This is a 12 month programme with no taught content, instead you will undertake a research project and write a thesis from your results. Like a PhD, you will have a supervisor who is based in your chosen field. MSc by Research will develop your academic and practical skills and can be an excellent option if you want to explore your area of interest further but feel that a PhD is not the right choice at this time. MSc by Research students go on to PhD study or to work in industry.<br><br>Our ecological and evolutionary research ranges from fundamental theory through to directly applied work, at scales ranging from molecular to global and across all the Earth's biomes. Particular strengths include research on biodiversity, evolutionary and developmental biology, host-parasite interactions, invasive alien species, pollination biology, landscape ecology and conservation. Our research has been driving national and international policy agendas around environmental change and global sustainability.<br><br>We have active research projects that span deep evolutionary relationships from the foundation of the tree of life through to evolutionary responses to global environmental change. Our researchers make use of cutting-edge computational approaches to studying the vast databases of genetic data in order to test novel hypotheses about the evolution of traits and taxa. Other work focuses on genomic techniques that allows us to measure the expression of genes in organisms that are undergoing different levels of stress or that are found in different environmental conditions. Such studies allow us to understand the mechanisms that underlie phenotypic change and, as a result, responses to the environment. Experimental work in the laboratory is using new techniques such as RNAi and CRISPR/Cas9 to silence genes in order to generate insights into the mechanistic basis for form, function, and behaviour.