Are you holding Master’s degree and looking for fully funded PhD positions? University of Exeter, England invites online application for multiple funded PhD Programs / fully funded PhD positions in various research areas.
Candidates interested in fully funded PhD positions can check the details and may apply as soon as possible. Interested and eligible applicants may submit their online application for PhD programs via the University’s Online Application Portal.
1. Fully Funded PhD Position in Psychology
Summary of PhD Program:
The menstrual cycle and menstrual experiences can substantially impact an individual’s mental health and wellbeing. Perhaps the most well-known example is premenstrual syndrome (PMS), a set of symptoms that occur in the luteal phase, including anxiety, low mood, and irritability, with a severe form being Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD). However, menstruation can influence mental wellbeing in other ways and at different cycle stages, e.g. through physical discomfort, changes to behaviours, and social effects arising from stigma.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
2. Fully Funded PhD Position in Psychology
Summary of PhD Program:
Recent progress in understanding the genetics of schizophrenia has identified that specific rare but highly penetrant copy number variants (CNVs, deletions or duplications of segments of DNA) are associated with substantially increased risk for the condition. Pathway analyses have shown that these schizophrenia-associated CNVs have convergent impacts on synaptic genes, particularly those involved in the NMDA receptor complex, associated post-synaptic density and selected GABAA receptor complexes.
You will work largely with existing MEG data to build and refine cortical models that will link the downstream effects of schizophrenia-associated CNVs to changes in the MEG signals from CNV carrying individuals. This work will involve training in brain imaging analyses and mathematical dynamical systems modelling as well gaining a broad background understanding of clinical neuroscience, neuroimaging, pharmacology, genetics and computational modelling.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
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3. Fully Funded PhD Position in THz and mm-wave detection through silicon luminescence
Summary of PhD Program:
Unlike X-rays, radiation in the mm-wave THz bands is intrinsically safe, non-ionising and non-destructive. These frequencies also correspond to a “sweet spot” in the electromagnetic spectrum, where radiation can pass unimpeded through typical clothing materials, making them ideally suited for security imaging applications. However, THz and mm-wave radiation has also proven difficult to detect using standard approaches,, and this part of the electromagnetic spectrum is often referred to as the “terahertz gap”, where it is currently difficult to develop applications due to a lack of detector technology.
In this project we will develop a new technology for detecting THz and mm-waves, exploiting a very recent discovery by the Exeter THz group: by measuring heating induced changes to luminescence, one can make a very sensitive detector for these frequencies. This discovery, once fully developed, could have wide ranging applications, effectively turning any silicon based camera, such as a modern smartphone, into a sensitive THz detector.
Application Deadline: 30th September 2023
4. Fully Funded PhD Position in Metamaterials
Summary of PhD Program:
Exeter’s Centre for Metamaterials Research and Innovation (CMRI) is a community of academic, industrial, and governmental partners that harnesses world-leading research excellence from theory to application, and enables simulation, measurement, and fabrication of metamaterials and metamaterial-based devices. Our breadth of research is our centre’s strength: our PhD students, researchers and academics solve multi-faceted research questions and challenges. Our work spans physics, engineering, maths and computer science, including electromagnetism (from visible and infra-red through to THz and microwave), acoustics and fluidics, undertaken in parallel with research on numerical, analytical and AI modelling techniques.
Application Deadline: 30th September 2023
5. Fully Funded PhD Position in Data-driven Analytics and Digital Twins
Summary of PhD Program:
Data-driven analytics is a key focus area of the PhD. Data in the form of event logs from manufacturing systems can be used for process mining and machine learning. Yet another example is using real-time data with simulation techniques, such as discrete-event and agent-based modelling, to develop Digital Twins of complex manufacturing systems. Further, the PhD will investigate novel methodologies and frameworks in fields such as Circular Economy and how they could be combined with data-driven analytics to inform the development of sustainable manufacturing.
Application Deadline: 30th September 2023
6. Fully Funded PhD Position in Management and Business
Summary of PhD Program:
The University of Exeter Business School trains world-class researchers who will shape how we understand and respond to the most important societal challenges. We are offering a 1-year MRes plus the 3-year doctoral scholarship for Black British researchers. We are keen to receive applications from UK home fee status applicant who identifying as Black (Black or Black British African, Black or Black British Caribbean, Black or Black British other or Mixed Black or Black British).
