PhD studentships
Application information
PhD studentships are typically advertised in December before each cohort on our
Postgraduate research studentships
page and jobs.ac.uk. Shortlisting will be made in the following Spring and interviews will be conducted by an interview panel comprising supervisors, and chaired by the DTP Director or DTP theme lead, allowing the highest quality candidates to be selected. Further details of our research degrees can be found on our
Postgraduate research degrees
page.
Studentship information
Studentship information
In most cases, PhD DTP studentships are fully funded for 3.5 years. Funding covers a monthly stipend (in line with UKRI rates) and tuition fees. The studentship also supports funding for training and development opportunities and other consumables required for the project. Students usually start annually on 1st October.
In the 2023 and 2024 intakes, the EPSRC DTP will support a minimum of 11 studentships. Studentships may include subject-specific training in year one, with the opportunity to select from level 7 taught modules in topics related to ORE, Health and Medical Technology, and Decarbonisation. All students can attend industry or international academic placements, including the Ocean University of China (OUC) and the University of Western Australia (UWA). Through our collaboration with OUC, co-supervision and dual degrees are available.
PhD studentships can be:
- Fully funded from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
- Match funded (e.g. from industry)
- Converted to a CASE studentship with external funding, e.g. from industry. Funding covers an enhanced stipend for 4 years plus enhanced project costs. The partner organisation will also host and fully fund a placement of at least 3 months at their premises. There is also an option for this to be an EngD.
Processes
The selection process is overseen by the School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics (SECaM) Research Committee, led by the School Associate Heads for Research and comprising of research group leads, Postgraduate Research Coordinator, Research & Innovation representative, EPSRC DTP theme leads and the DTP Director.
The following processes will be used to invite potential DTP projects from supervisors and applications from potential DTP students:
- An internal call for EPSRC remit research projects for each cohort will be distributed internally to academic and research staff at the University. For the 2023 cohort, supervisory teams will be invited to submit proposals in September 2022. All supervisory teams must include an Early Career Researcher (ECR). Where the ECR has prior experience in supervising a PhD student, the ECR should be the Director or Studies (DoS).
- Recruitment will follow the University’s PGR recruitment policies and processes. DTP studentships will be advertised concurrently with School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics (SECaM) PhD studentships in order to attract the highest calibre candidates, both nationally and internationally, for the projects on offer. The number of successful proposal applications that will be advertised is double the number of funded places and the DTP studentship will be awarded to the best student applicants.
- Best applicants for each of the three areas will be judged by at least two independent assessors who will each attend all the interviews in a thematic area. Proposals will be assessed against published criteria, including research excellence, alignment with strategy and potential for impact.
