Research opportunities and facilities

Research activities 

You will join a rich research group containing postdoctoral research fellows, PhD students and masters students working on various aspects of nutrition, health, disease, behaviour, microbiomes and welfare of species of fish, crustaceans and molluscs of commercial relevance.

This area is supported by research councils such as the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Innovate UK and European Maritime and Fisheries Fund. Other research projects are funded by commercial and industrial companies such as BioMar, Lallemand SAS, Leiber GmbH, Clasado Biosciences, Skretting, Alltech Coppens as well as leading research centres globally in Brazil, Chile, China and elsewhere.

We actively engage with hatcheries, aquaculture farms and various other organisations nationally and internationally to support and conduct research and development at fundamental and applied levels.

Research project

Our research project module provides you with a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in cutting edge research. You will have access to our state-of-the-art aquaria facilities and wet labs, providing research project opportunities working in vitro and in vivo with finfish, crustaceans and molluscs. In addition to our husbandry facilities, you will have access to our suite of analytical labs, including:

• our Systems Biology Centre, which houses cutting edge genomics and proteomics facilities
• our Plymouth Electron Microscopy Centre, providing access to both Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopes
• nutrition laboratories
• chemistry laboratories
• histology laboratories
• microbiology laboratories
• and a range of other laboratories and services available within the Faculty of Science and Engineering.

You can undertake your project at Plymouth using our campus based facilities, or with partner organisations offering projects across the UK and beyond. In recent years student project options have included opportunities to work in Chile, Denmark, India, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway and Oman.

Research careers

Our students have progressed into careers within R&D departments of the aquaculture and aquafeed nutrition industry. Others have progressed into research activities within academia. On completion of this masters programme you can apply to study a suitable of doctoral programme at the University of Plymouth or elsewhere. PhD programmes presently undertaken include fish nutrition and feed technology, fish health and physiological biochemistry associated with aquaculture.

See our careers page for further details.