Enhancing Reproductive Resilience to Drought in Cereals and Legumes

To be eligible for a fully-funded studentship, you must meet the below academic and residence criteria.

Academic criteria

Applicants for a studentship must have obtained, or be about to obtain, a First or Upper Second Class UK Honours degree, or the equivalent qualifications gained outside the UK, in an appropriate area of science or technology. Applicants with a Lower Second Class degree will be considered if they also have a Master’s degree or have significant relevant research or non-academic experience.

In addition, due to the strong quantitative component of the taught course in the first year and the quantitative emphasis in our projects, quantitative experience is needed.  We recognise this can be demonstrated through a number of options, and have included some examples below (this is not an exhaustive list):

• Undertaking units as part of your degree or a course that have a significant quantitative component*
• Applying quantitative techniques to a project (e.g. dissertation, research project, report) – this could be within an academic or professional setting.
• Maths or Physics A-level

*Significant quantitative component examples include statistics, bioinformatics, maths, physics, data analysis, computation.

Of note: a limited number of our PhD projects may have a greater quantitative emphasis and require advanced quantitative experience.  These expectations will be outlined by the PhD project supervisor. 

Applicants must ensure they highlight their quantitative background within their application (i.e. the quantitative techniques used and how applied).

To support accessibility to PhD training opportunities, these studentships are only available to applicants that have not previously obtained or about to obtain a PhD degree (or equivalent).

Language requirements

If your first language is not English, you will need to meet the minimum English requirements for the programme.  Further information about these English requirements >>

We ask that the language requirements are met by 1st June at the latest, to allow adequate time to obtain any necessary documentation to allow you to study in the UK.  Further information about documentation required >>

Residence criteria

IMPORTANT: Residency requirements are complex and too detailed to capture in full below.  So please read alongside guidance provided on the GOV.UK website and UKCISA website to ensure you meet the criteria.  

Home students

Fully-funded studentships are available for Home students.  To be classed as a Home student, candidates must meet the following criteria:

• Be a UK National (meeting residency requirements), or
• Have settled status, or
• Have pre-settled status (meeting residency requirement) or,
• Have indefinite leave to remain or enter

International students

If you do not meet the above criteria, you will be classed as an International student.

A limited number (up to 30%) of UKRI fully-funded studentships are available through the SWBio DTP, that applicants who would be classed as an International student are eligible for.  This also means that there are normally no restrictions on applying to any project that is advertised (unless otherwise indicated). Please apply through our normal application route.

Note: A UKRI fully-funded studentship will only cover what is listed under the ‘UKRI-BBSRC funded studentship‘ section.  However there may be other costs that you may encounter and need to take into consideration which will not be covered by the studentship. For example, visa fees, healthcare surcharge and relocation costs .