Funding

The University of Edinburgh provides a variety of funding opportunities for PhD studentships throughout the year. The bulk of studentships are offered in the winter recruitment round from November to January, but individual studentships become available regularly. Each individual PhD project page will indicate the eligibity requirements associated with any funding for that project. These will fall into one of the following categories:

Funded Project (UK)

Individual projects with studentship funding available for students who are UK citizens or EU citizens who have been resident in the UK for 3 years. This sort of funding often comes from studentships provided by UK-based charities and UK funding agencies.

Funded Project (UK/EU)

Individual projects with studentship funding for students who are UK or EU citizens. This sort of funding often comes from studentships provided by UK funding agencies or by the University of Edinburgh.

Funded Project (Open)

Occasionally studentships are made available to students with no restriction on nationality or residency.

Competition Studentships ('UK', 'UK/EU' and 'Open')

The bulk of projects each year are offered within a ‘competition studentship’ funding scheme which usually takes place between November and January. These studentships are usually offered by individual research centres. These differ from individual projects, since a variety of projects are offered by the centre but only one or two funded studentships are available, so the successful student is able to nominate the project they wish to pursue.

Competition studentships often have eligibility restrictions, as for the individually funded projects outlined above.  So, 'UK' would provide funding for UK nationals (or EU with 3 years residency), 'UK/EU' would have funding available to UK and EU nationals, while 'Open' indicates that funding is available to students worldwide.

An important note about fees

Non-UK, non-EU students are subject to Foreign Postgraduate student fees. Outstanding students from overseas (non-UK, non-EU) who apply for 'Open Competition Studentship' projects restricted to UK/EU nationals may be nominated by the University for an Edinburgh Global Research Scholarship to cover foreign student fees. These Studentships are highly competitive and an application to this fund can only be made following successful PhD interview.  Many 'Competition Studentships' have early deadlines to accommodate the deadline for the Edinburgh Global Research Scholarship, which is often the end of January, since students must have a PhD placement offer before they can apply for the Edinbrugh Global Research Scholarship.

Self-Funded

We welcome applications from candidates with their own sources of funding (e.g. a government award).  All candidates must still apply via this portal using the application form available on the Applying page.

Please note: In addition to payment of fees at the appropriate level, self-funded students will also be required to pay research costs, which will depend on the nature of the research to be conducted. For instance, projects involving molecular biological techniques may exceed £8,000 per year. The level of research costs should be discussed and established with your intended supervisor. You will also need about £13,550 per year to live on (the current level of stipend for Research Council Studentships). Thus the real cost of studying as a supervised PhD student at the University of Edinburgh and living in Edinburgh may be as high as £30,000 per year, or more, for up to four years.

More information about postgraduate funding and study can be found at the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine Postgraduate web pages.