Loughborough University, Leicestershire, England invites online Application for number of Fully Funded PhD Degree at various Departments. We are providing a list of Fully Funded PhD Programs available at Loughborough University, Leicestershire, England.
Eligible candidate may Apply as soon as possible.
(01) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: A socio-economic impact evaluation on wellbeing and community dynamics of offshore wind farms in the United Kingdom
This PhD scholarship is offered by the EPSRC CDT in Offshore Wind Energy Sustainability and Resilience; a partnership between the Universities of Durham, Hull, Loughborough and Sheffield. The project is sponsored by industry partner, the Crown Estate of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The successful applicant will undertake six-month of training with the rest of the CDT cohort at the University of Hull before continuing their PhD research at Loughborough University, with opportunity for a period spent at the Crown Estate headquarters in London.
Deadline : 10 July 2026
(02) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Artificial Intelligence for the Built Environment (AI4BE)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) already contributes in many ways to improve the built environment in all its life-cycle stages: design, build, operate, decommission. But AI is used in fragmented, specialist, proprietary ways which is preventing the delivery of joined-up outcomes expected by society from the built environment. The lack of integrated information thinking has led to failures in built environment solutions and holds back the potential to create adaptive solutions that can flex based on changing contexts.
The AI4BE Loughborough Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) will develop AI-skilled, future global leaders who embrace systems thinking, collaborative sharing, and inter-disciplinary pluralism. These skills are essential for AI-informed solutions to a range of built environment challenges, from climate change, globalisation and localisation, to security and resilience, and value for money.
Deadline : 31 July 2026
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(03) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Chemical recycling and life cycle assessment of next-generation thermoplastic composites for wind turbine blade manufacture
A major sustainability challenge in the wind energy sector lies in managing the end-of-life of turbine blades. Traditional thermoset composites are difficult to recycle, often ending up in landfill or undergoing energy-intensive disposal processes. This doctoral studentship – jointly supported by the EPSRC CDT in Offshore Wind Energy Sustainability and Resilience and Metol – will advance circular solutions for the next generation of turbine materials.
Metol have recently developed a new low-viscosity thermoplastic resin system designed for large-scale blade manufacture. This project will explore chemical recycling of these materials through solvolysis, aiming to establish an efficient recovery route and quantify its environmental benefits. The student will characterise recovered polymer and fibre fractions using advanced analytical techniques and re-manufacture them into new composite laminates, benchmarking performance against virgin materials.
Complementing the experimental work, a full life cycle assessment (LCA) will be conducted to compare solvolytic recycling with conventional disposal and mechanical recycling pathways. The outcomes will provide crucial data on energy use, carbon footprint, and circularity metrics, guiding future blade design and material selection.
Deadline : 10 July 2026
(04) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Co Designing Active School Uniforms : Equity Focused Approaches to Enhancing Physical Activity in Secondary Schools
Activity levels decline sharply during adolescence, with particularly low participation among girls and those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Schools have been identified as a critical setting for increasing physical activity as they can play a pivotal role in shaping opportunities for movement.
School based strategies are essential for supporting every day, incidental movement throughout the school day. However, yet many structural and cultural aspects of school life constrain opportunities for movement. One notable barrier is the formality and restrictiveness of secondary school uniforms, which can limit comfort, confidence, and physical activity during the school day.
School uniforms that are comfortable, flexible and suitable for everyday movement, represent a potentially equitable approach to addressing barriers to increased opportunities for physical activity . Early evidence suggests that changes to school uniforms can support physical activity and are viewed positively by students and parents, but UK specific evidence remains limited.
Deadline : 22 May 2026
(05) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Developing reduced-order models for long-term wave loading to enable accurate fatigue estimation in offshore wind turbines
This PhD scholarship is offered by the EPSRC CDT in Offshore Wind Energy Sustainability and Resilience; a partnership between the Universities of Durham, Hull, Loughborough and Sheffield. The scholarship is co-funded, and co-supervised by, HR Wallingford. HR Wallingford are a global expert in water-related challenges, providing research, consultancy, and physical and computational modelling that supports the offshore wind sector internationally. The studentship funds four years full time study (part time options available), including: six-months of multi-disciplinary training, delivered by the University of Hull; and a research programme, based between Loughborough University and HR Wallingford.