Application Deadline: 20th June 2024
7. Fully Funded PhD Position in neurological disorders
Summary of PhD Program:
Adrenoleukodystophy (ALD, X-ALD) is a severe neurodegenerative disease, a hereditary condition which results in damage to the membranes that insulate nerve cells in the brain. The birth incidence of ALD is estimated at 1:14,000 and patients suffer from a variety of debilitating symptoms including progressive demyelination and adrenal insufficiency. This can lead to chronic fatigue, hearing and visual impairment, and seizures with rapid degeneration to a vegetative state. The severity and onset of symptoms can vary and the disease, despite being X-linked, can also manifest in carrier females in later life.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
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8. Fully Funded PhD Position in gastric cancer
Summary of PhD Program:
Cells communicate with a language of chemical signals to orchestrate cell behaviour at a distance. We have shown that signalling protrusions, namely cytonemes, transport Wnt signals, between distant cells. In gastric cancer, we observed an increased cytoneme network directly linked to tumour growth. This project will use cancer cell assays and xenograft technology to study the importance of cytoneme-mediated, paracrine Wnt signalling transport in 3D.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
9. Fully Funded PhD Position in climate change and antibiotic resistance
Summary of PhD Program:
Recent studies have shown that levels of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) increase at higher environmental temperatures, but we have very little idea about the mechanisms causing this pattern. To improve our ability to control AMR, we need to know much more about the mechanisms through which temperature alters the selection and spread of AMR. This project will combine lab-based experiments, theory, and genome sequencing to achieve this.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
10. Fully Funded PhD Position in Biosciences
Summary of PhD Program:
Organisms of the genus Aspergillus are ubiquitously distributed filamentous fungi that play major roles in environmental nutrient cycles. A range of species within this genus are of clinical importance and cause allergic, acute and chronic diseases. A. fumigatus is the most dangerous Aspergillus species for humans and can cause fatal invasive infections. More than 300,000 cases of invasive aspergillosis are reported per year, and over 3 million people with chronic lung conditions are affected by Aspergillus infections. Immunocompromised individuals are particularly exposed and their rise in numbers coincides with increasing rates of A. fumigatus infections. A lack of reliable diagnostics and effective treatment against aspergillosis has led to high mortality rates ranging from 30 – 95 % among infected patients.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
11. Fully Funded PhD Position in Clinical and Biomedical Sciences
Summary of PhD Program:
The aim of this project is to investigate the mechanisms underlying motor neurone disease (MND) to facilitate the development of new therapies in the future. This is important because MND has a short life expectancy (3 years from diagnosis), the impact on quality of life is severe and there are no effective treatments. There is therefore a clear need to gain a better understanding of the disease to inform the development of effective therapies.
Our approach to uncovering mechanisms of MND is to use genetic interaction analysis to gain insight into the genes and pathways that are involved in loss of viability in MND cells. We have previously developed Drosophila cell culture models expressing mutant version of human proteins known to be associated with MND (SOD1, FUS and TDP43) and have demonstrated that these models share characteristics with human models of the disease (e.g. alterations in cell viability and protein localisation).
