University of Cambridge, United Kingdom 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 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Eligible candidate may Apply as soon as possible.
(01) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: PhD Studentship in Experimental Investigation of Phase Change Mechanisms in Aircraft Contrail Formation
The PhD project focuses on the experimental investigation of early contrail formation, using a dedicated facility that generates contrail-relevant exhaust flows by injecting a high-speed moist jet into a controlled, cold environment. The student will contribute to the development and application of advanced optical and laser-based diagnostics to characterise condensation, freezing, and particle populations in the evolving plume. The project includes close interaction with numerical simulations, enabling quantitative comparison between experiment and CFD and supporting physical interpretation of the measured processes. While the primary focus of the PhD is experimental, the student will gain experience working at the interface of experiment and high-fidelity modelling in a collaborative research environment. Applicants should have (or expect to obtain by the start date) at least a good 2.1 degree in Engineering or a related discipline, and a strong interest in experimental fluid dynamics. Experience with laboratory instrumentation, data acquisition, and coding for experiment control or data analysis (e.g. LabVIEW, MATLAB, or Python) would be beneficial.
Deadline : 14 May 2026
(02) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: PhD Studentship – Occupational exposure of non-exhaust emissions
Applications are invited for a four year EPSRC IDLA studentship based in the MRC Toxicology Unit at the University of Cambridge, and with partners at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and the company Emissions Analytics. This studentship will commence 1st October 2026 (MT26).
As prevalence of electric vehicles increases in the transition to net zero, particulate emission from exhausts have declined significantly. Brake, tyre, and road wear particles have emerged as the dominant source of particulate pollutants from road transport. These non-exhaust emissions pose a growing occupational health risk. This project aims to characterise occupational exposure of the estimated one million affected UK workers (maintenance workers, bus/lorry drivers, delivery staff etc.) via roadside testing and assess associated health risks by undertaking cell exposure campaigns. By performing source apportionment analysis, with the help of machine learning, the data will pinpoint sources of the emissions and subsequently inform mitigation strategies, revolutionising the understanding of the harm of these pollutants. The research aligns with EPSRC’s energy and decarbonisation theme and supports the Engineering Net Zero strategic priority by addressing an overlooked consequence of the electric vehicle transition.
This project requires the student to develop novel, rigorous measurement techniques for a poorly-characterised pollutant source. It demands interdisciplinary thinking across metrology, environmental science, air quality and occupational health which will be reflected through cross-department collaboration. The student will gain expertise in experimental design, novel data analysis, and policy-relevant research, contributing original insights to a high-impact, emerging field.
Deadline : 11 May 2026
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(03) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: AHRC Collections & Communities in the East of England Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CC-EE CDP)
This project draws on East Anglia’s remarkable entomology collections and archives, which hold exceptional potential for humanities research. The region is of current and historical national significance for entomology because of its historically diverse habitats, yet has also suffered one of the highest levels of habitat change in the UK. Its insect collections are therefore unique datasets for tracing biodiversity shifts over time. The project examines how specimens are intertwined with the documents created by their collectors – a form of ‘life writing.’ Because insects are small, diverse and abundant, collectors could build large collections and long time-series of specimens, and correspondingly rich written records. These include notebooks, labels, publications, annotated books, diaries and correspondence. Together, these materials form an insect archive that reveals evolving relationships between people and insects. The student will develop their own research questions, with wide scope to choose focus areas, periods, taxa and documentary forms.
Deadline : 3 May 2026
(04) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Colombo: Layered Histories in the Global South City PhD Studentship (Fixed Term)
The UKRI-funded 5-year project, ‘Colombo: Layered Histories in the Global South City’, selected for funding by the European Research Council under its ‘HORIZON’ programme, is recruiting to a doctoral studentship.
This is a fully funded full-time international studentship for three years, commencing October 2026. The prospective doctoral student will focus their attention within the broad field of the ‘environmental and/or cultural history of Colombo’, ideally in the early modern or modern era. Given the project’s aim to generate dialogue between Sri Lanka and Europe, candidates applying from Sri Lanka are especially encouraged.
