The Synthetic Biology Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) is collaboration between Oxford, Warwick and Bristol Universities. It offers a four-year training programme leading to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The programme is designed for students with both physical and life sciences backgrounds. The first two terms are devoted to acquiring the necessary theoretical and technical skills through a combination of intensive lecture courses, practicals, seminars, project work and research and communication skills training. Over the third term and summer period of the first year, students undertake two extended projects of approximately ten weeks' duration each. These are similar in scope to a Masters' level project and serve both as advanced training and to help students to choose their research topic for the final three years of the course. On completion of the projects, students undertake their substantive PhD research projects in the area of Synthetic Biology in one of the participating universities. The Synthetic Biology CDT will produce internationally excellent researchers with key skills desired by prospective employers in the nascent field of Synthetic Biology. Students graduating from the CDT will be ideally placed to progress into many different scientific-based jobs, including multi-disciplinary research in both academia and industry. There are strong links to diverse industrial partners, some of whom will sponsor PhD projects.