We have a range of funding opportunities available to support you through your PhD studies.
Award funding process and criteria
The Awards Panel's role is to decide on the allocation of the Department and College’s available funding resources to PhD candidates, with the aim of attracting and securing PhD candidates with research interests that fall within the research activities of the department.
Our Awards Panel meets four times a year to consider funding nominations for PhD applicants. Candidates are nominated by their potential PhD supervisor only after receiving an offer of a PhD place. The Panel oversees the allocation of departmental and EPSRC funding. The Panel also submits the department's recommendations for University-wide scholarships. Current students are not considered for any funding except CSC (see below).
Assessment
The Awards Panel considers a number of indicators to assess your academic achievements and research potential.
Indicators of academic achievement include:
- grades;
- cohort ranking;
- awards for academic achievements;
- national and international standing of institution;
- reference letters provided as part of your PhD application.
Indicators of research potential include:
- research statement provided as part of your PhD application;
- interview
- internships, placements, or other relevant work experience;
- any publications
Previous successful applicants have obtained 1st class equivalent degrees at Master's level, been ranked near the top of their cohort, have been awarded a number of prizes during their studies, have had a number of research placements over their studies, and conducted work that has been published or is of publishable quality.
Start date for funded places is usually start of Autumn term.
Please note that funding does not cover Student Visa or Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) fees.
Awards Panel Meetings
Scholarships and other funding decisions made by the November and January awards panel
November
- President's Scholarship round 1
- Department funding
- EPSRC awards
January
- President's Scholarship, round 2
- Imperial College-China Scholarships Council awards (CSC)
- University scholarships
- Department funding
- EPSRC awards
Scholarships and other funding decisions made by the March and June awards panels
March
- President's scholarship, round 3
- Maria Petrou scholarship for women
- Alex Fortescue scholarship
- Department funding
- EPSRC awards
June
- Department funding
- EPSRC awards
Funding
- Electrical & Electronic Engineering PhD Scholarships
- Maria Petrou Scholarship for Women
- Alex Fortescue Scholarship
- EPSRC Doctoral Landscape Award (DLA)
- Funding offered by Academics for specific research projects
- University-wide Scholarships
- Imperial-China Scholarship Council (CSC) Awards
The Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering has a number of scholarships for outstanding PhD applicants each year.
PhD supervisors can nominate a limited number of their top applicants for funding. Funding decisions are made by the EEE department’s Awards Panel Committee.
Applicants who apply earlier (i.e. by October for the following October), are more likely to be nominated for this funding as the process is highly competitive. Applicants will be contacted if they have been awarded this funding.
The annual funds available are awarded on case by case basis. It can be used flexibly, in various ways: full scholarships, partial scholarships, top-up funding to cover shortfall in other external or internal Imperial College schemes.
Full EEE Scholarship consists of:
- Home/Overseas tuition fees for 3 years
- Bursary (at UKRI rate with London allowance for 3.5 years)
- An allowance towards conferences and travel
The Professor Maria Petrou PhD Scholarship has been established to help recruit, retain and advance the careers of all women, including cis and trans women in engineering. It provides funds for undertaking PhD studies in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial College London.
The Maria Petrou Scholarship is supported by the Dennis Gabor Fund, which provides an annual contribution towards the overall costs.
The Maria Petrou scholarship covers tuition fees (Home & Overseas), bursary (at UKRI rates with London allowance + £500 top-up per annum for 3.5 years) and an allowance towards conferences and travel.
Meet some of our Maria Petrou Scholars
Eligibility
Applicants of any nationality are eligible for consideration for this prestigious academic scholarship. Eligible applicants do not apply directly for this scholarship — if they have been made a PhD offer by the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, an application can be put forward by their supervisor.
Deadline for applications
Candidates must have been nominated by their prospective supervisor, and secured an academic offer of study by 1 March for a place on the PhD programme starting in September.
About Professor Maria Petrou
The scholarship honours the life and work of Professor Maria Petrou (1953-2012), who was the first woman Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. She received numerous honours, including a fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2004, and was a passionate advocate for women in engineering.