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
12. Fully Funded PhD Position in Clinical and Biomedical Sciences
Summary of PhD Program:
To improve treatments for schizophrenia there is a need to better understand the biology impacted by genetic mutations conferring risk to the disorder. This project will aim to investigate the effects of high-risk genetic variants on synapses and their molecular constituents. We will make use of cell-specific RNA sequencing and large-scale patient genomic data to quantify these effects and predict biological vulnerability in the brain.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
13. Fully Funded PhD Position in Genetics and Genomics
Summary of PhD Program:
This exciting interdisciplinary global health PhD will provide the student with an excellent underpinning in metabolic psychiatry, a new and exciting area focusing on the shared aetiology of metabolic and mental health. There is growing interest in the causes and consequences of multimorbidity, but huge research gaps remain, especially in diverse ethnic groups. This PhD addresses these issues, focusing on the inter- relationships between obesity and the mood-psychosis spectrum of severe mental illness (SMI; schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe depression). This topic represents an area of high priority for patients and their families because people with SMI have very high rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes and increased mortality from cardiovascular disease. There is some evidence to support shared causal and/or bi- directional mechanisms between metabolic dysfunction (e.g. obesity, type 2 diabetes) and psychopathology.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
14. Fully Funded PhD Position in Clinical and Biomedical Sciences
Summary of PhD Program:
Type 1 diabetes is a complex disease caused by the loss of insulin-producing cells. Gut microbe changes and a weakened gut barrier are observed in those who develop T1D. We propose that genetic predisposition disrupts immune tolerance, affecting the gut barrier, promoting the development of harmful cells. The PhD aims to study the gut immune system in rare T1D donor tissue, alongside murine tissue to develop targeted treatments to protect insulin-producing cells.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
15. Fully Funded PhD Position in Biosciences
Summary of PhD Program:
Phages are viruses that infect bacteria and the most abundant biological entity on Earth. Given the escalating threat of antimicrobial resistance, phages have gained renewed interest for the treatment of bacterial infections, offering a personalised approach to treatment. Using cryoelectron microscopy, our objective is to characterise and subsequently enhance the efficiency of selected phages, expanding their versatility and applicability in the field of medicine.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
16. Fully Funded PhD Position in neurodegeneration
Summary of PhD Program:
TDP43 or (TARDBP) is an RNA-binding protein with critical functions in neurons, including alternative splicing and microRNA biogenesis. In many neurodegenerative diseases associated with dementia such as Frontotemporal dementia (FTD), limbic associated TDP43 encephalopathy (LATE) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), TDP43 mislocalizes to the cytoplasm and frequently aggregates into inclusions that can lead to neurodegeneration. However, the downstream effects of TDP43 mislocalization on neurons are incompletely understood. Genetic variants in certain genes are associated with increased risk of neurodegenerative disease. For example, the APOE4 allele is associated with increased risk of late-onset AD and LATE.
Application Deadline: 15th September 2023
17. Fully Funded PhD Position in Ecology and Conservation
Summary of PhD Program:
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a threat to our healthcare system. Phage therapy (PT), the use of lytic phages to treat bacterial infections can be an effective last-resort treatment, but efficacies remain hard to predict. PT is typically applied in combination with conventional antibiotics. This project aims to examine how and why the efficacy of PT-antibiotics combination therapy depends on the type(s) of phage and the type and dose of antibiotics.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
18. Fully Funded PhD Position in rehabilitation solutions
Summary of PhD Program:
This PhD project will investigate how to optimise the current solutions through qualitative research methods and human design thinking as well as investigate the feasibility and potential efficacy. This knowledge will not only support the company but wider dissemination of the knowledge collected will support the digital rehabilitation field. Specifically this studentship will: Develop the evidence for algorithm-based exercise for digital rehabilitation for people with non-communicable diseases affecting mobility delivered in the community settings. Implement mixed methods research designs to develop and evaluate the feasibility and potential efficacy of the Good Boost algorithm-based exercise recommendations delivered within leisure centre.
Application Deadline: 18th September 2023
19. Fully Funded PhD Position in future scenarios for British carnivores
Summary of PhD Program:
This interdisciplinary project will employ mixed methods to model and evaluate future scenarios for mammalian carnivore populations in Britain. The student will combine quantitative and qualitative approaches to investigate ecological and socio-political factors affecting both the recovery of these species and their long-term co-existence with people. The research will include mapping current ecological and social influences on carnivore populations, modelling future populations under different scenarios, and participatory, scenario-based evaluations with key stakeholders. The project will involve a combination of desk research and UK-based fieldwork, often in rural locations.
Application Deadline: 30th September 2023
20. Fully Funded PhD Position in Artificial-intelligence-Enabled Active Metamaterials
Summary of PhD Program:
Metamaterials are artificial structures with unprecedented electromagnetic properties that may not be found in nature or their constituent components. Ground-breaking applications ranging from invisible cloaking, super-imaging to negative refraction have been achieved thought the judicious design of the man-made structures with feature size at nanoscale. Recent development of phase change materials offers an unparalleled platform for photonic devices to operate dynamically, in sharp contrast with static counterparts based on metallic or dielectric materials. However, the desired tunability of the device gigantically increases the complexity of the design, driving the conventional methods (physics intuition based) inefficient or even impractical.
