Funding is often secured through Wellcome Trust or MRC DTP Fellowships. Further information about this and specific projects studying under the supervision of Departmental supervisors who have obtained funding are advertised below.

For up-to-date information on tuition fees, please refer to the College's Fees and Funding pages. It should be noted that supervisors may charge an additional ‘bench fee’ from sponsors to cover the costs of laboratory expenses (consumables and equipment) for postgraduate research projects.‌‌‌‌


PhD Studentship in the Landmark Programme - A multi-pharma consortium for multi-omic causal inference and drug target discovery

Award

We are seeking two PhD students to work on an innovative, large-scale, public-private partnership that will use multiple layers of genomic data generated on human post-mortem brain tissue for systematic drug target identification and prioritisation. The project is funded by Parkinson’s UK together with a consortium of global Pharma and Biotech companies. The PhD offers opportunities to work on an internationally unique, large-scale dataset using cutting edge methods for causal inference and multiomic data integration, as well as opportunties to interact with leading drug development scientists at some of the best pharmaceutical companies globally. A key focus of the work is drug target and causal biomarker discovery for Parkinson’s disease (PD), but the research will support target and biomarker discovery across human brain disease broadly. The candidates will be under the primary supervision of Professor Michael Johnson, with second supervisors at Imperial chosen to provide deep technical expertise in specific areas such as causal inference and machine learning. 

  • A tax-free stipend of £28,000 per annum for 3 years
  • PhD fees for UK eligible students will be covered in full (currently £7,090 per annum)
  • 2 PhD studentships available 

Eligibility

  • Candidates must be eligible for home (UK) fees. Overseas candidates are not being considered at this time.
  • Scientists from a range of backgrounds are encouraged to apply, including those with wet lab skills and experience in computational biology, statistics or machine learning. A biological background will be valued as will experience in bioinformatics, coding (e.g., R, python), and/or knowledge of data sciences, single cell genomics and statistics.
  • Applicants must have or expect to have obtained the overseas equivalent of at least a 2:1 UK undergraduate degree in a relevant field.  A Masters degree is desirable but not essential.
  • The student must also satisfy the usual eligibility criteria, including adequate academic qualifications  https://www.imperial.ac.uk/study/pg/apply/requirements/.Applicants must also meet Imperial College’s English language requirements – further details can be found at  https://www.imperial.ac.uk/study/pg/apply/requirements/english/ 

Application

  • For informal enquiries please contact Professor Michael Johnson at m.johnson@imperial.ac.uk
  • For application please send a full CV (including confirmation of your fee status), a letter of interest and contact details for two academic references to m.johnson@imperial.ac.uk.
  • The deadline for expressions of interest is 22 December 2023. 

‌PhD studentship in Machine Learning for Genomics

Award

Applications are invited for a fully-funded (at home/UK fee rate) 3.5-year PhD studentship in the research group of Dr Nathan Skene at the UK Dementia Research Institute, commencing during 2023 for the project: Using machine learning to predict cell-type specific effects of genetic variants which influence genome regulation. The project is based at Imperial’s White City Campus, the Hub for convergent research. The candidate will be part of the UK DRI’s Neurogenomics Lab under the supervision of Dr Nathan Skene. 

  • Full funding for tuition fees (currently at £7,030 per year)
  • A stipend of £21,000 per annum for 3.5 years

Eligibility

  • Applicants should hold or attain (by October 2023) a First Class or an Upper Second Class degree (or equivalent overseas qualification) in a quantitatie discipline, such as mathematics, statistics, computer science or engineering. 
  • Imperial would normally expect successful applicants to hold or achieve a Master's degree in a related field. Prior experience with programming is essential, but no experience with biology is necessary
  • Experience using machine learning methods will be beneficial. Applicants who are interested in this topic and are interested in applying for the Doctoral Training Centre scholarship’s in AI4Health or MultiSci, or who have qualifications suitable for the President’s Scholarship, are encouraged to contact Dr Nathan Skene.

Application

  • For informal enquiries please contact Dr Nathan Skene.
  • For application, please send a full CV (including confirmation of home fee status), and contact details for two academic referees to n.skene@imperial.ac.uk.
  • We regret that due to the large volume of applications received, we are only able to notify those shortlisted for interview. Applications will be considered throughout the 2023/24 academic year.


