University of Edinburgh PhD Research Projects PhD Projects, Programmes & Scholarships

University of Edinburgh Edinburgh Law School

Taming the Dark Energy of EU Law: The EU as an International Actor

Applications are invited for a fully funded PhD position on a project entitled “Taming the Dark Energy of EU Law. The European Union’s Unwritten Constitution”. Read more

Supervisor: Prof N Nic Shuibhne

20 May 2024 PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

University of Edinburgh College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine

Human Genetics, Genomics and Disease: Sequence determinants of mRNA fate in neuronal differentiation

Research Group: MRC Human Genetics Unit

Location. MRC Human Genetics Unit, University of Edinburgh, UK & Max Delbrück Center Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology, Berlin, Germany. Read more

Supervisor: Dr G Kudla

19 May 2024 PhD Research Project Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

University of Edinburgh College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine

Human Genetics, Genomics and Disease: Integrating fusion-proteins molecular signatures for advancing sarcoma diagnosis and therapy

Research Group: MRC Human Genetics Unit

Location. MRC Human Genetics Unit, University of Edinburgh, UK & Max Delbrück Center, Berlin, Germany. Supervisors. Dr Nezha Benabdallah, Dr Daria Bunina. Read more

Supervisor: Dr NB Benabdallah

19 May 2024 PhD Research Project Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

University of Edinburgh College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine

Human Genetics, Genomics and Disease: Understanding how nuclear architecture affects neuronal function in health and disease

Research Group: MRC Human Genetics Unit

Location. MRC Human Genetics Unit, University of Edinburgh, UK & Max Delbrück Center Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology, Berlin, Germany. Read more

Supervisor: Prof N Gilbert

19 May 2024 PhD Research Project Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

University of Edinburgh College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine

Human Genetics, Genomics and Disease: Preventing and detecting chromosomal aneuploidy in human pluripotent cells

Research Group: MRC Human Genetics Unit

Location. MRC Human Genetics Unit, University of Edinburgh, UK & Max Delbrück Center, Berlin, Germany. Supervisors. Prof Ian Adams, Prof Zsuzsanna Izsvák. Read more

Supervisor: Prof IA Adams

19 May 2024 PhD Research Project Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

PhD Studentship in Secure and Private Software Engineering

1 June 2024 PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

One fully funded PhD position to work with Dr Adriana Sejfia in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, on a project titled “Secure and Private Software Engineering”. Read more

Supervisor: Dr AS Sejfia

Impact of Sea-level Rise on Backfill soil – seawall Interaction

Supervisor: Dr M.S. Sutman

The projections of sea level rise show that UK sea level will continue to rise well beyond 2100, even under scenarios where future temperature rise is stopped. Read more

15 May 2024 PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

University of Edinburgh College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine

Deciphering the cell death-dependent fibrotic niche following lung injury

Research Group: Centre for Inflammation Research

Background. Lung disease causes 1 in 5 deaths globally with limited treatment advances for many acute and chronic respiratory conditions. Read more

Supervisors: Dr C Lucas, Dr DD Dorward, Dr P Ramachandran

13 May 2024 PhD Research Project Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

Last chance to apply

PhD studentship in Incremental Evaluation of Property Graph Queries

Supervisor: Dr M Milos Nikolic

One fully funded PhD position to work with Dr Milos Nikolic in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, on a project titled “Incremental Evaluation of Property Graph Queries”. Read more

19 April 2024 PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

A study of Sensing and Wireless Communications

Supervisor: Prof W. Popoola

This project is to investigate novel techniques for sensing and achieving efficient wireless communication. To fulfil the needs of future communication networks, the study will explore both the optical and radio frequencies for simultaneous sensing and wireless communications. Read more

31 July 2024 PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

PhD studentship in Foundations of Quantum computing and quantum cryptography

26 April 2024 PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

One fully funded PhD position is available to work with Dr Mina Doosti and Dr Myrto Arapinis, in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, and co-advised with Dr Farid Shahandeh at the Royal Halloway University of London on a project titled “Resource frameworks for secure quantum computing and quantum cryptography”. Read more

Supervisor: Dr MD Doosti

PhD studentship in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Systems: Distributed Deep Learning, Personalising Foundation Models and Building Efficient Autonomous AI Agents

Supervisor: Prof A Storkey

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Systems. Please contact Amos Storkey (amos+phdapps@inf.ed.ac.uk) as soon as possible about this opportunity. Read more

30 April 2024 PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)

University of Edinburgh School of Social and Political Science

Independence in the 'Elder Experience'

The Advanced Care Research Centre (ACRC) is an interdisciplinary, £20M research centre at the University of Edinburgh. Read more

