Are you holding Master’s degree and looking for fully funded PhD positions? University of Plymouth, Plymouth, 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 Sustainable nanotechnology for environmental remediation; scale-up and scalable business model
Summary of PhD Program:
A novel nano-enabled, platform device has been developed for the remediation and recovery of pollutants, with demonstrable success for oil, metals and harmful algal blooms. This applied project will work at the science-business interface and focus on two specific tracks related to environmental entrepreneurialism and engineering. First, a Lean Start-up, customer discovery-based approach will be taken to identify and develop a scalable business model for the technology. The student will put together a team, perform interviews and identify and quantify appropriate markets, customers and other metrics using a hypothesis-driven approach.
Application Deadline: 31 March 2025
2. Fully Funded PhD Position in The impact of physico-chemical transformations of nanomaterials and their role in environmental risk and remediation
Summary of PhD Program:
The remediation, recovery and reuse of pollutants such as oil and metals can be effectively performed using nanoscience and nanotechnology. Nanoparticles once in complex environmental media (containing natural organic macromolecules, salts and other components) will undergo physical and chemical transformations, including dissolution, agglomeration and phase changes. Both optimal pollutant recovery and potential risk (hazard and exposure) of the nanoparticles is highly dependent on these changes and this project aims to investigate and quantify changes using both model particles and particles used in remediation. Transformations will be optimised for maximum pollutant removal, minimal hazard and for the control of exposure.
Application Deadline: 31 March 2025
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3. Fully Funded PhD Position in Evaluating the role of Big Data and satellite technologies in understanding livestock impacts on the upland landscape
Summary of PhD Program:
There is a clear need to evaluate and enhance sustainability in agricultural systems, to balance food production with its environmental impacts. In the UK, extensive livestock farming practice is moving increasingly from traditional pastoralism towards the delivery of ecosystem services. However, the relationship between extensive livestock management and environmental impacts versus services is still poorly understood.
Application Deadline: 28 March 2025
4. Fully Funded PhD Position in Evaluating the Microbiome Homeostasis in Gut Health and Immunity for Thriving Whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) – MIGHT “Y” Shrimp
Summary of PhD Program:
This PhD project offers a unique collaboration with Lallemand Animal Nutrition, a global leader in microbial solutions for a changing world. Their existing portfolio of aquaculture microbial technologies allows us to access well characterised strains for novel applications to counteract abiotic stressors associated with necessary management practices; seasonal fluctuations and climate change such as temperature and salinity shifts. The candidate will gain access to state of the art research facilities and benefit from a dynamic research environment at the interface of academia and industry.
Application Deadline: 28 March 2025
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5. Fully Funded PhD Position in Welfare in a Snapshot: Thermal Imaging for Real-Time and Cumulative Welfare Assessment in Hens
Summary of PhD Program:
As birds detect, respond to, and recover from stress, their skin undergoes a characteristic pattern of temperature change. Thermal imaging captures this process continuously and non-invasively, opening new possibilities for stress research and real-time welfare monitoring. In this project, the PhD student will explore how a hen’s welfare, health, and perception of her environment can be encoded in thermal stress responses. This will be investigated first at the individual level via a controlled, small-scale experiment, and then at the flock level via commercial data collection with the support of the Lakes Free Range Egg Company.
Application Deadline: 28 March 2025
6. Fully Funded PhD Position in Seaweed Nanomaterials for Runoff Remediation: Balancing the Soil-Water Nexus for Sustainable Food Systems (SEA-FOOD)
Summary of PhD Program:
Agricultural runoff is a major contributor to water pollution, carrying excess nutrients, pesticides, and antibiotics into aquatic ecosystems. Conventional treatment methods struggle to remove contaminants such as organophosphates, tebuconazole, acetamiprid, tetracycline, and sulfamethoxazole, leading to soil degradation, eutrophication, and antimicrobial resistance. This PhD project develops a novel low-carbon solution using functionalised seaweed-derived nanomaterials to selectively capture and degrade these pollutants through photocatalytic oxidation, mitigating environmental harm while supporting sustainable agriculture.
