Alternative Ways to Fund Your Studies
In today’s climate, it is increasingly difficult to achieve funding for postgraduate research. Many excellent applicants fail to secure funding every year, so if you don’t get funding, it does not invalidate your proposed research. But what can you do to pursue it?
At Warwick, we offer a supportive, flexible environment for postgraduate research, to ensure that as many excellent students as possible can study here whether they have achieved funding or not. If you hold a place here, we would like you to take it up and we hope that the following possibilities might enable you to fund it ‘without full funding’.
Please note we cannot take responsibility for content on external web pages.
PhD Studentship in Statistical Theory and Methodology
Department: Statistics
Description: Applications are invited for a PhD position supervised by Dr. Thomas Berrett as part of his 1.5M Euro ERC-funded project HeDiStat: Statistical theory and methodology for the combination of heterogeneous and distributed data. Applicants should have an interest and background in statistics and/or mathematics, though this can be interpreted broadly.
Eligibility: Open to both Home and Overseas applicants
Value: The studentship includes full coverage of fees, a stipend at the standard UKRI rate for 4 years, and access to a Research Training and Support grant of at least £5,000 to cover computing equipment and the costs of travelling to conferences and other academic visits.
Deadline: 5 June 2025
EPSRC DLA Interdisciplinary Studentship
Title: PhD in Vision-based Marker-less Navigation for Total Hip Replacement
Department: Warwick Manufacturing Group
Description: Total Hip Replacement (THR) is a common surgical procedure, with nearly 100,000 performed annually in the UK. However, about 20% require revision within 15 years due to complications like implant loosening, dislocation, and fractures caused by suboptimal implant positioning. This interdisciplinary project aims to overcome these challenges by developing a vision-based marker-less navigation system using deep learning (DL).
Eligibility: Open to Home applicants
Value: UKRI rate stipend for 3.5 years full-time (70 months part-time). Full Payment of academic fees (home only). A Researcher Training Support Grant of up to £5,000. Access to Disabled Student Allowance, paid sick leave and paid parental leave
Deadline: Open until filled (start date October 2025)
EPSRC DLA Interdisciplinary Studentship
Title: Low-dose 4D-STEM electron ptychography for biological dynamic imaging
Department: Physics
Description: This PhD project bridges physics and life sciences by integrating physics-based imaging solutions into biological research, so that you will be exposed to diverse and interdisciplinary research areas in applied mathematics, electron microscopy and biological macromolecules.
Eligibility: Open to Home applicants
Value: UKRI rate stipend for 3.5 years full-time (70 months part-time). Full Payment of academic fees (home only). A Researcher Training Support Grant of up to £5,000. Access to Disabled Student Allowance, paid sick leave and paid parental leave
Deadline: Open until filled (start date October 2025)
PhD Scholarship - School of Engineering
Title: Drop dynamics of complex fluids
Department: School of Engineering
Description: This PhD project aims to explore how such additives affect micromechanics underpinning fast droplet interactions, at speeds that typically trigger fluid instabilities and can lead to breakup, especially during impact onto dry surfaces and liquid layers. These results will be used to help engineer better applications of industrial drop dynamic processes, including inkjet printing and additive manufacturing. Specific research objectives will focus on understanding how microscopic interactions of additives affect macroscopic droplet behaviour, especially in relation to colloidal particles and surfactants. This PhD project is linked to other ongoing projects in Warwick and elsewhere, which will lead to natural collaboration opportunities.
Eligibility: You must have a first-class or 2.1 honours undergraduate degree, or Masters degree (with Merit or Distinction), in a related field such as (but not limited to) Engineering, Physical Sciences, and Mathematics. Experimental experience in fluid dynamics and/or knowledge of any CFD codes would be an advantage, but not required as full training will be given.
Value: The award will cover the tuition fees, plus a tax-free stipend, currently £20,780, paid at the prevailing UKRI rate for 3.5 years of full-time study. This scholarship is available regardless of nationality (i.e. both home and international students are eligible).
Deadline: 20 June 2025
Warwick Industrial Fellowship - PhD Scholarship
Title: Thermal Energy Decarbonisation of Large Industrial and Commercial Sites
Department: School of Engineering
Description: This collaborative project between Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and the University of Warwick seeks to develop flexible digital twin models that will enable novel, integrated solutions to the decarbonisation of heating and cooling on large industrial and commercial sites. The electrification of heating in particular is one of the biggest challenges facing the UK. The move to heat pumps for space heating would require at least a doubling of grid capacity if boilers are directly replaced without any storage considerations.
Eligibility: The candidate should have a good 2.1 Bachelors or Masters degree in Engineering and is open to Home applicants.
Value: The award will cover the UK tuition fee level, plus a tax-free stipend, currently £20,780, paid at the prevailing UKRI rate for 3.5 years of full-time study.
Deadline: 31 July 2025
PhD Studentship - Computer Science
Title: PhD in Computer Science to explore cross-modal machine learning with large multimodal models in cancer research
Department: Computer Science
Description: Applications are invited for a fully funded 3.5-year PhD Computer Science studentship at the University of Warwick, jointly supported by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The project will investigate machine learning methods, particularly generative and foundation models, to discover robust correlation structures in cross-modal datasets, especially within the cancer domain.
Eligibility: Open to Home and Overseas applicants. A strong academic background in computer science, AI/ML, bioinformatics, or related fields such as mathematics and statistics.
Value: Full fees and stipend at UKRI rates for 3.5 years plus a small budget for Travel and Conference attendance and equipment.
Deadline: 31 July 2025
Back to Funding for Applicants