Colombo has a deeply layered imperial past. It came under a succession of European empires, Portuguese (first trading post in 1518), Dutch (1656-1796) and British (1796-1948). It was also pivotal to the early globalisation of Islam and has housed a series of diasporic and minority communities. This project interrogates how invaders and residents made a city in an unstable environment at the centre of the Indian Ocean, in which arose a diverse society, generating an abundance of cultural production and a sequence of violent politics. The four pathways of research are as follows:
In environmental terms, this multiply-colonised and repeatedly-engineered city is built in a wetland without a significant natural harbour;
In social terms, in a heavily nationalised state, the city has resisted indigeneity, as it is inhabited by many minority communities with long narrations of origin;
As for culture, Colombo was represented in keeping with recurrent motifs, as a site of transit across the Indian Ocean, including for enslaved and indentured labour as well as settlers;
And on politics, the heavy work needed, at the bridge of sea and land set one context for the rise of urban violence between communities in the midst of civil war in addition to sustained strikes and new political movements.
Deadline : 3 May 2026
(05) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: BHF 4-Year PhD Studentships in Cardiovascular Disease
Applications are invited for up to 10 funded 4-year PhD studentships starting in October 2026, as part of a new British Heart Foundation (BHF) doctoral training programme focused on preventing cardiovascular disease through innovative, data-driven approaches.
This interdisciplinary PhD programme brings together leading researchers from the University of Cambridge, University of Edinburgh, Imperial College London, and the University of Oxford. Students will be trained to work at the intersection of population health, systems biology, and data science/AI, combining expertise across these fields to tackle one of the most pressing challenges in global health. By harnessing large-scale multimodal data and emerging technologies, students will develop new approaches to understand, predict, and prevent heart and circulatory diseases.
Students will be based in one of the following institutes: Cambridge (5 studentships), Edinburgh (2 studentships), Imperial (1 Studentship) or Oxford (2 studentships) while benefiting from training, co-supervision, and collaboration across the partner institutions. Projects will span a range of topics including health data science, AI and machine learning, multi-omics, epidemiology, and translational cardiovascular research. Students will be part of a cohort-based programme, gaining access to shared training activities, collaborative networks, and state-of-the-art data resources across the multi-institute partnership.
Deadline : 16 April 2026
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(06) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Crohn’s & Colitis UK funded non-clinical PhD studentship
Applications are invited for a 3-year PhD studentship based at the Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge and funded by Crohn’s and Colitis UK (CCUK) supervised by Dr David Bulmer to investigate the mechanistic basis of drug treatments for bowel urgency, a leading cause of morbidity for people with colitis.
We have recently identified the expression of 5-HT1D and GPR35 receptors on the rectal nerves mediating urgency (Hockley et al 2019, Gut 68(4):633-644). These receptors are targets for sumatriptan and cromolyn, two drugs currently used for the treatment of migraine and asthma due to their ability to reduce the sensitisation of nerves in the head and lungs. Consequently we predict sumatriptan and cromolyn should also be able to inhibit rectal sensitiation and treat bowel urgency.
This studentship will investigate this further using a combination of electrophysiological, imaging and immunosorbent approaches alongside functional assays of gut secretomotor function in both animal and human tissue to confirm the mechanistic utility of this drug repuposing opportunity.
Deadline : 16 April 2026
(07) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: EPSRC FIBE3 CDT PhD studentship with Ramboll: Green bridges for ecological connectivity
This is a four-year (1+3 MRes/PhD) studentship funded through the Cambridge EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Infrastructure and Built Environment: Unlocking Net Zero (FIBE3 CDT). Further details can be found at https://www.net-zero-fibe-cdt.eng.cam.ac.uk/
Major roads and railways often create barriers that isolate wildlife populations, disrupt movement between habitats, and reduce biodiversity. Green bridges (landscaped crossings designed to reconnect fragmented ecosystems) offer a promising solution, but their construction can be carbon-intensive and costly. This PhD project, funded in collaboration with Ramboll, a global consultancy recognised for its leadership in sustainable infrastructure and environmental design, looks at how we can design and locate green bridges so they deliver maximum ecological benefit with minimal environmental cost.
