BIOL0056 will examine at the grand challenges facing researchers in the Biological Sciences today. These challenges are increasingly threatening to human health, food security and biological diversity. For example, the World Health Organization warn that multiantibiotic resistance in microbial pathogens threatens the achievements of modern medicine. An increase in human lifespan has led to an increase in age related diseases such as dementias and cancers. Changes in human nutrition have led to increases in type II diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The Covid-19 pandemic has challenged how do we detect, monitor, and prevent both the current and future pandemics. And in the background, we are currently experiencing Earth’s sixth mass extinction event as species are unable to adapt quickly enough to habitat loss and climate change.

The research department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment (GEE) is in a unique position to investigate these challenges. There are 5 research institutes in GEE each of which will present its own grand challenge (Centre for Biodiversity & Environment Research; Centre for Life’s Origins & Evolution; UCL Centre for Computational Biology; Institute of Healthy Ageing and; UCL Genetics Institute). Each challenge will be tackled by a small group of three to five students and will be managed by an academic from the respective institute.

Lecture/topic list:

A small number of lectures and research seminars will complement the module, which will explain the structure of the module and the assessment and will develop the key skills required to carry out the group project (for example, how to write a grant proposal). It will also introduce the grand challenges presented by the different research institutes and the research done in each institute. 

Learning Aims and Objectives:

The aim of BIOL0056 is to introduce students to project-based working as well as develop skills in research and show the importance of this research beyond a typical lab setting. These challenges are not exclusively limited to Biological Sciences research. The causes, consequences and resolutions will likely involve inter-disciplinary research across the biological and social sciences. The aim of this approach is that it will provide new insights and possible resolutions to important problems. 

BIOL0056 aims to involve students with all parts of a research project. This includes the design of the project itself, developing hypotheses, managing a budget, performing experiments in a wet or dry laboratory (or similar setting), analysing the data, concluding and presenting. Each member of the group will be involved with all stages of the project. In term 1 students will investigate the causes of the challenge, understanding its consequences and the development of potential resolutions. This will involve the attendance of lectures and seminars, individual literature reviews, and group discussions of the topics (such as journal clubs). Based on the experiences of term 1, students will individually develop testable hypotheses investigating a cause, consequence, or resolution to the challenge, which is submitted as a Grant Proposal. As a group, students together with the academic lead will choose one of these hypotheses forward into term 2 which will be tested in the GEE laboratories or field setting.

BIOL0056 will aim to promote that being a scientist is not an individual pursuit, where outputs will only be read by a handful of academics with similar interests. Students will need to apply and enhance skills developed throughout their undergraduate career including research, experimental design, data collection, analysis. BIOL0056 will also equip students with the knowledge of how to present their findings to both a professional audience (via poster symposium) and a wider scientific audience (via a video report).

By the end of this module, students will be able to:

Discuss a range of different grand challenges in the Biological Sciences and their respective causes
	Critically evaluate current methods of managing and mitigating the impacts of these changes.
	Evaluate how different challenges impact organisms, species, ecosystems, individuals, and communities.
	Undertake individual and group research on the causes, consequences, and resolutions to a challenge with the ability to collate and analyse information succinctly.
	Develop hypotheses related to a challenge which can be tested by the project group.
	Critically analyse data collected by the individual, project group and wider research community to develop opinions, arguments and hypotheses related to the challenge.
	Produce outputs aimed at both a professional and wider audience.
	Learn to work collaboratively as a team with the aim of achieving a shared goal.