"One of the main activities in the biotech industry is the manufacturing of enzymes, and access to cheap and diverse enzymes is crucial for the development of a sustainable biobased economy. However, improving the production efficiency of an increasingly large variety of commercial proteins and enzymes poses significant challenges for industrial-scale fermentations. In addition, the European biotech industry is confronted with rising competition from developing countries in Asia. To face these challenges and to remain competitive, it is essential to develop smart technologies and to employ highly trained and adaptable technologists. To ensure that the European biotech industry has access to graduates with the appropriate skills and expertise, it is essential to foster strong collaborations between industry and academia, and this is the objective of this application. Newcastle University (UK) will partner with the Royal DSM N.V. biotech company (The Netherlands) to deliver a European Industrial Doctorate (EID) programme entitled: Advanced Training in Industrial Enzyme Manufacturing (ATRIEM). The PhD students will obtain high-quality training in molecular and cellular microbiology techniques and will gain relevant work and research experience in an industrial environment. The aim is to ensure that the advance technologies learnt in academia are of direct relevance to industry. The PhD research projects will be focussed on two important limitations encountered during industrial enzyme production: differences in the productivity of individual cells in a population (cellular heterogeneity), and bottlenecks in the secretion of heterologous enzymes."