PhD Study with Edinburgh Neuroscience
Edinburgh Neuroscience currently has about 250 PhD students working on a wide variety of neuroscience-related projects that cover health and disease across the life course, from early development to old age. Our PhD students are an integral part of our dynamic neuroscience community and we are keen to recruit motivated and collaborative students. There are a variety of PhD opportunities, advertised throughout the year.
The EdNeuro.PhD portal on this website lists the projects where the application process is managed through this website and the EdNeuro.PhD mailbox. However, there are many other neuroscience-relevant PhD projects available across the University of Edinburgh, which are part of separately run PhD programmes and have their own application processes.
Below is a list of the available projects that we are currently aware of. Please follow the hyperlinks for more information about the projects, programmes, supervisors and application processes.
PhD projects and programmes currently recruiting for 2025 entry
In vivo investigation of neuronal and circuit mechanisms underlying cognitive dysfunction in early dementia 1st supervisor Dr Jian Gan
Simons Initiative for the Developing Brain (SIDB) PhD programme
The SIDB PhD is a full-time fully-funded 3.5 year programme. The projects are in subjects spanning basic and translational brain sciences in the biological mechanisms underlying autism. These studentships represent an exceptional opportunity for well-qualified, motivated individuals to conduct new research in an expert and highly supportive environment.
The studentships cover a stipend (£25,000 per annum in 2024/25) and fees for both home and international students. The SIDB PhD programme has been designed to maximise the amount of available time for students to pursue their scientific goals and as such does not have a mandatory taught component or credit system as seen in other doctoral training partnerships.
The projects advertised for 2025 entry are as follows:
1. Investigating the effects of a neurodevelopmental disorder-causing mutation in eEF1A2 on neuronal structure and function 1st supervisor: Prof Cathy Abbott
2. Neural Circuits of Kinship Behaviour 1st supervisor: Dr Ann Clemens
3. Understanding the function and regulation of local SHANK3 protein synthesis 1st supervisor: Dr Paul Donlin-Asp
4. Defining the Molecular and Developmental Basis of Bainbridge-Ropers Syndrome 1st supervisor: Dr Rob Illingworth
5. Exploring the role of dysfunctional protein turnover in the nucleus accumbens in Fragile X syndrome 1st supervisor: Dr Susana Ribeiro dos Louros
6. Investigating the mechanism of action of loss of function CHAMP1 variants 1st supervisor: Dr Martine Manuel
7. Evaluation of mechanisms for altered neural population dynamics in a rodent model of Fragile X syndrome 1st supervisor: Prof Matt Nolan
8. Investigation of the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive dysfunction in rat models of autism 1st supervisor: Dr Marino Pagan
9. Noradrenergic-dependent visual disruption and restoration in a mouse model of SYNGAP1-related Intellectual Disability 1st supervisor: Prof Nathalie Rochefort
10. Investigation of connectome deficits in monogenic forms of Autisms using high-throughput anatomy 1st supervisor: Dr Gulsen Sürmeli
11. Developmental tactile and pain processing in Grin2b related neurodevelopmental disorder 1st supervisor: Dr Carole Torsney
VIDA (Vascular and Immune contributors to DementiA) Doctoral Training Centre PhD projects
VIDA is a new multi-institutional partnership between Alzheimer’s Society and four world-leading research sites: the University of Manchester, University of Edinburgh, Imperial, and City St George’s University of London. With projects focussing on the importance of vascular and immune mechanisms in dementia, VIDA PhD students will become the next generation of much-needed dementia researchers, contributing to breakthroughs in dementia diagnosis and treatment. VIDA students will embark upon a 4 year fully-funded PhD project at one of the four institutions above.
The projects based at the University of Edinburgh are as follows:
1. Exploring the role of the astrocyte-leptomeningeal vessel interface in dementia 1st supervisor: Dr Philip Hasel
2. Do altered oligodendrocyte-microglial interactions underlie global white matter tract impairments and cognitive decline after focal ischaemic stroke? 1st supervisor: Dr Jill Fowler
3. Systematic evidence-based approach to identifying and tailoring inflammation modulating treatments to improve clinical outcomes including cognition for patients with intracerebral haemorrhage 1st Supervisor: Dr Neshika Samarasekera
4. The associations and impact of brain mineral deposition as a marker of vascular dysfunction and inflammation in neurovascular diseases 1st supervisor: Prof Joanna Wardlaw
Precision Medicine Doctoral Training Centre
The Precision Medicine Doctoral Training Programme is a fully-funded PhD with integrated study funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), University of Edinburgh and University of Glasgow. Hosted by the University of Edinburgh in collaboration with the University of Glasgow and the Karolinska Institute, this prestigious programme provides PhD research training alongside taught courses over four years of study.