The student may explore two interconnected research themes. The first focuses on how structural and material choices influence the carbon footprint and ecological performance of green bridges. The second investigates where green bridges should be placed to provide the greatest connectivity gains, considering species movement, landscape configuration, and transport corridor constraints. Methods may include ecological assessment, structural analysis, carbon modelling, and satellite monitoring / spatial planning tools.
Deadline : 15 April 2026
(08) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: EPSRC FIBE3 CDT PhD studentship with Network Rail: A Generative AI Framework for Optimising Capital Allocation in Track Asset Renewal Specifications
This is a four-year (1+3 MRes/PhD) studentship funded through the Cambridge EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Infrastructure and Built Environment: Unlocking Net Zero (FIBE3 CDT). Further details can be found at https://www.net-zero-fibe-cdt.eng.cam.ac.uk/
The project is funded in collaboration with Network Rail, the entity responsible for the operation and maintenance of the Great Britain’s railway infrastructure, with an extensive network spanning thousands of miles and its complex web of tracks, stations, signalling systems and more, and is fully committed to advancing research and innovation in the field of infrastructure and built environment to enhance efficiency, safety and sustainability.
As we navigate 2026, the global rail industry faces a systemic paradox: an unprecedented abundance of sensor data juxtaposed against rapidly aging infrastructure and increasingly constrained capital budgets. Traditional track renewal specifications remain siloed and manual, often failing to account for the non-linear impacts of climate resilience, carbon efficiency, and long-term lifecycle costs. To maintain a sustainable network, we must transcend “predictive” maintenance-which merely forecasts failure-and move toward “prescriptive” asset management.
This project aims to develop a pioneering Generative AI framework designed to autonomously synthesize and optimize capital investment strategies. By leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) and Graph Neural Networks, the candidate will create a system capable of interpreting complex engineering standards, historical maintenance logs, and real-time telemetry to generate high-fidelity renewal specifications.
Deadline : 15 April 2026
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(09) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: EPSRC FIBE3 CDT PhD studentship with Network Rail: Desiccation related Failure Mechanisms in Railway Embankments
This is a four-year (1+3 MRes/PhD) studentship funded through the Cambridge EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Infrastructure and Built Environment: Unlocking Net Zero (FIBE3 CDT). Further details can be found at https://www.net-zero-fibe-cdt.eng.cam.ac.uk/
The project is funded in collaboration with Network Rail, the entity responsible for the operation and maintenance of the Great Britain’s railway infrastructure, with an extensive network spanning thousands of miles and its complex web of tracks, stations, signalling systems and more, and is fully committed to advancing research and innovation in the field of infrastructure and built environment to enhance efficiency, safety and sustainability.
Climate change is posing many challenges to the UK’s railway infrastructure due to the increased demands from wetter winters and drier summers. This cycling of climatic conditions leads to cycles of wetting and drying of the soil. These changes of moisture conditions can lead to progressive failure of embankments.
This PhD project will investigate:
How the continued desiccation cycles on embankments steepen up the embankment slopes and whether the embankments ultimately fail by rotation, translation, or a combination of both.
What is the risk of catastrophic failure?
When is the embankment most at risk: immediately after wetting up, or after long saturation periods over winter?
How does the drying out of alluvium beneath the embankment cause the deterioration of the track on top of the embankment? What is the failure mechanism through the embankment and is cyclical desiccation a risk to the integrity of the embankment to provide support to the track?
Deadline : 15 April 2026
(10) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: EPSRC FIBE3 CDT PhD studentship with Network Rail: Systems analysis for local adaptation pathways within a national rail system
This is a four-year (1+3 MRes/PhD) studentship funded through the Cambridge EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Infrastructure and Built Environment: Unlocking Net Zero (FIBE3 CDT). Further details can be found at https://www.net-zero-fibe-cdt.eng.cam.ac.uk/
The project is funded in collaboration with Network Rail, the entity responsible for the operation and maintenance of the Great Britain’s railway infrastructure, with an extensive network spanning thousands of miles and its complex web of tracks, station, signalling systems and more, and is fully committed to advancing research and innovation in the field of infrastructure and built environment to enhance efficiency, safety, and sustainability.