Application Deadline: 26 March 2025
7. Fully Funded PhD Position in Psychology
Summary of PhD Program:
Research in the School covers a wide range of topics in areas such as cognition, learning, memory, developmental, emotion, health, clinical, decision making, social psychology, and neuroscience. A list of potential projects can be found below. It is essential that candidates discuss their proposal/plans with their intended supervisor(s), prior to writing their proposal and submitting an application. The school can only consider PhD research proposals that have the support of a supervisor (see required documents).
Application Deadline: 9 May 2025
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8. Fully Funded PhD Position in How do weight loss drugs impact commitment to and enactment of behavioural change in people living with obesity?
Summary of PhD Program:
The recent emergence of GLP-1ra (e.g., Semaglutide, Tirzepatide) for the management of obesity (BMI>30kg/m2) is promising to revolutionise weight management treatment in the UK and globally, without necessarily obviating the need for behavioural change. Despite the intended confluence of pharmacological and behavioural approaches, little is known about the compatibility of these two interventions. However, there are reasons for thinking that weight loss drugs could either promote or discourage engagement with behavioural interventions, and these predictions are the focus of the proposed PhD, the principal question of which is: How do weight loss drugs impact commitment to and enactment of behavioural change in people living with obesity?
Application Deadline: 22 April 2025
9. Fully Funded PhD Position in Characterising and testing an inducible model of schwannoma
Summary of PhD Program:
A PhD studentship is available in the laboratory of Professor David Parkinson, based within the University of Plymouth Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence. The Centre has labs that work on a number of different types of brain tumours, with close collaborations between the groups. The Parkinson lab works on the biology of NF2-null tumours, principally schwannoma and meningioma that may occur sporadically or as part of NF2-related schwannomatosis.
Application Deadline: 11 April 2025
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10. Fully Funded PhD Position in Characterisation of microbial intraspecies variability in infections: an opportunity for improved treatment of polymicrobial diseases
Summary of PhD Program:
Fungal-bacterial infections (FBI), such as those caused by the fungus Candida albicans and the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, are recognised as an urgent threat to human health. They are the most common agents co- isolated from biofilm-associated diseases such as skin infections and ventilator-associated pneumonia. To date, the interaction between both microorganisms within these biofilms has been described as synergistic, although data from our laboratory observed antagonistic interactions. The degree of synergism between C. albicans and S. aureus is dependent on the patient-derived S. aureus strain. As a result of bacterial intraspecies variability, the composition of the different biofilms varied greatly.
Application Deadline: 25 April 2025
11. Fully Funded PhD Position in Developing a data science pipeline to extract high resolution models of eyes from MRI scans
Summary of PhD Program:
The aim of the project is to investigate analysis techniques to automatically extract 3D models of the eye and lens from MRI scans and optical coherence tomography (OCT) using deep learning techniques. To improve visualisation of critical features of the eye, such as the fovea, the student will investigate super-resolution machine learning methods. The student will learn practical machine learning skills applied to MRI scans. We collaborate closely with members of the Brain Research & Imaging Centre (BRIC) at the University of Plymouth. Ultimately both the imaging and analysis protocols that are developed during this PhD will be utilised in a wider longitudinal study that will investigate the mechanism behind myopia control and seeking to discover why myopia control is not universally effective.
Application Deadline: 28 March 2025
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12. Fully Funded PhD Position in Safety from wandering with enhanced privacy for people with mild dementia
Summary of PhD Program:
This project aims at developing an innovative solution to mitigate the risk of wandering for people with mild dementia (PwMD). Geofencing technology, which tracks the location of PwMD and alerts carers when they leave a defined safety zone, is commonly used. However, continuous location monitoring raises the privacy concern (e.g. the leakage of their personal journey and possibly their activities) can discourage PwMD from using the technology. This project takes an innovative approach to engage with PwMD to co-design a new concept of wandering safety with enhanced privacy. The advanced cryptography and privacy enhancing technology (e.g. homomorphic encryption, differential privacy) will be explored and utilised to construct a privacy-preserving solution for such a concept.
