Funding
Please select the relevant funding category to view opportunities available within the Faculty and from external sources.
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International funding opportunities
The Faculty of Life Sciences endeavors to assist academically excellent international students who wish to undertake a research degree within our Faculty.
Students are encouraged to look for funding from any source available to them. For example, you may be able to find further scholarship information from your government, companies and universities in your home country and by searching the internet.
International Postgraduate Research Bursaries
The Faculty of Life Sciences has a number of prestigious international bursaries available for PhD study within the Faculty. Bursaries are awarded based on outstanding academic achievement. Applicants for the bursary must be able to cover the remainder of their tuition fees and also their living expenses. There is no specific deadline for bursary applications but to be considered for a bursary you must submit a formal PhD application (see How to Apply) and also complete a bursary application form.
Bursary application form: Word ¦ PDF
Wellcome Trust Four Year PhD
The Faculty of Life Sciences has up to 5 Wellcome Trust Four Year PhD studentships to award each year to start in September. These studentships are available to students from all nationalities however, the awards only cover UK/EU fees and living expenses. International applicants must be able to arrange funding to cover the remaining proportion of the fees each year. Academically excellent applicants are encouraged to apply for other scholarships, to cover the difference between International and UK/EU fees. Applications for 2012 will be considered from October 2011. For more information on these studentships, visit:
CONACyT Mexico Scholarships
The University of Manchester is a preferred partner and offers a minimum of 10% discount on tuition fees to Mexican students who receive a CONACyT scholarship for tuition. For students applying to the Faculty of Life Sciences, all CONACyT scholarship holders receive an additional scholarship from the Faculty where tuition fees are higher than that supported by the CONACyT tuition scholarship. If you hold or are applying for a CONACyT scholarship and require more information on the additional Faculty of Life Sciences scholarships please email for more details.
See a video profile of an existing CONACyT funded student:
CONICYT Chile Scholarships
The Faculty of Life Sciences is able to consider applications from students applying for CONICYT scholarships. If you hold or are applying for a CONICYT scholarship and require more information please email for more details.
Royal Thai Government Scholarships
The Royal Thai Government offers Thai students the opportunity to apply for a Thai Government Scholarship. The scholarships are normally available for students in their last year of their bachelor degree or who are currently studying a masters or a PhD. The Faculty of Life Sciences are able to consider such students applying for these scholarships.
Commonwealth Scholarship Commission
The Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdom (CSC) has scholarships opportunities to study in the UK. The Faculty of Life Sciences supports applications from this source.
Iraqi scholarships
The Faculty of Life Sciences is able to consider applicants from Iraq that have secured funding from (or are applying to) the Iraq Government for a scholarship. We are able to tailor a study programme that may include pre-sessional English courses, depending upon your level of proficiency in English. For more details see:
In addition, the Faculty of Life Sciences has a limited scholarship fund that is used to supplement the self-funding of academically excellent applicants each year.
UK/EU funding opportunities
Each year the Faculty of Life Sciences has a number of studentships on offer to eligible UK/EU applicants. These studentships are funded by awards from UK research councils (i.e. BBSRC, EPSRC, MRC, NERC, ESRC, AHRC). Studentships are linked to specific PhD projects and are available for applicants to work in the laboratories of named Principal Investigators (PIs). Each year the list of funded PhD projects varies. We also offer CASE studentships (backed by an industrial sponsor). To view a profile of an existing CASE student, see What is a PhD?.
To view the list of funded PhD projects currently on offer within the Faculty of Life Sciences, search:
The Faculty of Life Sciences also has up to 5 Wellcome Trust Four Year PhD studentships to award each year to start in September. For more information on these studentships, visit:
Studentships funded by UK Research Councils and the Wellcome Trust carry support for tuition fees and living expenses (stipend). There may be specific conditions related to full eligibility of EU applicants who are not UK nationals and, hence, awards may be for fees only. Funding body awards are subject to academic and residential eligibility criteria (as defined on their websites - BBSRC, EPSRC, MRC, NERC, ESRC, AHRC, Wellcome Trust).
President’s Doctoral Scholar Awards
2012 President's Doctoral Scholar Awards
The University of Manchester has launched a further £2.5m investment in PhD training with the creation of the President's Doctoral Scholar Awards (PDS Awards). These prestigious awards are open to all nationalities and research areas.
Within the Faculty of Life Sciences, PDS Awards funding will be allocated to our most outstanding applicants seeking PhD training opportunities starting from September 2012. We aim to award 10-15 scholarships as part of our 2012 PhD recruitment round, which will include a number of collaborating schemes such as:
Based on the academic track-record of applicants, and evidence of research potential, we will select our Presidential Scholars from the various applicants across our 2012 funding schemes. For this reason, PhD projects will not be listed as offering PDS Awards awards at this stage. Instead, our most outstanding applicants will receive confirmation of their PDS Awards status alongside confirmation of their PhD place and funding.
PDS Awards status will entitle our successful UK/EU studentship applicants with a £1,000 enhancement to their funded stipend (for example if you are awarded a Research Council funded studentship); awards at a higher level will be made to international applicants that have partial funding through other routes (such as a scholarship or Faculty International Research bursary). PDS Awards award holders will have the opportunity to:
- Be invited to attend a series of exclusive events where you’ll have the opportunity to meet the University of Manchester President and Vice Chancellor, interact closely with our academic community and network with other PDS Awards students
- Benefit from international research leadership under distinguished scholars
- Become a PDS Awards ambassador for the University
- Receive a President’s Doctoral Scholar medal at graduation
- Benefit from our extensive transferable skills training for PhD researchers
Criteria
Applicants must have obtained (or expect to obtain) a minimum first-class honours degree (or equivalent), and ideally hold a Masters-level qualification at merit or distinction. They should ideally have a track-record of engaging with research. This may include contributions to publications/articles, promoting their research to a wider audience, prizes for previous research or project work.
How to apply
Applications for PDS Awards funding are open across the Faculty. Our research activity covers a wide-range of disciplines spanning the breadth of the life sciences. Full details on our research groups and activity can be found in our Research section.
There are three routes by which you can be considered for PDS Awards support:
- Submit an application for one of our funded PhD projects listed on our PhD Programmes page (search for Studentships for UK/EU students). The application process for these projects is clearly stated and you should follow this. Outstanding applicants for these funded studentships will be automatically considered for PDS Awards support.
- Submit an application for a University of Manchester BBSRC DTP studentship; projects available and the application process can be found on the dedicated website www.manchester.ac.uk/dtpstudentships. Outstanding applicants for these funded studentships will be automatically considered for PDS Awards support.
- Submit an application for a PhD project available as a self-funded project, see PhD Programmes page and search for ‘Self-funded projects for International or UK/EU students’. Applications for PhD projects are invited from outstanding applicants who are able to self-fund and are applying for a Faculty International Research Bursary, or in receipt of a (full or partial) scholarship from an overseas institution or sponsor.
We expect to confirm our first set of successful PDS Awards applicants in February 2012 with a second round taking place by May 2012, depending on availability.
Any enquiries on PDS Awards funding within the Faculty of Life Sciences should be directed to the scheme co-ordinator, Jessica Bowler at jessica.bowler@manchester.ac.uk.
PLEASE NOTE: All scholarship and student funding schemes are subject to availability of funds, and details given here are subject to change at any time. Potential applicants are urged to check information regularly with the relevant provider to ensure they are aware of current procedures, deadlines etc.