The President’s PhD Scholarship

Award

  • Full funding for tuition fees
  • A stipend of £25,150 per annum for 3.5 years
  • A consumables fund of £2,000 per annum for the first 3 years of study
  • 50 scholarships awarded per year.

Eligibility

  • Includes First Class UK degree or equivalent. If a Master's is held, it must be awarded with Distinction.
  • The Department will consider one exceptional overseas student however this must first be approved by the Department. Please ask your supervisor to discuss with their departmental manager before applying.
  • Prior to applying - Applicants must have made contact with a supervisor who has agreed to supervise their research project. Supervisors are limited to supervise one student at any time. Once you have a supervisor who has agreed to support you, please email Mojiba Khanum m.khanum@ic.ac.uk  so your PhD scholarship application can be prioritised for review and shortlisting.

Application


MultiSci MRC DTP Studentships

Award

A fully funded studentship awarded to individuals with settled UK status (a fees-only financial package is available to students ordinarily resident in a member state of the EU)

  • Full funding for tuition fees
  • A stipend of £19,668 per annum for 3.5 years
  • A research training support grant (RTSG) of £5,000 per annum, paid to the supervisor for supporting the student’s training and research
  • Payment of Completing Research Status fee of £200 to allow registration as a writing-up student.
  • A conference fund of £300 per annum to facilitate registration and attendance at conferences and scientific meetings.
  • Supplement funds to support a wide range of research and training activities including internships, high-cost training and outreach.

Eligibility

Includes at least an Upper Second Class Honours degree and settled UK status for the full award or a fees-only financial package for students ordinarily resident in a member state of the EU.

Application

Complete an online application with Imperial College London by the deadline stated on the MultiSci MRC DTP Studentship webpages. Prior to applying applicants are not expected to have confirmed a PhD supervisor or title but a clear idea of the area you wish to pursue will be beneficial for your personal statement.


CSC Joint Funding

Award

  • 15 scholarships awarded per year
  • Funding for the scholarships is split between the CSC and the College. Within the College, it is shared between Departments and Central College funds
  • The College-level funding is delegated to the Department which is usually delegated to the supervisor who is expected to cover the student’s stipend and £1k to attend conferences

Each scholarship includes payment of

  • Overseas fees at the prevailing rate in any given year
  • Maintenance allowance equal to Imperial’s minimum stipend allowance in any given year. For 2019/20, this was £17,009 per year.
  • One economy class return journey to China (one journey during the PhD – not on an annual basis).

Eligibility

  • Chinese students with a strong academic background
  • Applicants must hold a PR China passport. Students do not need to be resident in China at the time of/before application
  • Students with prior experience of studying overseas (including in the UK) are eligible to apply
  • Current Chinese Master's students at Imperial are eligible for the scheme
  • Students who are not currently studying must be working full time and must apply through their previous academic institution in China;
  • Students from Hong Kong or Taiwan are not eligible to apply.
  • Please note: successful scholarship applicants are required to return to China to work for a period of two years after graduation.

CSC Fully Funded Scholarship

Students should apply directly to the CSC usually through their ‘home’ Chinese institution. Further information is available from the ‘home’ Chinese institution.


AI4Health - UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in AI for Healthcare

AI4 Health's vision is to establish a world-leading centre for PhD training of next-generation innovators in Artificial Intelligence (AI) applied to Healthcare.

The Centre's PhD training has four broad healthcare themes that leverage AI in healthcare:

  1. Making healthcare provision more efficient and effective by increasing the productivity of doctors and nurses or patients through assistive technology
  2. Developing AI-based diagnostics & monitoring that can, for example, detect disease earlier and monitor health with higher precision
  3. AI-based decision support systems that will, for example, free up doctors’ and patient’s time to focus on key challenges or optimising the delivery or development of treatments
  4. AI that accelerates patient-centric drug and treatment development.

Imperial College’s Scholarships Search Tool

Other scholarships may be available for students with particular track records and nationalities, and it is advised that this tool is used to help search for available scholarships.