Edinburgh Infectious Diseases
EID logo 2019

Introduction

PhD training partnership between the Universities of Edinburgh and Leiden in Integrated One Health Solutions.

Building on strong links between Edinburgh and Leiden

The Joint Edinburgh-Leiden Doctoral Training Programme in Integrated One Health Solutions to Infectious Diseases has been developed as part of the University’s commitment to build a network of European and Global partnerships.

University of Edinburgh Global Partnerships

Una Europa and Edinburgh

Leiden University Medical Centre

The PhD programme is fostering collaboration, building on a long record of collaborative research and teaching between Edinburgh and Leiden, in particular in the fields of medicine and infectious diseases. 

Existing challenges, strengths and capabilities

Challenges:  Antimcrobial Resistance, Emerging Infectious Diseases and Vulnerable Hosts, specifically:

  • Immunometabolism, glycobiology
  • Genome editing, functional genomics, population level clinical data sets, microbiome
  • Comparative biology, large animal models, human challenge models

Strengths:  Vaccines, personalized medicine, host-based therapies, POC tests

Capabilities:   GMP facilities, Healthcare technology Accelerator Facility

Programme development

At the end of 2019 Edinburgh Infectious Diseases was pleased to announce a strategic partnership between the Universities of Leiden and Edinburgh to offer eight PhD studentships fully funded for four years focused on Integrated One Health Solutions.  A further round of recruitment was completed at the end of 2020.

Each University has funded four studentships in areas where significant joint interest and expertise were identified.  

Students are registered for their degree at one or other host institution, and all projects involve at least one supervisor from each organisation.  Students undertake research exchanges between Leiden and Edinburgh during the projects, with students spending time in each institution. 

This is an exciting programme which it is hoped can fuel further collaboration in common areas of interest between the two institutions.

Information about investigators from Leiden and Edinburgh with interests aligned with ‘One Health’ is given below.  

Investigators

List of One Health investigators contributing to new PhD programme
University of Edinburgh Leiden University Medical Centre
Kenny Baillee (Roslin Institute)

Eric Claas (Medical Microbiology)

Donald Davidson (Centre for Inflammation Research) Annemieke Geluk (Infectious Diseases)
David Dockrell (Centre for Inflammation Research)

Geert Groeneveld (Infectious Diseases)

Jayne Hope (Roslin Institute) Pieter Hiemstra (Pulmonology)
Tanja Opriessnig (Roslin Institute) Simone Joostens (Infectious Diseases)
Anura Rambukkana (Centre for Regenerative Medicine) Marjolien Kikkert (Medical Microbiology)
Thamarai Schneiders (Infection Medicine) Pieter Nibbering (Infectious Diseases)
Richard Sloan (Infection Medicine) Tom Ottenhoff (Infectious Diseases)
Kate Templeton (Infection Medicine) Els Wessels (Medical Microbiology)
Christine Tait-Burkard (Roslin Institute) Romy Zwittink (Medical Microbiology)
Marc Vendrell (Centre for Inflammation Research)  

Postgraduate study in Edinburgh

Find out more about what it is like to be a postgraduate student in Edinburgh.

Studying in Edinburgh