Application Deadline: 30th September 2023
21. Fully Funded PhD Position in Clinical & Biomedical Sciences
Summary of PhD Program:
Microglia are brain-resident immune cells. Alongside conventional molecular signals, evidence suggests that specific patterns of brain activity can control microglia function. We have found that a type of brain activity activated during cognition (called gamma oscillations) signals to microglia via a receptor subgroup, which may drive a neuroprotective response. This project will uncover how this signalling works to reveal drug targets for neurodegenerative disease.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
22. Fully Funded PhD Position in Clinical and Biomedical Sciences
Summary of PhD Program:
This project will investigate the efficacy of ketogenic supplements to improve cognition and brain blood flow regulation after concussive or sub-concussive head impacts. The approach will be from petri dish to person and allow you to learn a range of skills. In people you will measure head impacts over a season of sport and examine the effect of dietary supplements. You will also explore how ketones alter brain cells using in vitro and ex vivo models.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
23. Fully Funded PhD Position in Psychology
Summary of PhD Program:
The project will focus on DNA methylation in peripheral blood initially as it is both under the influence of genetic predispositions and environmental factors, while being stable and easily measurable. To achieve a large-scale study, we will use DNA methylation data from a variety of existing human studies across population studies and clinical trials. DNA methylation data obtained via microarrays will be integrated with other clinical, sociodemographic and genetic characteristics using a range of statistical and computational methods to predict antidepressants efficacy across studies and outcomes.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
24. Fully Funded PhD Position in Psychology
Summary of PhD Program:
Diagnosing mental health issues is challenging as it relies on self- reporting and is difficult to assess. This project will develop an approach to diagnosing issues using online games. Experiments will involve quantifying participants’ behaviour in games and using questionnaires to assess how behaviour is associated with symptoms. We will also develop theory to predict these associations and which games and measures most likely to indicate poor mental health.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
25. Fully Funded PhD Position in Mathematics & Statistics
Summary of PhD Program:
Physical activity promotes health & wellbeing. Policy makers seek interventions that increase population-level physical activity (e.g. traffic calming measures or cycle paths to promote active commuting). Many interventions however have differential impacts for different people. We propose combining advanced simulation & modelling approaches to provide estimates of effectiveness of various interventions & identify likely resulting inequalities.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
26. Fully Funded PhD Position in Medicine
Summary of PhD Program:
This multi-disciplinary PhD builds on Exeter and Cardiff research aiming to advance our understanding of the barriers, facilitators and decision- making processes for people with anxiety and/or depression who are referred by their GP to secondary care for cancer tests. This high-quality, practice- and policy-relevant research aims to develop an intervention to reduce inequalities in the cancer diagnostic pathway experienced by people with anxiety and/or depression.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
27. Fully Funded PhD Position in Public Health and Sports Sciences
Summary of PhD Program:
Many research papers about ADHD include the sentence “ADHD is associated with increased risk of substance use”. However new analysis in UK datasets has shown no association between ADHD and adolescent drug/alcohol use. What is going on? Have we been getting it wrong for years, or are there societal changes impacting on people with ADHD? In this PhD you will unpick whether or not young people with ADHD have an increased risk of using drugs and alcohol, and why (not).