This project seeks to utilise expertise in networks and systems-of-systems modelling to analyse how local rail adaptation measures interact across the national network. The study will explore physical and operational interdependencies, assess trade-offs between local and system-wide resilience outcomes, and evaluate governance barriers to coordinated adaptation. The goal is to develop a framework that ensures multiple small-scale interventions align to deliver coherent, strategic climate resilience across the UK rail system.
The project will examine how local or asset level climate adaptation decisions interact across the interconnected national rail system, generating synergies, conflicts or unintended consequences. The research will analyse physical, operational and organisational interdependencies -such as drainage systems, earthworks, power and signalling, timetable constraints, and interactions with external infrastructure networks and the third party land owners – to understand how distributed adaptation actions propagate through a large-scale transport system. Using systems-of-systems methods, network flow modelling and multi-agent or decision-simulation approaches, the student will assess trade-offs between local objectives and national-level resilience outcomes. A further strand will investigate governance challenges associated with coordinating adaptation pathways across multiple scales, drawing on Cambridge’s strengths in sustainability leadership, policy research and multi-actor decision processes.
Deadline : 15 April 2026
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(11) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: EPSRC FIBE3 CDT MRes+PhD in Future Infrastructure and Built Environment: Unlocking Net Zero
We have funding for a number of 1+3 MRes/PHD studentships, in collaboration with industry, as part of our EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Infrastructure and Built Environment: Unlocking Net Zero (FIBE3 CDT), under the four following themes:
- Current and disruptive technologies
- Circularity and whole life approach
- Al-driven digitalisation and data
- Risk-based systems thinking and connectivity
Deadline : 15 April 2026
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(12) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: EPSRC FIBE3 CDT PhD studentship with AtkinsRealis: Enabling a natural capital approach to infrastructure transitions
This is a four-year (1+3 MRes/PhD) studentship funded through the Cambridge EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Infrastructure and Built Environment: Unlocking Net Zero (FIBE3 CDT). The FIBE3 CDT aims to lead a transformation to net zero infrastructure through industry partner co-creation and co-delivery of an inspirational doctoral training programme for cohorts of emerging talents from diverse academic and social backgrounds. We will transform their potential by equipping them with the understanding, skills and qualities to collaboratively engineer the infrastructure that will unlock net zero through conducting world-class, cutting-edge and user-need focused cohort-based training and research to lead the design and implementation of the infrastructure net zero agenda in the UK.
Deadline : 15 April 2026
(13) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: EPSRC FIBE3 CDT PhD studentship with Tracey Concrete: Low-carbon cements for precast concrete in aggressive ground
This is a four-year (1+3 MRes/PhD) studentship funded through the Cambridge EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Infrastructure and Built Environment: Unlocking Net Zero (FIBE3 CDT). Further details can be found at https://www.net-zero-fibe-cdt.eng.cam.ac.uk/
The project is funded in collaboration with Tracey Concrete, a market leader in precast concrete manufacturing employing innovative production processes and are actively exploring the incorporation of new materials, technologies and designs in their operations to achieve zero-carbon construction elements.
The construction industry is under increasing pressure to reduce its carbon footprint while ensuring long-term performance of infrastructure, particularly in environments that accelerate material degradation. This PhD aims to develop and advance the use of low-carbon cements in precast concrete in aggressive ground for a range of buried structures. Precast concrete involves various types of concrete and offers a controlled environment for material innovation and quality assurance, making it an ideal platform for deploying alternative binders and next-generation low carbon cements.
The research will focus on characterising and evaluating the mechanical performance, durability, and sustainability of both commercially available and novel cements in concrete embedded in a range of aggressive ground conditions. These are contexts in which durability standards are critically important.
A central motivation for the project is the recognised limitation of the BRE Special Digest 1, last updated in 2005, which remains the primary reference for concrete in aggressive ground. Since its publication, significant advances have been made in low-carbon binder technologies yet current standards fail to reflect their performance characteristics. This gap hinders wider adoption in practice.