Maria Petrou was born in Greece and studied Physics at the University of Thessaloniki, scoring the country’s highest mark in her entrance exam, before moving to Cambridge to complete her doctorate.
She began her academic career in Astrophysics, but at a time of increased UK government funding for the applied sciences in the early 1980s, Maria — who described herself as a problem-solver — began an academic migration towards research in robotic vision and remote sensing.
Throughout her career in this field, Maria was interested in improving the ability of robots and computers to extract important information from raw data, detecting patterns, and overcoming difficulties associated with textures in images. She is noted for the development of a completely novel type of image representation known as trace transform. This allowed her to manipulate, compare and identify 2-D images by scale or rotation – allowing significant breakthroughs in, for example, face recognition software. She developed advanced techniques for edge and line detection, for texture analysis and for image segmentation, and was a specialist in colour image processing.
Professor Petrou posed an open challenge to her peers to develop a robot for ironing clothes, after her great-aunt came across a news report of a robot football world cup and said: “Why can’t (men) develop something really useful, like an ironing robot?” Her great-aunt's challenge became a three-year EU-funded project.
The Alex Fortescue Scholarship provides funds for undertaking PhD studies in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial College London.
The Alex Fortescue scholarship covers tuition fees (Home & Overseas), bursary (at UKRI rates with London allowance) and an allowance towards conferences and travel.
Eligibility
Applicants of any nationality are eligible for consideration for this prestigious academic scholarship.
Candidate's proposed project must align with Human and Artificial Intelligence topics and related research areas.
Eligible applicants do not apply directly for this scholarship — if they have been made a PhD offer by the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, an application can be put forward by their supervisor.
Deadline for applications
Candidates must have been nominated by their prospective supervisor, and secured an academic offer of study by 1 March for a place on the PhD programme starting in September.
About Alex Fortescue
Alex Fortescue 1968 – 2024
The scholarships have been established in memory of Imperial alumnus Alex Fortescue, who graduated in 1990 with a first-class degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
Alex’s family connections with Imperial span more than a century; his grandfather, Cecil Lewis Fortescue, held the Chair of Electrical Engineering at Imperial from 1922 - 1946, and served as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering. A distinguished educator, researcher and President of the IEE, he was known for encouraging experimental teaching, alongside a deep commitment to student life and wellbeing.
Following an MBA at INSEAD, Alex went on to build a career at the highest levels of strategy consulting and private equity, becoming Managing Partner at Epiris in 2016. Alex was a talented and prolific investor who made great use of his agile intellect, insight and creativity. He had vision and ambition and was able to persuade those he worked with that anything was possible if only they set their sights high enough. Alex’s friends and colleagues at Epiris remember his life, work and friendship in a personal tribute.
In recent years Alex had enjoyed opportunities to visit the Department, being drawn to the emerging possibilities of Human and Artificial Intelligence, where he was inspired by our research in robotics and intelligent systems. Alex’s family have chosen to realise his ambition and vision through these PhD Scholarships: an investment in the work of the researchers he met, and in the next generation who will build on it.
The UK Research Councils have allocated awards or provide the College with funding for specific activity.
The department has a number of Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Doctoral Landscape Award (DLA) studentships available.
Please read the guidance on Research Council PhD studentships to confirm your eligibility for this funding.
Some funding is project specific and therefore linked to specific supervisors. These are usually advertised on findaphd.com
You do not need to submit several applications in order to be considered for various projects. If appropriate, you may want to submit a revised personal statement. Once you have submitted an online application, you can be considered for any suitable projects, providing you meet our entry requirements. These appointments are made by the supervisor and are not considered by our Awards Panel.
Imperial has a range of other scholarships which you many be eligible for, including the prestigious President's Scholarship.
Find out more about other Imperial College Scholarships and funding opportunities or go straight to our scholarships search tool, which helps you search for all available scholarships in one place.
These awards are open to eligible applicants and first year PhD students. First year PhD students need to be nominated by their supervisor.
The Department does not support direct CSC applications.