Deadline : 10 July 2026
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(06) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Enhancing Membrane-Free Alkaline Electrolysis for Sustainable Hydrogen Production
Capturing and storing energy from the unpredictable and intermittent resources of wind and solar is necessary to slow the climate crises caused by fossil fuel emissions. Using the renewable energy to produce hydrogen via membrane-free alkaline water electrolysis is among the most promising ways to achieve this without depending on other limited resources. However, there is a need to accelerate improvements in the efficiency and stability of this technology using cost-effective solutions. Thus, this research aims to:
- develop novel electrode materials and geometries to reduce overvoltage
- develop novel cell and stack configurations to minimise the electrical energy consumption per kg of hydrogen.
Your research will synthesise novel electrode materials, characterise their properties and evaluate their electrocatalytic performance in membrane-free alkaline electrolysers. You will study the effects of the geometry and surface chemistry of electrodes, as well as the local flow rate of electrolyte on the bubble dynamics in the electrolysers. Most of these activities will be based at Loughborough University where you will have access to a variety of instrumentation for electrochemical analysis, product gas analysis as well as advanced material characterisation.
Deadline : 31 July 2026
(07) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Exploring how lifestyle factors influence digital biomarkers using wearable devices
This PhD focuses on exploring trends between continuous glucose monitor (CGM) data, diet, lifestyle behaviours and health outcomes to identify patterns that could improve metabolic health in healthy adults or those at risk of diabetes. Understanding the types of information that might make the most impact on lifestyle outcomes could better inform how wearable technology can support people in reducing their diabetes risk and improving overall health.
This research will explore methods such as time series analysis (e.g., ARIMAX models) and machine learning (e.g., random forests, gradient boosting, LSTM models, or deep reinforcement learning for adaptive personalised recommendations) to build and explore relationships between glucose patterns and lifestyle factors. This could include developing personalised models that predict individual glucose responses, to understand which people benefit most and what drives lasting behaviour change versus acute effects.
Deadline : 22 May 2026
(08) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Geographies of example: Finding the example within the exception and beyond (GeoEx)
“Why and how are some lives depicted and positioned as expendable while others are deemed not just worth protecting but also of exemplary treatments?” is the question that broadly drives this project given the starkly differentiated regards for human lives and rights on a planetary scale. While existing scholarship offers an answer, it fails to differentiate between the expendable and the exemplary lives; instead, it dilutes both within the same framework of the exception primarily inspired by Giorgio Agamben’s reding of the state, sovereignty, biopolitics, and the exception (1998, 2005). Read accordingly, although the example operates on a similar assumption but in the opposite manner, has remained unexamined in political geography and other cognate disciplines. The project stems from such observations that “the sovereign’s power is manifested not only via the production of a state of exception but also equally through the creation of a state of example” hence, remains underpinned by the production of both a homo sacer and a homo exemplar (Ferdoush, 2025, p. 1). It aims to pursue one overarching goal which is to answer: Why, where, how, on whom, and for how long does the sovereign decide to display its power of the example? This is informed by three specific objectives:
- To spatially locate the example within and beyond the exception,
- To identify how time is used in the creation and treatment of exemplary cases and,
- To investigate the arbitrary power of the sovereign in treating categories as exemplary or exceptional as it wills.
Deadline : 15 June 2026
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(09) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Human-in-the-loop machine learning for drone-assisted Structural Health Monitoring
Inspections of offshore wind turbines, such as identifying damage or ice on turbine blades, anticipating its effects and making decisions on maintenance and repair, as well as estimating remaining useful life (RUL), is an important part of extending the lifetime of a wind turbine as well as the power that can be generated from it. While both tasks are often driven by experts, public data on environmental, meteorological or physical conditions, in combination with satellite and/or climate data, can help make predictions for new, unseen conditions.
The latter is particularly relevant when data is sparse. While public data exists on general environmental conditions and turbine power yield, data around specific combinations of operational and environmental conditions is not always readily available — this is particularly the case for new generations of floating or far offshore turbines, which are much harder to reach and inspect than previous generations much closer to shore, and for which less historical data is available.
