So you’ve decided to pursue a PhD, found a potential supervisor and perhaps even been offered a place. Now you’re likely tasked with what can be the most elusive stage: securing PhD funding. Thankfully there are several routes available for PhD funding in the UK and I’ll walk you through the considerations for each.
Note – This post focusses on fully funding a PhD for the duration of your time at university – living expenses and all. If you’re looking to self-fund a PhD be sure to check out some flexible ways of making money I’ve found whilst pursuing a PhD.
Simply looking for an idea of how much you could get paid as a PhD student? Skip straight down to the bottom of this post.
A High Level View of PhD Funding in the UK
In the UK PhD funding falls into several main categories:
Once you’ve found a project, the best starting point is to discuss funding with your potential supervisor. They’ll be able to advise you of the best funding opportunities specific to your situation. It might be that they even have funding already arranged!
It is worth being aware that there are often differing funding opportunities for home, EU and non-EU students. Additionally, be sure to check that any funding includes your tuition fees.
As of 2022/23, home students fees are often around £4600 per year and rise to about £20,000 for overseas students! The project advert should state what the funding covers and includes any restrictions.
Project Specific PhD Funding
The simplest route, and the one that many prospective students may assume to be the norm, is for your supervisor to have funding in place for a specific project. Funding of this sort almost always has been sourced by successful grant applications to external organisations. Find a project you like the look of and get on well with your potential supervisor? You could be on track for a very simple application!
How to Find Fully Funded PhD Programs in the UK
How do you find fully funded PhD projects? They’re advertised in places such as findaphd.com and on your potential host department’s website.
PhD Funding From Research Councils & Charities
There are seven Research Councils in the UK, annually funding over £3bn of research. If you’re in discussions with an academic, there will be a research council that covers your field. The UKRI Research Council’s UK website lists all seven councils and their areas of research:
- Arts & Humanities
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences (BBSRC)
- Economic and Social (ESRC)
- Engineering and Physical Sciences (EPSRC)
- Medical (MRC)
- Natural Environment (NERC)
- Science and Technology Facilities (STFC)
Each council puts out calls for the work they are most eager to fund, here is the EPSRC’s current call.
Charities also provide an additional potential funding avenue. Many well known charities provide PhD funding such as Marie Curie and Cancer Research UK. Plus ones you won’t find on the high-street like the Wellcome Trust and Leverhulme Trust.
Most of the PhD funding via both routes comes in the form of large research grants, regularly upwards of £1 million. These are managed by senior academics who will act as the “PI” (principal investigator) ensuring that the money is spent appropriately. It is not usually appropriate for potential PhD candidates to apply directly to these funding sources, though this is possible: speak to your supervisor to check.
Academics often include PhD studentships in their grant applications so funding through these routes is common. In these instances the money has to be spent by a certain date so supervisors are motivated to fill spaces for the right candidate!
There is also EU-wide funding, such as the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network (ITN). As well as nice training and exchange opportunities it pays a staggering stipend of £35,000 – £40,000. I personally wish I’d known about it earlier!
PhD Funding Through Industry Collaboration
Academics regularly collaborate with industry and they may provide PhD project funding. Something to bear in mind is that a company will often be keen to focus the research around a particular product they wish to develop.
As such this may limit opportunities to alter the course of your project if you find other parts of your research more interesting. The upside is that collaboration with industry looks great on your CV. It could also offer job opportunities after you’ve completed the project.
You may now be wondering what happens if you find a supervisor you are keen to work with but they have no funded-projects available. Or if you are not interested in the ones that they have secured funding for. In this instance institution funding will be your best bet.
Student Specific PhD Funding
Universities often offer PhD funding to ambitious students giving you freedom to tailor a project to your own interests. Though of course you do still need a supervisor! Funding can be found at a variety of levels: university-wide scholarships generously donated by alumni, departmental provisions and, for universities running a collegiate system, colleges.
Most universities have a search tool where you can find all of the funding sources available. For example here is The University of Bristol’s.
Departmental Studentships
Many departments offer a small number of fully-funded studentships each year. These are usually widely advertised on their website. Your supervisor will be able to advise you on any internal PhD funding routes they know of and may be responsible for submitting any additionally required documents.
Though applying for a studentship may require some extra legwork, a noteworthy benefit is that these offer the most research freedom.
Often these are again funded by a research council but are not linked to a specific research grant. This is because they are often awarded based on academic merit rather than being tied to any one specific project proposal. This allows you to develop your own ideas with scope to explore whichever topics you and your supervisor agree to pursue.
PhD Scholarships
Scholarships are very similar to departmental studentships but are often university-wide and with this comes more money, prestige and competition. This is my funding source and you can read more about my PhD application experience here.
Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs)
CDTs are all funded by one of the UK research councils and often are hosted by more than one university. For example there is this Fusion Energy CDT, involving five partnering universities:
Funding is attached to all offers of admission but as ever check the funding criteria. There can sometimes be restrictions, especially for overseas students:
Unlike other PhD routes, CDTs are more similar to undergraduate or taught-postgraduate courses in their structure. CDTs begin as a cohort with a year of taught modules and short research projects. It is during this year that that you discuss potential projects with supervisors. Following this are three years of research working towards a PhD.
Read more about CDTs here.
CDTs are great for developing knowledge if you’re carrying out a PhD in an area slightly different to your undergraduate degree. If you’re already pretty set on a certain research topic then some consider the foundation year unnecessary.
Additionally, I have met CDT students stating that sometimes many students in the cohort are aiming for the same project. Since supervisors can only take on a limited number of new students per year (often only one!) you certainly have to be prepared to carry out a PhD on an alternative topic.
Each research council lists the different CDTs available within their remit, for example NERCs are here.
So How Much Will I Get Paid as a PhD Student in the UK?
Ah the crucial question! The bulk of studentships are funded by research councils (including CDTs), charities and departmental funds. UKRI sets out minimum doctoral stipends and it is usually this amount that they award. Most projects are funded for three years and for 2022/23 the UKRI stipend is set at:
Outside London: £17,668
Inside London: £19,668
PhD funding by industry will often also be at the UKRI levels shown above. Scholarships can pay upwards of £20,000 but this may need to cover your tuition fees.
Before you get put off by the idea of a PhD because the pay is so low, check out my comparison of PhD stipends and grad salaries after accounting for taxes. The difference is much smaller than you might think!
A Word on PhD Stipends
As a funded-PhD candidate your monthly income is called a stipend: which is tax-free. Being a PhD student, you retain your student status. This means that you are exempt from certain real-world responsibilities such as council tax and student loan repayments. Hence the gap between PhD stipends and grad salaries isn’t quite as large as it first seems.
If you’re interested in learning more about the costs of being a student, you may like to check out my post on affording to live in London as a PhD student. I’ve also written about my favourite ways of making money as a student and how I actually managed to build some savings during my PhD!
What Next?
Keen to learn how to maximise your chances of securing PhD funding in the UK? You may wish to check out my related posts here:
- How to Write a CV for a PhD Application (with free template!)
- Choosing a PhD Project & Supervisor
- What to expect from a PhD interview
Best of luck with your application!
If you’d like personalised help with your PhD application I am now starting to offer a small number of one-to-one sessions. Please contact me to find out more or click here to book a call.
I hope this has given you a good insight into how it works with PhD Funding in the UK. If you’re interested in learning more about PhDs be sure to subscribe to the mailing list:
