Environmental Biotechnology Network

Faraday Discovery Fellowships – Accelerated International Route

Round 2 and 3 closing dates: 25 Nov 2025, 25 Feb 2026 The Royal Society‘s Faraday Discovery Fellowships are prestigious long-term awards that support the most talented research leaders to undertake high-quality, original research. The Accelerated International Route, established in 2025, is intended for outstanding international researchers nominated by their UK …

Frozen fun – with interesting lipids

A recent paper looks at the revival rates for microorganisms found in ancient permafrost cores from the Permafrost Research Tunnel near Fairbanks, Alaska. The researchers compared microbial growth rates, marker gene sequences and greenhouse gas (CO2, CH4) emissions across cores held anaerobically at ambient (−4°C) and elevated (4°C, 12°C) temperatures. …

RS Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship – closing 12 Nov 2025

The Royal Society‘s Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship aims seeks to provide opportunities for experienced senior and mid-career researchers to focus on full-time research for up to one year, by relieving them of all teaching, administrative and pastoral care duties during that period. Preference will be given to candidates who, …

Official launch of TERC Better Water for All Network+

The Better Water for All Network+, led by Dr Bing Guo of the University of Surrey, was successfully launched on 3 Oct 2025 in an event that brought stakeholders together to discuss how we can achieve a sustainable water future and tackle the challenges of chemical and biological micropollutants. The …

Green Stories – October 2025 highlights

Every month we are highlighting selected items from our Green Stories: Microbes to the Rescue anthology, equivalent to about 30 mins in the Audiobook version. The anthology is also available as a free eBook on the Resources page. This month’s authors are both from Australia but with rather different stories to tell: Chapter 7:  Interview with …

PFAS developments

PFAS continues to draw the attention of regulators and others, to such an extent that it can sometimes be hard to keep up. Fortunately the UK’s Contaminated Land: Applications in Real Environments group (CL:AIRE) has now set up a PFAS Webpage that compiles relevant information from around the world.  Non-commercial …

BBIA/GCSB Bioplastics webinar – available to view

The Bio-based and Biodegradable Industries Association (BBIA) has kindly made a recent webinar on Bioplastics available to EBNet members  –  watch it here. The presenter is Prof Jhuma Sadhukhan of the University of Surrey, who is UK Lead for the Global Center for Sustainable bioproducts (GCSB). The webinar covers the following …

WASTE Impact Report 2024 – and a shout-out for its activities

At the suggestion of one EBNet member who is particularly active in this area, a brief shout-out for the work of WASTE, which aims to catalyse scalable, system-level solutions to urgent challenges in the area of sanitation and solid waste management. WASTE is an international organisation that develops and manages …

IBioIC Process Scale-up: online session 15 Oct 2025

Date: 15 Oct 2025, 14-15:00 UK IBioIC is hosting an online session on Reducing Risk in Process Scale-up with Modelling and Simulation. Scaling up from lab to industrial production is one of the most challenging steps in process development. Equipment at industrial scale often behaves very differently to laboratory systems, …

Task 37 Webinar on Biogas systems and Sustainability available now

IEA Bioenergy Task 37’s webinar on The Role of Biogas Systems in Building a Sustainable Society is now available to view for those who missed the live event. The webinar included an introduction to Task 37 by the Task Lead Dr Bernhard Drosg, followed by technical presentations: Sustainability effects associated …

New EBIC podcast episode – and New Scientist Live event

Episode 2 of the Environmental Biotechnology Innovation Centre‘s Podcast Series features Prof Natalio Krasnogor and Yasir Akbar of Newcastle University. In this episode, they discuss their pioneering work at the intersection of computer science and engineering biology, with a particular focus on the innovative use of barcodes in engineered microbes. From …

Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowships – closing 6 Nov 2025

Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowships are open to experienced researchers, particularly those who are or have been prevented by routine duties from completing a programme of original research. Priority will be given to applicants whose teaching and administrative duties have significantly impacted their ability to undertake research in the three years …

Prof Pathik Pathak

It is with great sorrow that we note the death on 9 Sept 2025 of Prof Pathik Pathak, Professor of Sociology in the School of Economic, Social & Political Sciences at the University of Southampton. Colleagues will know him as a higher education innovator, a champion of the power of …

Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship – closing 28 Oct 2025

The Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship (DHF) programme aims to support outstanding early career scientists who require a flexible working pattern due to personal circumstances, such as caring responsibilities and/or health-related conditions. The programme aims to enable the next generation of research leaders to: Build an independent research career at a UK …

New BES Webinar available – and don’t forget the next one!

The most recent webinar in our current BES series, from 8 Sept 2025, is now available HERE on EBNet’s YouTube channel. The topic was Interfacial Bioelectrochemistry  –  Enzymatic NO and CO₂ Reduction and H₂ Evolution. Our speaker was Dr Cristina M Cordas, from the NOVA School of Science and Technology …