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
28. Fully Funded PhD Position in Clinical and Biomedical Sciences
Summary of PhD Program:
During this PhD, you will be one of the very first people to study the epigenetics of Parkinson’s disease. You will determine and functionally evaluate the first-ever comprehensive microRNA profile in different brain regions of individuals with Parkinson’s. This will involve combining the exciting areas of epigenetics, bioinformatics and molecular biology. This work will improve mechanistic understanding and suggest novel drug targets for this devastating condition.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
29. Fully Funded PhD Position in Clinical and Biomedical Sciences
Summary of PhD Program:
Dysregulated activity in the stress system is linked to early life stress, chronic stress and depression. To understand how this dysregulation occurs, we need to know how the multiple parts of the system coordinate their activity. This is challenging in mammals as the system’s parts are anatomically distant. We will overcome this issue using zebrafish, which will enable us to perform live imaging of the system’s multiple parts in an intact animal for the first time.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
30. Fully Funded PhD Position in Clinical and Biomedical Sciences
Summary of PhD Program:
We recently identified a new neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by intellectual disability and psychiatric symptoms, similar to other severe neurodevelopmental orders we study. The aim of this project is to use learning and memory tasks, sophisticated single cell sequencing, chromatin, bioinformatic and molecular approaches in a new mouse model to understand the causes of this disorder and develop and test novel treatments.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
31. Fully Funded PhD Position in Genetics and Genomics
Summary of PhD Program:
Lung fibrosis is a devastating disease which causes 1% of UK deaths. On average, patients only survive 2-3 years after diagnosis. Ageing is a big risk factor; patients often have unusually short telomeres, correlating with a reduction in sex hormone levels. We will investigate if boosting hormone levels might improve telomere length and reduce disease burden – using data from cutting-edge lab experiments with lung cells, combined with analyses of patient genetics.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
32. Fully Funded PhD Position in Clinical and Biomedical Sciences
Summary of PhD Program:
During this PhD, you will use innovative bioinformatic techniques to investigate how epigenetic processes contribute to rare genetic disorders that affect insulin secretion. Critically, you will use these disease-specific epigenetic patterns to develop classifiers termed “episignatures” to assist with the interpretation of novel genetic variants and as a diagnosis tool.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
33. Fully Funded PhD Position in Clinical and Biomedical Sciences
Summary of PhD Program:
This project will primarily use the UK Biobank resource (~500,000 individuals, however throughout the course of the PhD we plan to include additional diverse datasets such as AllofUs, 100,000 Genomes Project, Biobank Japan and TopMed). While previous work has focused on breast and colorectal cancer with a focus on penetrance with and without a family history, this project will expand this work to other cancer sites and a wider range of clinical characteristics (such as age, sex, screening history, socio-economic status and some environmental factors). This will allow the student to steer the project towards cancer sites / clinical variables of interest. The student will also be responsible for deciding which variables end up in the final risk model and whether grouped or individual analyses or rare modifiers would be more relevant to their research question.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
34. Fully Funded PhD Position in Clinical and Biomedical Sciences
Summary of PhD Program:
When diabetes occurs in pregnancy, monitoring of maternal glucose is crucial to avoid complications. HbA1c is a convenient test, increasingly used to assess glucose control or detect new diabetes in at-risk women. However, the effect of ethnic variation on HbA1c accuracy in pregnancy is unclear. This PhD will address knowledge gaps using comprehensive datasets, for targeted antenatal care. The student will receive full training and support to publish their work.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
35. Fully Funded PhD Position in Clinical and Biomedical Sciences
Summary of PhD Program:
A novel Virtual Reality (VR) toolkit for diabetes will be developed. This aims to benefit 415 million people with diabetes worldwide. The VR toolkit will benefit: (1) People with Type 1 and 2 diabetes, by helping with prevention, treatment, care, management and education. (2) NHS clinicians, through VR training modules incorporating key techniques and scenarios. This PhD has opportunity to build on state of art VR for diabetes.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
36. Fully Funded PhD Position in Clinical & Biomedical Sciences
Summary of PhD Program:
The use of Whole-Genome Sequencing increased the diagnostic yield for rare diseases. However, even WGS fails to identify the genetic cause in about 50% of patients. To increase this yield, the NIHR National BioResource launched the RNA phenotyping initiative which adds RNA- seq and proteomic to WGS. The project aims to develop approaches for integrating these data to discover new causes of disease in a unique cohort of a thousand rare disease patients.
Application Deadline: 1st November 2023
37. Fully Funded PhD Position in Clinical and Biomedical Sciences
Summary of PhD Program:
Microglia are strongly linked to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), supported by significant cell-type specific genetic association. However, there is a substantial gap in our understanding of how genetic variation affect microglial response to pathology. This project will use culture models to uncover the mechanisms associated with microglial activation states using a multidisciplinary approach including microscopy, electrophysiology, epigenetics, and bioinformatics.
