University of Exeter’s Living Systems Institute – Ph.D. Studentships 2024/25

Programme overview

Modern scientific innovation involves the integration of diverse fields and the bridging of pure and application-oriented research. This requires a new generation of scientists who are trained to think and experiment beyond traditional boundaries. The recently established Living Systems Institute provides this opportunity by housing world-leading Biologists, Physicists, Mathematicians, Computational Scientists, and Engineers who work together using cutting-edge technologies. Our mission is to uncover the secrets of life across all scales - from individual atoms to whole organisms - and thereby develop new approaches for improving health and treating disease.

We wish to recruit highly motivated and imaginative students from across the full range of disciplines mentioned above to join our thriving community of over 50 Ph.D. students.

Funding

Places are fully funded with funding also available for overseas applicants. This includes payment of tuition fees, a personal stipend for 3.5 years (currently £18,622 per year 2023/24), and a training budget.

We also welcome applications from candidates who can provide partial or full funding from other sources.

Training

The variety of research systems, topics, and approaches in the Living Systems Institute provides a multitude of training opportunities for our Ph.D. students. Throughout your studies, we support you to develop broad scientific and personal skillsets. We tailor training needs on an individual basis, including secondment opportunities in other labs within the institute. Our interdisciplinary training programme includes physical, mathematical, and computational analyses of living systems alongside exposure to the latest techniques in molecular cell biology.

Ph.D. project

Your Ph.D. project will work across disciplines to generate new and important knowledge.

The Living Systems Institute is home to mathematicians, physicists, bioengineers, biologists, and biomedical scientists. Our interdisciplinary and collaborative research philosophy is embodied in three cross-cutting themes:

• Mathematics of Life - Developing and analysing mathematical models to explain and predict function and dysfunction in biological systems.
• Physics of Life - Uncovering the fundamental physical principles that govern the dynamic organisation of living systems.
• Engineering Life - Reverse engineering biological phenomena from molecular and cellular component.

These themes drive investigation, discovery, and application across all scales of life: gene expression and genomics, structure/function, phages and viruses, microbes, stem cells and development and neuroscience.

Entry Requirements

Applicants must hold a university degree that is accepted by the University of Exeter for registration as a graduate student such as a BSc, MSc, or equivalent with first or upper second-class honours.

We encourage applicants from a wide range of backgrounds across, Biological, Medical, and Physical Sciences as well as Engineering and Computation. Students must provide evidence for proficiency in English by a certified test such as IELTS. For more information about the English Language requirements see here.

How to apply

Apply now

To apply for funding, you must do so by clicking on the ‘apply now’ button above.

You will need to upload the following documents to the studentship application form. Please note our preferred format is PDF, each file named with your surname and the name of the document, eg. “Smith – CV.pdf”, “Smith – Cover Letter.pdf”, “Smith – Transcript.pdf”:

• Your CV
• A personal statement that should include why you are interested in interdisciplinary approaches to research.
• Transcript(s) giving full details of subjects studied and grades/marks obtained.
• If you are not a national of a majority English-speaking country you will need to submit evidence of your current proficiency in English. For further details please see here.
• Please ensure that two references are submitted by the application closing date of 8th January 2024. Alternatively references can be sent directly to pgrapplicants@exeter.ac.uk, thought must be received by the closing date.

The deadline for applications is midnight 8th January 2024.