZeneca, Bayer, GSK, Merck, MSD, Pfizer, Syngenta and Vertex.