Application Deadline: 28 March 2025
13. Fully Funded PhD Position in Drone-Assisted Vision for Advanced Offshore Wind Turbine Maintenance
Summary of PhD Program:
Offshore wind turbines are pivotal in driving the global transition to renewable energy; however, maintaining these critical assets poses substantial challenges. Advances in computer vision and deep learning offer a paradigm shift in automating turbine inspections, enhancing efficiency and accuracy. This project aims to develop an advanced drone-based system employing both aerial and underwater drones, combined with state-of-the-art computer vision to detect and predict structural damage to wind turbines, ensure enhanced predictive maintenance and promote sustainable renewable energy operations.
Application Deadline: 28 March 2025
14. Fully Funded PhD Position in Improving floating offshore wind platform survivability using artificial intelligence to inform active control strategies
Summary of PhD Program:
The UK Government’s pursuit of Net Zero and Energy Security heavily relies on developing offshore renewable energy sources. As part of this vision, ambitious targets aim for 50GW offshore wind capacity by 2030, with 5GW from floating offshore wind (FOW). However, a critical challenge lies in guaranteeing the survivability of FOW systems. Deployed in complex marine environments, these devices face extreme conditions arising from a combination of wave, wind, and current. Utilising control strategies is vital for mitigating the stress on offshore devices. These methodologies are designed to actively manage the forces and strains experienced by FOW systems by adjusting operational parameters, thereby reducing structural loads.
Application Deadline: 28 March 2025
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15. Fully Funded PhD Position in Origami-Inspired Wave Energy Converter Through Dielectric Fluid Generator
Summary of PhD Program:
This PhD studentship will focus on the Dielectric Fluid Generator (DFG), an innovative electrostatic variable capacitance generator that converts mechanical energy into direct current electricity. A DFG unit consists of rigid electrodes, dielectric fluid, and elastomer material to host the electrodes. By stacking multiple DFG units, it is possible to create a flexible direct generation module for integration into an energy harvesting device, such as Wave Energy Converter (WEC). With the introduction of the rigid origami principle, the deformation could be localised on elastomers whereas electrode stretching, and compression could be minimized, thereby reducing material fatigue and prolonging service life.
Application Deadline: 28 March 2025
16. Fully Funded PhD Position in Multimodal AI-based Diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Summary of PhD Program:
This exciting project aims to transform ADHD diagnosis by developing a multimodal Artificial Intelligence (AI) framework that addresses the significant limitations of current, subjective diagnostic practices. Although AI is emerging in ADHD research, its integration into standard clinical practices remains minimal. This project seeks to enhance diagnostic accuracy through a sophisticated integration of AI-driven insights that complement existing approaches.
Application Deadline: 28 March 2025
17. Fully Funded PhD Position in Enhancing AI Performance with AMD’s Neural Processing Units
Summary of PhD Program:
As Deep Learning and Generative AI applications continue to expand, optimizing computational efficiency is becoming increasingly critical, particularly for AI in resource-constrained environments or at the edge. To address this challenge, semiconductor manufacturers have introduced dedicated Neural Processing Units (NPUs), significantly enhancing performance and energy efficiency. AMD, for example, integrates a CPU, NPU, and GPU into its latest Ryzen processors, unlocking new possibilities for on-device AI acceleration. This project aims to maximize the potential of AMD’s cutting-edge NPUs in the area of computer vision. This project is partially funded by AMD and the successful candidate will collaborate with AMD researchers.
Application Deadline: 28 March 2025
18. Fully Funded PhD Position in Exploration of incremental knowledge addition for human activity analysis in open-world scenarios for public safety and surveillance
Summary of PhD Program:
This project explores open-world learning (OWL) to develop AI systems that can recognize and adapt to new activities in video data without requiring retraining. Unlike traditional closed-world AI, which relies on predefined categories, OWL enables models to incrementally learn new concepts while retaining previously acquired knowledge. Video-based activity analysis presents unique challenges due to high spatial-temporal complexity in data and computational demands of the models. This research will develop a framework for open-vocabulary learning, allowing AI to process video data efficiently and recognize diverse activities beyond a fixed set of labels.