Supervisors: Prof R. Williams, Prof S Anderson, Dr LD D'Adderio, Dr S Ramamoorthy

8 May 2024 PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)

Development of solar-powered self-healing 3D printed composite structures

Supervisor: Dr F Martinez-Hergueta

Development of solar-powered self-healing 3D printed composite structures. 4D printed devices are Additive Manufactured components with shape-shifting capabilities [1]. Read more

30 April 2024 PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)

University of Edinburgh School of Biological Sciences

Immune regulation of lung repair, and long-term consequences of infection

This project is one of 14 four year PhD Studentships funded by Medical Research Scotland (MRS) (https://www.medicalresearchscotland.org.uk) to be delivered jointly by the named University and External Partner Organisation (EPO). Read more

Supervisors: Prof G Perona-Wright, Dr S Jenkins

14 May 2024 PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)

Upscaling morphing in biological structures

Supervisors: Dr M.T. Taffetani, Dr M Dias

Continuum mechanics approaches have been used to model the mechanical behaviour of biological (and active) systems at length scales that are large enough. Read more

6 May 2024 PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

University of Edinburgh School of Biological Sciences

Last chance to apply

Sustainable bio-hydrogen production via engineered microbial metabolism (4-year fully funded PhD studentship with Dstl)

Research Group: Institute of Quantitative Biology, Biochemistry and Biotechnology

Background and the project. In 2022, carbon emissions from the chemical industry peaked at 935 M ton, making this industry the third largest sector by emissions and responsible for 2.5% of total greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Read more

Supervisor: Prof S Wallace

22 April 2024 PhD Research Project Competition Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)

Modelling gas-microdroplet interaction and dispersion for decontamination applications

Supervisors: Dr E E Epelle, Dr DG Gerogiorgis

Are you interested in pursuing a PhD in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) at the University of Edinburgh? We are currently looking to recruit a talented, hardworking, and passionate PhD student to study the interactive and dispersive behaviour of different sterilant formulations during the decontamination of materials with complex geometries and the disinfection of indoor spaces. Read more

22 March 2025 PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

Multi-physics investigation of spray in a crossflow

30 March 2025 PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

Understanding the dynamics of particles (solid and liquid) in a crossflow is essential for many scientific investigations and engineering applications. Read more

Supervisor: Dr KP Pandey

Last chance to apply

Barocaloric organic ionic plastic crystals and prototype development

21 April 2024 PhD Research Project Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

A PhD studentship is available in the group of Dr Claire L. Hobday (School of Chemistry, The University of Edinburgh; ( http://www.chem.ed.ac.uk/staff/academic-staff/dr-claire-hobday ) in collaboration with Sunamp, UK (https://sunamp.com/#home/ ). Read more

Supervisor: Dr C Hobday

Synergistic Experimental and Data-driven Catalyst Development for Sustainable Synthesis

Supervisors: Prof S Thomas, Dr E Solel Moroshko

The Thomas Group in collaboration with GSK and Dr Ephrath Solel Moroshko are now recruiting a motivated PhD student to develop a new method for the discovery and application of sustainable catalysis. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)

Fluorinated tools for chemical biology

31 May 2024 PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)

A PhD studentship is available in the group of Dr Chris Coxon, School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, https://www.chem.ed.ac.uk/staff/academic-staff/dr-christopher-r-coxon. Read more

Supervisor: Dr C Coxon

Synthesis of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons for Quantum and Electronic Devices

Year round applications PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)

A PhD studentship is available in the group of Iain Wright School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, Dr Iain A. Wright | School of Chemistry (ed.ac.uk). Read more

Supervisor: Dr I Wright

Design and Synthesis of Peptide-derived Receptors for Binding Small Molecules

Supervisors: Prof S L Cockroft, Dr AL Lilienkampf

A PhD studentship is available in the groups of Prof. Scott Cockroft and Dr Annamaria Lilienkampf School of Chemistry, The University of Edinburgh; https://www.cockroft.chem.ed.ac.uk in collaboration with DSTL. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)

Electron Driven Chemistry in the Interstellar Medium

Supervisors: Dr C Anstoter, Dr E Campbell

A PhD studentship is available joint between the groups of Cate Anstöter and Ewen Campbell, School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, see https://isla-edi.com/ . Read more

30 August 2024 PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)

Bringing Palladium Chemistry into the Biocatalytic Toolbox.

Year round applications PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)

A PhD studentship is available in the group of Dr Amanda Jarvis, School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, (https://www.amandajarvis.co.uk/ ). Read more

Supervisor: Dr A Jarvis