PhD Projects, Programmes & Scholarships

Immunotherapy: Manipulating T cell metabolism to improve anti-tumour immunity

Supervisors: Dr M Lorger, Dr R Salmond

The induction of immune responses to tumours can provide long-lasting protection from cancer. In this regard, T cells can suppress tumour growth by directly killing cancer cells and by producing inflammatory cytokines. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Immunotherapy: Killing Cancer using Dead Virus

Supervisors: Dr S Griffin, Dr A Samson

It is now accepted that our immune systems can hold the key to treating otherwise incurable cancers. So-called “immunotherapy” is an increasingly common method of treating tumours, leading to impressive increases in patient responses. . Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

University of York School of Physics, Engineering and Technology

Mathematical Tools for Analysing Binding Kinetics in Biosensors

The history of biosensors exhibits an outstanding range of examples of simple ideas leading to revolutionary break-throughs. Read more

Supervisors: Dr M Nasr Esfahani, Dr J Bissell

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Haematology: Oncogenic reprogramming of immune cells

Supervisors: Dr F Errington-Mais, Dr P Laslo

Under pathogenic challenges, cells of the innate system become epigenetically reprogrammed and establish immune memory. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Genetics: Investigating the molecular basis of optic nerve degeneration in glaucoma to try and develop a personalized medicine strategy for treatment

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

The optic nerve is a special sensory nerve that transmits visual impulses from the retina to the brain. Primary Open Angle Glaucoma (POAG) is a chronic, progressive optic neuropathy of multifactorial origin that affects 1 in 10 elderly individuals. Read more

Supervisor: Dr M Ali

Genetics: Genetic studies of developmental eye disorders to investigate genotype-phenotype correlations

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Developmental eye defects that affect the front of the eye give rise to a spectrum of congenital ocular phenotypes that affect the cornea, lens, iris, trabecular meshwork or the globe itself. Read more

Supervisor: Dr M Ali

Clinical: Gastroesophageal reflux in respiratory disease: pathogenic role and improved management

Supervisors: Prof L Houghton, Dr D Peckham

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a condition in which stomach contents, such as food and acid pass into the gullet/oesophagus causing heartburn. GERD is very common in patients with lung disease, such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cystic fibrosis (CF). Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Clinical Gastroenterology: The regulation of GDH expression in Clostridioides difficile

Supervisors: Prof M Wilcox, Dr K Davies, Dr A Buckley

Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), the most common cause of infective antibiotic-associated diarrhea in the western world, is diagnosed by a combination of tests that firstly detect the organism, then the toxins that it produces (Planche 2013). Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Clinical Gastroenterology: Investigation of Fidaxomicin Resistance Mechanisms in Clostridium difficile

Supervisors: Prof M Wilcox, Prof A O'Neill, Dr J Freeman, Dr I Moura

Clostridium difficile is a leading pathogen in healthcare-associated diarrheal infections. C. difficile has a plastic genome with multiple mobile genetic elements and recognized capacity to acquire genes involved in resistance and virulence. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Cancer: Why and how do brain tumour cells invade ‘mini-brains’?

Supervisors: Dr H Wurdak, Dr R Mathew

Globally, nearly 189,000 people die each year as a result of brain cancer and around 250,000 people are diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour (umbrella name. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Cancer: Repurposing drugs as new treatments for breast cancer

Supervisors: Dr L Matthews, Dr P Meakin

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer, with over 1 million new cases diagnosed worldwide each year. For some types of BC, hormonal treatments have been very effective but one particular BC subtype, triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), is highly aggressive and lacks a targeted therapy. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Cancer: Inhibiting cell metabolism to enhance tumour cell death

Supervisors: Dr S Papa, Dr R Tooze

All the cells in our bodies are programmed to die. As they get older, our cells accumulate toxic molecules that make them sick. In response, they eventually break down and die, clearing the way for new, healthy cells to grow. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) Graduate School

Fully funded PhD positions in Astronomy, Biology, Computer Science, Chemistry & Materials, Data Science & Scientific Computing, Earth Science, Mathematics, Neuroscience, and Physics

Fully funded PhD positions in Astronomy, Biology, Computer Science, Chemistry & Materials, Data Science & Scientific Computing, Earth Science, Mathematics, Neuroscience, and Physics. Read more

Funded PhD Programme (Students Worldwide) International PhD Programme

Rochester Institute of Technology USA Department of Computing and Information Sciences

Artificial Intelligence - Computer Vision

Our research efforts aim to understand the nature of visual perception so that we can create more visually intelligent machines. This is enabled via fundamental concepts in reasoning, prediction, supervised, semi-supervised and unsupervised learning, and stochastic optimization techniques. Read more