Deadline : 15 April 2026
(14) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: EPSRC FIBE3 CDT PhD studentship with Buro Happold and Ramboll: Prediction of future technical performance of lower carbon concretes
This is a four-year (1+3 MRes/PhD) studentship funded through the Cambridge EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Infrastructure and Built Environment: Unlocking Net Zero (FIBE3 CDT). Further details can be found at https://www.net-zero-fibe-cdt.eng.cam.ac.uk/
The project is funded in collaboration with Ramboll and Buro Happold who work across diverse projects with key clients focused on sustainable design and low carbon materials. Ramboll is a global engineering, architecture and consultancy company and Buro Happold is an international, integrated consultancy of engineers, designers and advisors. Both organisations are well-placed to help accelerate usage of lower carbon concretes.
Cement production is responsible for 5-7% of global CO2 emissions which reflects our dependence on large volumes of concrete used in societal infrastructure. A rapid transition to lower carbon concrete is an imperative. By the 2030s there will be a much wider range of concrete technologies with much improved performance, a less prescriptive approach to codified concrete design, and more flexible but robust performance requirements. To support this transition, and provide confidence in performance, we must move away from semi-empirical Ordinary Portland Cement based performance measures to more fundamental measures that better capture/represent different binder and concrete formulations with lower carbon intensities.
Deadline : 15 April 2026
(15) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: EPSRC FIBE3 CDT PhD studentship with Ward & Burke: Development of AI tools for meta-analysis of hydraulic models for preventing combined storm overflows
This project will seek to develop methods to rank models and guide interventions based on whether further optimisation of the solution is worthwhile. The developed tools will not rely on computationally expensive modelling, but will use meta-analysis techniques to consider the scale/cost of the intervention, “quality” of the modelling, sensitivity of the model to further optimisation, etc.
The project objectives are to: 1) Develop a detailed understanding of current hydraulic modelling practice. 2) Create a new framework to quantitatively assess and rank different catchment hydraulic models and sewage network models, leveraging AI and other “big data” meta-analysis techniques to perform this in a computationally efficient manner.
3) Provide guidance as to which sites and models would continue to significantly benefit from further optimisation. 4) Assess cost, complexity, and embodied carbon of different types of intervention to provide a wholistic view of where further development should be targeted. 5) Evaluate the potential for blue/green and sustainable solutions for improvement to network performance.
Deadline : 15 April 2026
About The University of Cambridge, United Kingdom – Official Website
The University of Cambridge is a collegiate research university in Cambridge, United Kingdom. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world’s fourth-oldest surviving university. The university grew out of an association of scholars who left the University of Oxford after a dispute with the townspeople. The two English ancient universities share many common features and are often jointly referred to as Oxbridge.
Cambridge is formed from a variety of institutions which include 31 semi-autonomous constituent colleges and over 150 academic departments, faculties and other institutions organised into six schools. All the colleges are self-governing institutions within the university, each controlling its own membership and with its own internal structure and activities. All students are members of a college. Cambridge does not have a main campus, and its colleges and central facilities are scattered throughout the city. Undergraduate teaching at Cambridge is organised around weekly small-group supervisions in the colleges – a feature unique to the Oxbridge system. These are complemented by classes, lectures, seminars, laboratory work and occasionally further supervisions provided by the central university faculties and departments. Postgraduate teaching is provided predominantly centrally.
Cambridge University Press, a department of the university, is the oldest university press in the world and currently the second largest university press in the world. Cambridge Assessment, also a department of the university, is one of the world’s leading examining bodies and provides assessment to over eight million learners globally every year. The university also operates eight cultural and scientific museums, including the Fitzwilliam Museum, as well as a botanic garden. Cambridge’s libraries, of which there are 116, hold a total of around 16 million books, around nine million of which are in Cambridge University Library, a legal deposit library. The university is home to, but independent of, the Cambridge Union – the world’s oldest debating society. The university is closely linked to the development of the high-tech business cluster known as ‘Silicon Fen’. It is the central member of Cambridge University Health Partners, an academic health science centre based around the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
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