Application Deadline: 28 March 2025
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19. Fully Funded PhD Position in Federated Learning-Driven Decentralized AI Systems for Secure and Scalable Operations in Vehicular Networks
Summary of PhD Program:
This project aims to overcome these challenges by developing a federated learning-driven AI system that enables vehicles to collaboratively train models while keeping their data localized. By eliminating the need for centralized data transfer, federated learning preserves privacy, mitigates cybersecurity threats, and reduces communication overhead. However, real-world deployment comes with additional complexities, such as integrating diverse sensor data, optimizing AI models for vehicles with limited computing resources, and ensuring fast and reliable inter-vehicle communication.
Application Deadline: 28 March 2025
20. Fully Funded PhD Position in Resource optimal link scheduling scheme for data delivery in marine applications using Space-Air-Ground-Sea Integrated Networks SAGSIN
Summary of PhD Program:
6G Space-Air-Ground-Sea Integrated Networks (SAGSIN) are envisioned to connect satellite, aerial, ground, and sea networks to provide connectivity everywhere and all the time. However, how to coordinate these networks and manage heterogeneous resources to satisfy the requirements of different applications remains to be solved. In this project, we investigate the resource management-based link scheduling in SAGSIN for marine applications. The major enabler for these applications is the provision of low-delay, and reliable wireless coverage to the ever-increasing number of underwater sensors.
Application Deadline: 28 March 2025
21. Fully Funded PhD Position in Human-AI Collaborative Framework for Deepfake Detection: Integrating Perceptual-Cognitive Mechanisms with Deep Learning Models
Summary of PhD Program:
This PhD project aims to overcome these limitations by developing novel approaches to deepfake detection that combine AI with human perceptual and cognitive processes. The core of this project is to develop novel deep learning architectures for deepfake detection. Comparative studies will be conducted between human and AI performance in deepfake detection across various types of manipulated biometric traits, such as face and voice, identifying complementary strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, the project will evaluate the interpretability and reliability of the developed solutions through both computational metrics and human factors analysis. By the end of the project, a hybrid detection framework that leverages both human perceptual insights and deep learning capabilities will be built.
Application Deadline: 28 March 2025
22. Fully Funded PhD Position in Multi-Objective Generative Model × Reinforcement Learning based autopilot for cleaner maritime navigation
Summary of PhD Program:
The maritime industry faces ambitious international targets to reduce emissions, driven by both legislative mandates and economic incentives. Companies that improve emissions performance gain competitive advantages, such as market access and reduced costs from taxes or penalties. Consequently, there is substantial interest within the research community in developing practical solutions to demonstrably reduce emissions in maritime operations. One prominent area of research is propulsion technology, including alternative fuels and electric propulsion systems. While these technologies may offer significant emission reductions, their adoption faces considerable barriers, such as high fleet investment costs and the need for extensive infrastructure.
Application Deadline: 28 March 2025
23. Fully Funded PhD Position in Quantum computing in strong electromagnetic fields
Summary of PhD Program:
Particle-laser collisions will be realised experimentally by the LUXE collaboration at DESY as well as at several emerging high power laser facilities including Vulcan-20-20 at Rutherford Lab (STFC). The LUXE collaboration comprises over 25 institutes from around Europe, with Plymouth leading the theory work package. It is envisaged that some of the results of the PhD work will be applied within LUXE, which is a partner on the project. It is also envisaged that modern machine learning techniques to assess the likelihood of simulated data will form an important part of the project. For this reason, experts at the Intelligent Systems Research Centre (ISRC) in Ulster are also partners on the project.