This project aims for two key research advances: first, the development of a new human-in-the-loop active learning framework [2, 3], which uses conversational AI to negotiate key decisions related to turbine inspection and maintenance with a human expert [4, 5]. This can be based on a deep reinforcement learning framework, which interactively optimises key performance indicators in the form of a human-expert informed reward function. Second, we aim for the integration of low-energy machine learning algorithms, so that the resulting AI model can run on a variety of devices, including UAVs (e.g., drones) that may be used in turbine inspection.
Deadline : 10 July 2026
(10) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Integration of physical activity support into the NHS cancer care pathway
Making Every Contact Count is an NHS campaign that aims to use the millions of routine interactions health care professionals have with their patients to promote behaviour change. This PhD will explore the development and implementation of behaviour change interventions within the NHS to support patients to minimise inactivity and improve their health.
The successful candidate will have the opportunity to shape the project around the topic area with their interests and goals together with their supervisors.
This PhD studentship is part of an NIHR Advanced Fellowship awarded to Dr Kajal Gokal who will be the primary supervisor. The successful candidate will be a member of the Centre for Lifestyle Medicine and Behaviour and will be provided with multiple opportunities for development throughout the studentship.
Loughborough University has an applied research culture. In REF 2021, 94% of the work submitted was judged to be top-rated as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’.
We are a community based on mutual support and collaboration. Through our Doctoral College there are continual opportunities for building important research skills and networks among your peers and research academics.
Deadline : 30 July 2026
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(11) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Lead-Free Ceramic Materials for Pulsed Power Applications
Explosively driven pulsed power systems convert mechanical shock energy into high-power electrical pulses, enabling lightweight, compact, and ultra-fast power sources for advanced electromagnetic and directed energy applications. These systems rely on ferroelectric ceramics that store and rapidly release electrical energy when subjected to shock-induced depolarisation.
Lead-based materials, such as lead zirconate titanate (PZT), have long set the benchmark for electromechanical performance. However, environmental, and regulatory pressures have created an urgent need for high-performance lead-free alternatives. Recent advances suggest some emerging lead-free ferroelectric compositions can match or surpass lead-based performance, offering improvements in both sustainability and capability.
The project will begin with a literature review to identify promising lead-free ferroelectric systems. Selected compositions will be synthesised using advanced ceramic processing, including solid-state reaction and field-assisted sintering, to achieve high density and controlled microstructure. Materials will then be poled under high voltage and elevated temperature before structural, dielectric, and ferroelectric characterisation.
Deadline : 18 June 2026
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(12) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Multi-terminal HVDC Control and Operation Strategies for Offshore Wind Farms
High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission provides an efficient and reliable solution for delivering offshore wind energy over long distance. Multi-terminal HVDC (MT-HVDC) technology offers key advantages over traditional point-to-point HVDC links, including lower costs, reduced socio-environmental impact, improved system security, and more efficient resource utilisation. However, current HVDC projects are usually developed as single vendor solutions, which has potential supply chain risks and limits flexibility for future expansion.
In close collaboration with the National HVDC Centre, this project will focus on multi-vendor, transnational MT-HVDC networks for offshore wind integration. The project aim is to develop robust control and operation strategies that address the critical challenges of system interoperability and compatibility between different vendor technologies. The developed solution will be validated using advanced hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test facilities available at the National HVDC Centre, and ensuring the industrial relevance and applicability to real-world industrial systems.
The project outcomes will support the deployment of resilient and scalable MT-HVDC technology, accelerating the integration of offshore wind energy at transnational level. By addressing vendor interoperability, this project will reduce the supply chain risks, enhance energy flexibility and security, and contribute to the net-zero transition.
Deadline : 10 July 2026
(13) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Nanoparticle-reinforced coatings for leading edge protection of offshore wind turbine blades
Offshore wind turbine blades are continually exposed to harsh marine environments, where rain, salt spray, and high-speed particle impacts can erode blade leading edges and reduce aerodynamic efficiency. This doctoral studentship aims to revolutionise blade protection through the development of advanced nanoparticle-reinforced polyurethane coatings.
