About the Faculty of Life Sciences
The faculty has aligned its research and teaching activity at all scales across the life sciences: from the molecular, cellular, tissue and organ systems levels, through to the behavioural, social and environmental.
The Faculty of Life Sciences was created on 1 August 2018, bringing together the five Schools of:
- Biochemistry
- Biological Sciences
- Cellular and Molecular Medicine
- Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience
- Psychological Science
Studying life sciences at Bristol
We have a long-standing tradition of excellence in research and teaching. Our broad range of expertise opens up a wealth of opportunities for all our students.
Here you can study a range of challenging, research-focused, undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, all taught in the context of world-leading research environments, using specialist equipment and facilities.
We also work closely with the Faculty of Health Sciences contributing to the delivery of the University's three professional programmes: Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Science.
Life sciences research
Our research addresses a range of the important challenges in the life sciences.
From tackling ecosystem and global change, to innovation in fundamental biosciences for better human, animal, plant and ocean health.
From understanding animal and human behaviour and wellbeing, to developing future synthetic biotechnologies and so driving the UK's bioeconomy.
We are changing the way we understand the fundamental principles of life and the natural world through a series of interrelated research themes.
Underpinning these research themes is a world class state-of-the-art infrastructure for Imaging, 'Omics and informatics and Responsible research and innovation.
Early career research training in the faculty is supported by a powerful range of 3 and 4 year Doctoral Training Programmes.
Collaboration and translation
We work closely with colleagues across the University of Bristol, including the Faculties of Health Sciences, Science and Engineering.
Beyond Bristol, we work with our partner universities in the GW4 Alliance: Bath, Cardiff, and Exeter.
Multidisciplinary collaborations demonstrate the Faculty's commitment to translating its expertise in fundamental biomedical research.
Research institutes and centres
- The Faculty of Life Sciences is host to BrisSynBio, a £13.6M BBSRC/EPSRC-funded synthetic biology centre.
- Members of our Faculty are also key investigators in other major Centres of Excellence at Bristol including:
- £10M MRC-funded Integrative Epidemiology Unit
- £21M NIHR-funded Biomedical Research Centre
- Specialist Research Institutes. We are major contributors to three of the University's seven SRIs:
- University Research Institutes. Staff across the Faculty are active members of one or more of the URIs:
- Cabot Institute for the Environment conducting world-leading research on the challenges arising from how we live with, depend on and affect our planet
- Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for Health Research
- Jean Golding Institute, a multi-disciplinary research institute supporting cutting-edge research in the field of applied data science, and member of the Alan Turing Institute.
- Our researchers are centrally involved in these research groupings:
Our academics are renowned for their close engagement with industry both in the UK and internationally to develop and implement the findings of our research in industrial scenarios.
We particularly pride ourselves on tackling global challenges in collaboration with academics all over the world.
Fellowships and awards
The Faculty's outstanding academic staff includes:
- 5 Fellows of the Royal Society
- 7 members of the Academy of Medical Sciences
- 10 Wellcome Trust Investigator Award holders
- 3 European Research Council Advanced Grant award holders
Strategic relationships
We have strong strategic relationships with several external partners including:
Spin-outs
Research undertaken within our Faculty has also led to the creation of numerous spin-outs including:
In supporting the local life science ecosystem, we are a strategic partner for the Engine Shed and Science Creates incubators in central Bristol.