Application Deadline: 28 March 2025
24. Fully Funded PhD Position in Generative AI for image and video reconstructions from brain signals
Summary of PhD Program:
Can we access our memories from brain signals and reconstruct their visual contents? The aim of our project is to develop an explainable and trustworthy Generative AI pipeline system capable of decoding in real-time electroencephalography (EEG) brain signals of human participants while they are passively viewing or imagining visual content (faces, animals, etc) and of reconstructing this visual content with high fidelity.
Application Deadline: 28 March 2025
25. Fully Funded PhD Position in Metamaterials-based microwave devices for simultaneous wireless information and power transfer
Summary of PhD Program:
The integration of simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) is a critical enabler for next-generation electric vehicles (EVs) and smart city infrastructures. However, current hardware solutions for SWIPT systems are hindered by inefficiencies and practical limitations. This PhD project aims to revolutionise SWIPT systems by leveraging the unique properties of metamaterials. By incorporating cutting-edge technologies such as graphene and advanced periodic structures, this research will explore the development of innovative wireless devices to enhance the performance of SWIPT systems.
Application Deadline: 28 March 2025
26. Fully Funded PhD Position in A surrogate model for the analysis of blood flow through compliant, size-mismatched arterial anastomoses in reconstructive surgery
Summary of PhD Program:
A numerical model has been developed to predict relevant flow metrics as a function of the above factors. It uses a Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) approach, with a Computational Fluid Dynamics blood flow model coupled to a structural Finite Element model of the vessel walls. However, model solution typically takes several days on a high-spec PC. The proposed project will develop a surrogate model based on results from the existing FSI model, allowing results to be generated almost instantly on a smartphone. Surrogate models are typically based on data-fitting of results from more computationally expensive models, using techniques such as neural networks.
Application Deadline: 28 March 2025
27. Fully Funded PhD Position in The Development and Optimisation of Micro/Nano Plastic Sensors for Sustainable Green Hydrogen Production
Summary of PhD Program:
Micro/nano plastic pollution in aquatic environments is a critical global concern, detrimental to ecosystems, water resources and global health. The presence of these contaminants in wastewater poses challenges for industries, including hydrogen production, where water quality directly impacts electrolyser performance and hydrogen purity. Current detection technologies lack the specificity, scalability, and cost-effectiveness to address this issue. This project seeks to bridge these gaps by leveraging cutting-edge, cost-effective electrochemical sensor technologies and advanced machine-learning algorithms to ensure high sensitivity, selectivity, and operational efficiency.
Application Deadline: 28 March 2025
28. Fully Funded PhD Position in Flexible bulge wave energy converter design integration
Summary of PhD Program:
Despite the huge potential resource globally, the development of wave energy has not progressed to commercialisation, and the cost of electricity from wave energy conversion are still too expensive compared with other sources. Wave energy is a valuable component of our future Net Zero renewable energy mix that can fill gaps of low generation from other sources and reduce balancing and storage costs. Wave energy converters based on deformable materials may offer improved performance, survivability, reliability, and reduced cost compared with steel or concrete alternatives. Flexibility opens up the possibility to use a range of power take off technologies, such as novel distributed embedded energy converters and electro active polymers amongst others.
Application Deadline: 28 March 2025
29. Fully Funded PhD Position in AI-driven control system for hydrogen-electric maritime energy infrastructure
Summary of PhD Program:
This proposed research project aims to develop an AI-driven control system for hydrogen-electric maritime energy infrastructure in addressing key challenges in hydrogen production, storage, and delivery, as well as electricity distribution.
Project objectives include:
Optimal Energy Management: Develop AI-driven control strategies to manage power flow between hydrogen fuel cells, energy storage systems, and electric propulsion systems for efficient and reliable operation.
Pressure and Flow Regulation: Utilize AI models to optimize hydrogen and oxygen supply pressures and flow rates in real-time for increased FC efficiency, avoiding oxygen starvation and reducing mechanical stresses on fuel cells
Thermal and Water Management: Design intelligent thermal and water management systems to enhance the efficiency and lifespan of fuel cells by balancing temperature control and avoiding water flooding in low temperature systems.