This programme supports research training at the interfaces between biological, clinical, societal and computational systems. Mandatory taught elements include statistics, research ethics, innovation and entrepreneurship, health economics, data management and bioinformatics.
There are 10 neuroscience-related projects available for 2025 entry, either led or co-led from Edinburgh:
1. Systematic evidence-based approach to identifying and tailoring inflammation modulating treatments for patients with intracerebral haemorrhage 1st Supervisor: Dr Neshika Samarasekera
2. Causal AI to discover mechanisms and surrogate markers of retinal and brain disease from observational datasets 1st supervisor: Dr Ian Maccormick
3. Chronic Pain, analgesic prescribing, and cognitive decline 1st supervisor: Dr Chloe Fawns-Ritchie
4. Computer modelling of the retinal microvasculature: a move towards personalised management of kidney disease and brain health through improved understanding of vascular dysfunction and injury 1st supervisor: Dr Tom MacGillivray
5. Developing Multimodal Biomarkers and Computational Models for Objective and Subjective Impairments in Altered Cognitive States Using fNIRS, EEG, and Eye-Tracking 1st supervisor: Dr Benjamin Peters
6. Multi-system prediction of frailty 1st supervisor: Prof Michelle Luciano
7. Defining vascular-immune cell heterogeneity and and intercellular communication in human vascular disease and dementia 1st supervisor: Prof Karen Horsburgh
8. Perivascular spaces and their relationship with changes in cognition over time 1st supervisor: Dr Francesca Chappell
9. Revealing vulnerabilities of the microtube network and inter-cellular communication in gliomas through mechanistic computational modelling 1st supervisor: Dr Dirk Sieger
10. Neurocomputational signatures of response to antipsychotic treatment in first episode psychosis. Supervisors: Dr Filippo Queirazza (University of Glasgow). Professor Marios Philiastides (University of Glasgow), Professor Stephen Lawrie, University of Edinburgh
EASTBIO Doctoral Training Partnership
As one of the largest doctoral training partnerships in the UK, the East of Scotland Biosciences consortium unites globally recognised educational institutions, industry and research organisations. The partnership delivers unparalleled research and professional training to emerging scientists, fostering the continued development of the bioscience industry, and invigorating the broader economy across Scotland and the UK.
Lead by The University of Edinburgh, the partnership includes the University of St Andrews, the University of Dundee, Stirling University, the University of Aberdeen, SRUC, the James Hutton Institute, Moredun Research Institute, SULSA, IBioIC and Cool Farm Alliance. With over a decade of investment from UKRI BBSRC, the partnership, now in its third iteration, continues to flourish and welcomes 60-64 new students each year.
The neuroscience projects at the University of Edinburgh for 2025 entry are as follows:
1. Brainstem origins of total body coordination during locomotion 1st supervisor: Prof Dave McLean
2. Exploring form & function in one of nature’s most powerful water-conservation systems 1st supervisor: Dr Barry Denholm
3. Elucidating the function and regulation of PSD-95 and ACTB protein synthesis at dendritic spines 1st supervisor: Dr Paul Donlin-Asp
4. Neural Coding Underlying Episodic Memory Formation, Consolidation and Retrieval 1st supervisor: Dr Nick Robinson
5. Cortico-hypothalamic circuits in feeding 1st supervisor: Dr Mahesh Karnani
6. Investigating a role for the placenta in signalling maternal stress to the fetus and programming the fetal brain 1st supervisor: Dr Paula Brunton
7. Investigating neurocomputational mechanisms and modulatory factors of decision making in ecological settings 1st supervisor: Dr Gedi Luksys
Euan Macdonald PhD Scheme
Supporting postgraduates is a key part of the Euan MacDonald Centre’s mission. The Centre is passionate about encouraging, training and equipping the MND researchers of the future. Through the generosity of their donors and fundraisers, the Centre normally funds one or two non-clinical PhD studentship per year. You can read more about the scheme here.
The following projects are on offer for 2025 entry:
1. Identifying candidate biomarkers for diagnosis and progression of MND/ALS in animal models of progressive partial denervation of skeletal muscle Supervisors: Dr Kosala Dissanayake & Prof Tom Wishart
2. Exploring serine and one-carbon metabolism in Spinal Muscular Atrophy – Towards next generation of therapies Supervisors: Prof Kiterie Faller & Dr Helena Chaytow
3. Identifying Novel Regulators of Neuromuscular Junction Remodeling in in vitro and in vivo models 1st supervisor: Dr Lyndsay Murray
4. DRUG-Seq platform to identify therapeutic combination to reverse TDP43 mediated RNA dysregulation Supervisors: Dr Bhuvaneish Selvaraj, Prof Siddharthan Chandran, Prof Neil Carragher