PhD programmes

The Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London provides an ideal environment to undertake research. The Faculty is one of the largest in Europe and is at the forefront of translating biomedical discoveries into patient benefit. The College's 2021 REF score ranks top in the UK overall – with a greater proportion of 4* “world-leading” research than any other UK university. Imperial ranks first in the UK for research outputs, first in the UK for research environment, and first for research impact among Russell Group universities. Our extensive postgraduate and doctoral training programmes immerse students and researchers in world-leading scientific discovery and its translation to public health improvements.

There are a number of PhD schemes that support clinically active doctors to undertake a full-time higher research degree at Imperial College London. Collectively these opportunities are known as Clinical Research Training Fellowships – or CRTF. For further details about how CRTF programmes are structured and arranged please visit our CRTF section.

A number of different research funding bodies support/host CRTF clinical PhD opportunities at Imperial – visit the pages later in this section to find out more about the different PhD programmes available.

During their programmes clinical PhD fellows will be located within a Department, Centre, Institute or section within the wider Faculty setting. To complement the support provided already by each setting, the Clinical Academic Training Office (CATO) acts as central information hub for guiding fellows as they undertake PhD programmes, advance through their clinical academic careers and move into further research fellowships – visit the PhD support pages to see what is on offer.