Supervisor: Prof PS Shi

Year round applications PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

University of Reading School of Pharmacy

Understanding the biological role of the i-motif

The DNA i-motif is an important biological target which has recently been shown to form inside the nucleus of human cells. Current understanding of this structure is limited as it has received little research focus over the last 30 years, primarily because it was thought it couldn’t exist within biological environment. Read more

Supervisor: Dr J Brazier

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Disruptive Digital Experiences

Supervisors: Dr H Agius, Dr D Daylamani-Zad

Digital experiences deliberately go beyond simply communicating information - they seek to strongly engage, involve, and emotionally affect the user using digital means. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Design of digital technology and machine learning solutions for mental health

Supervisor: Dr F Colecchia

The significant societal and economic impact of mental health conditions worldwide is well documented. With a growing awareness of mental health, the pressing need to streamline access to sustainable care services is now an imperative. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Design of virtual immersive environments for inclusive multimodal experiences

Supervisor: Dr F Colecchia

Immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality are a topic of fast-paced research, and knowledge boundaries are presently being pushed by design research on inclusive immersive social environments, among others. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Brunel University London Chemical Engineering

Sustainable production of high-value compounds using cyanobacteria

Increasing environmental challenges mean there is a need for novel, safe, sustainable and cost-effective production technologies. Read more

Supervisor: Dr D McClure

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Brunel University London Chemical Engineering

Sustainable production of Vitamin K1

The project. Vitamin K1 is an essential nutrient in both human and animal nutrition. Given the increasing environmental pressures facing us as a society there is a need to develop safe, sustainable and cost-effective production methods for important compounds. Read more

Supervisor: Dr D McClure

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Design of virtual immersive environments for advanced anatomy training

Supervisor: Dr F Colecchia

Virtual immersive environments, including those that are anticipated to become available in the context of the Metaverse – a future immersive virtual world envisaged as a hypothetical iteration of the Internet – hold significant potential for future healthcare education. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

University of Reading School of Psychology & Clinical Language Sciences

Developing a novel Health Psychology intervention to increase uptake of Awake Surgery

Outpatient surgical procedures have traditionally been carried out in the United Kingdom under General Anaesthetic. However, such a choice of anaesthesia comes with additional risks for patients, especially those with co-morbidities. Read more

Supervisor: Dr K Finlay

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

University of Reading Graduate School

University of Reading PhD Opportunities

Our thriving and diverse community of researchers leads the way in understanding the issues that most concern the world today. Join us as a postgraduate researcher at Reading and we will support you at every stage, helping you to deliver research that counts. Read more

Funded PhD Programme (Students Worldwide) PhD Opportunities

Glasgow Caledonian University School of Computing, Engineering & the Built Environment

Carbon leakage in forest ecosystems – towards a better understanding of the real contribution of forests to mitigate climate change

Reference number. SCEBE/21SF/009/AO. Aim and Scope. The ability of forest ecosystems to store carbon (C; e.g. CO2) above and belowground makes afforestation one of the leading measures to fight climate change. Read more

Supervisors: Dr A Ollauri, Dr S B Mickovski, Prof R Emmanuel

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Brunel University London Law

International law and the psychological impact of warfare on civilians

Drawing on the emerging field of psychology of international law, the PhD student will examine how international law discusses or should discuss civilian mental harm in warfare from a substantive as well as procedural point of view. Read more

Supervisor: Dr S Solomon

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

International Max Planck School for Molecules of Life IMPRS-ML

PhD Student Positions at International Max Planck Research School for Molecules of Life, Munich

The International Max Planck Research School for Molecules of Life (IMPRS-ML), offers fully funded PhD student positions in the areas of biochemistry, structural biology, biophysics, cell biology, systems biology and computational biology. Read more

Funded PhD Programme (Students Worldwide) Germany PhD Programme Max Planck Research Programme

Funded PhD Programme (Students Worldwide) Germany PhD Programme Max Planck Research Programme

PhD Student Positions at International Max Planck Research School for Molecules of Life, Munich

Max Planck Society

Anglia Ruskin University ARU Department of Sport & Exercise Science

Fixing the leaky pipeline: student transition into Higher Education (HE). Is it time for a rethink?

The initial weeks of a student’s HE life is their most important (Gale and Parker, 2014). This view is used to support targeted sessions, (‘induction activities’), during the student’s first day/week. Read more

Supervisors: Dr M Timmis, Dr F Cavallerio, Dr JS Salim

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Anglia Ruskin University ARU School of Psychology and Sport Science

The social lives of people with severe and profound intellectual disabilities

For most people, what is considered a good life includes such things as social inclusion, a sense of belonging, social interaction and relationships. Read more

Supervisors: Dr M Finlay, Dr E Kaminskiy, Dr LG Goodings

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only