Current leading-edge protection (LEP) technologies, such as tape-based systems, offer limited durability and are costly to maintain or replace offshore. Liquid-applied coatings present an opportunity for seamless, self-healing protection that can be applied both during manufacture and in situ. This project will formulate a new generation of ceramic nanoparticle-enhanced polyurethane coatings that deliver exceptional toughness, erosion resistance, and long-term adhesion under real offshore conditions.
The research will combine advanced materials formulation, microstructural and mechanical characterisation, and accelerated environmental testing. A novel rain erosion simulator, designed to replicate the complex dynamics of offshore exposure—including saltwater droplets, oblique impacts, and cyclic loading—will be used to evaluate coating performance.
Deadline : 10 July 2026
(14) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Parameterising wakes for oceanographic models
It has been recently shown that such large-scale atmospheric interactions can have a significant effect on sea-surface conditions, manifested through a locally reduced wind shear stress (Christiansen et al., 2022). Large-scale deployment of offshore wind farms in shelf seas therefore poses an emerging oceanographic problem; shelf seas are vital for life both on and below water through their control on the vertical transport of nutrients, and their role as a key component of the biogeochemical cycle (van Berkel et al., 2020). These are crucially dependent on general circulation and water column structure, which are both highly sensitive to conditions at the sea surface (Dorrell et al., 2022). Yet the impact of offshore wind expansion on sea surface conditions and subsequent regional scale effects is poorly understood and has only recently gained research interest. While wake parameterisations for atmospheric models have received significant interest over the last decade, the current state-of-the-art oceanographic models make sweeping assumptions regarding the form of sea-surface forcing, particularly concerning wake-wake interactions, spatial variability, and turbulent modifications (Christiansen et al., 2022). These limitations must be overcome for accurate prediction of oceanographic responses to offshore wind expansion.
This project aims to advance sea-surface parameterisations of atmospheric offshore wind farm wakes for use in oceanographic models, directly supported by the National Oceanography Centre, using the North-West European Shelf FVCOM model. This aim will be realised through the following objectives:
- Review literature and gather existing datasets required for model development and validation,
- Carry out simulations of atmospheric wind wakes using Computational Fluid Dynamics,
- Develop and validate sea-surface wind turbine wake parameterisations,
- Explore the potential impacts of current and future offshore wind development on North Sea oceanography, using FVCOM.
- Completion of these objectives will deliver a functional oceanographic model for future research into impacts of offshore wind deployment to inform marine spatial planning.
Deadline : 10 July 2026
(15) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Physical activity throughout the reproductive lifecycle
There is some existing evidence that having a child is associated with a decrease in physical activity among females, while physical activity levels are also associated with fertility and birth outcomes. Relationships between physical activity and reproductive events across life are thus complex and it remains unclear which associations are causal.
This project will use pre-existing longitudinal data on physical activity from across life, covering the time prior to, during, and after reproductive events.
The research will aim to describe physical activity levels across life comparing females with males, and then assess the impact of pregnancy and/or start of menstruation on physical activity levels and consider how physical activity impacts reproductive characteristics. The research will provide evidence to help females remain active across the life course.
The research will use data from routinely collected health data from Vitality and existing data from UK longitudinal population studies. It will apply advanced statistical methods for longitudinal analysis and aim to identify causal effects of reproductive events on change in physical activity.
Deadline : 31 May 2026
(16) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Right Ventricular Remodelling Following Pulmonary Valve Implantation in Patients with Surgically Corrected Tetralogy of Fallot
This research will enhance the understanding of the postoperative pulmonary valve and ventricular function and will assist interventional cardiologists and surgeons to predict outcomes and complications prior to the intervention, making patient-specific decisions for optimizing pulmonary valve replacement. Although the computational simulation platform that will be developed in this project will be based on the pulmonary valve replacement procedure, it will have the capacity to be adapted for predicting the patient-specific outcomes of additional valve procedures.
The objectives of the project will be to:
- Develop patient-specific multiphysics computational models to analyze the pre- and post-operative anatomy, biomechanics, haemodynamics and electrophysiology of the right heart.
- Assess and quantify the effect of the anatomical changes imposed on, and the consequent adaptation and remodelling of the right ventricle following replacement of the native pulmonary valve with a valve prosthesis.
- Perform multivariate parametric analysis to evaluate the effect of multiple geometric, biomechanical, haemodynamic, and electrophysiological parameters simultaneously, with a view to identifying new risk factors that affect the post-operative functional performance of the patient’s heart.
Deadline : 31 May 2026
(17) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Single-turbine scale quantification of wake turbulence
Individual wind turbines produce turbulent wakes that have implications for maximum power generation from downwind turbines, increased fatigue loads and associated maintenance costs (Porté-Agel et al., 2020) . There are also associated environmental issues such as noise generation, and the introduction of large-scale flow structures to the atmospheric flow field. There have been a number of studies of these phenomena and Howard et al. (2015) and Kadum et al. (2019) have undertaken detailed studies of aspects of these dynamics. At the heart of this project is an attempt to develop deeper understanding of these phenomena in terms of the flow physics and to provide practical modelling methods that correctly represent these physics.
Of particular interest is the nature of the non-local energy transfers identified in the references cited above. Hence, this project will consider the non-equilibrium energy scaling for near-field wakes and how these effects can be captured in subgrid-scale models. Furthermore, we are interested in understanding how these non-local energy transfers relate to the behaviour of the flow’s pressure field, which provides another dimension to model development (Keylock, 2018).
Deadline : 10 July 2026
(18) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Spectrally Pure Topological Microcombs
The goal is to develop extremely low-noise optical sources (microcombs) for precision timing applications. Leveraging recent advances in topological states and nonlinear optics, the system will generate ultrastable combs in a compact form.
These objectives align with the Quantum National Strategy by building practical, metrology-ready microcombs, essential for the development of portable quantum timing devices.
The Emergent Photonics Research Centre is a 700 m² university facility dedicated to complexity in photonics, spanning ultrafast photonics, optical frequency combs in microresonators, AI for photonics, and terahertz technologies. The Centre hosts a multi-million-pound portfolio of equipment and research grants from funders including the ERC, EPSRC, DSTL, Innovate UK, and The Leverhulme Trust, with several early-career fellowships and PhD studentships. During the course of the studentship, the student would be expected to complete two six-month placements at NPL.
This research aligns with the UK Quantum Missions—targeting ultraprecise clock distribution (QT Mission 4: positioning, navigation, and timing; QT Mission 5: network synchronisation)—and is funded by the project
Deadline : 16 May 2026
(19) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Stochastic analysis and modelling of flow boiling
This PhD project aims to develop next-generation, uncertainty-aware stochastic models for flow boiling, moving beyond traditional deterministic approaches. The research will combine advanced data-driven modelling with high-resolution experimental analysis.
You will work with an established flow boiling facility equipped with state-of-the-art optical diagnostics to generate and analyse time-resolved experimental data, providing a unique opportunity to bridge fundamental science with real-world engineering applications.
The successful candidate will join a dynamic, industry-collaborative research team and will develop expertise at the interface of thermal sciences, data science, and machine learning.
Deadline : 15 May 2026
(20) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Trustworthy AI for Nuclear Decommissioning Knowledge Retention
This EngD project will explore how existing AI technologies, such as large language models, can be adapted for nuclear decommissioning knowledge retrieval while addressing their current limitations: lack of transparency, traceability, and engineering context. The researcher will develop methods to combine AI with Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) principles, creating a structured backbone that links AI-generated insights to plant systems, processes, and original data sources. This approach will make AI outputs more verifiable, auditable, and trustworthy.
The outcome will be a proof-of-concept platform tested on real decommissioning data, demonstrating how AI and MBSE can work together to preserve knowledge, support safe decommissioning, and accelerate workforce training. This research will help transform decades of legacy information into a reliable digital resource for the UK’s nuclear future.
Deadline : 25 June 2026
About Loughborough University, Leicestershire, England –Official Website
Loughborough University (abbreviated as Lough or Lboro for post-nominals) is a public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university since 1966, but it dates back to 1909, when Loughborough Technical Institute began with a focus on skills directly applicable in the wider world. In March 2013, the university announced it had bought the former broadcast centre at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as a second campus. The annual income of the institution for 2022–23 was £369.1 million, of which £48.3 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £339.1 million.
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