Funding a PhD or MPhil at the MRC CBU

An important note about self-funding: Following careful consultation and consideration, the CBU recently adopted a policy of not allowing prospective students to ‘self-fund’. That is, the CBU now accepts only those individuals who are funded for the duration of their PhD by an MRC studentship or other award, such as Gates Cambridge, Cambridge Trust, ESRC DTP, charitable orgnisation, or for example, their home government. This is motivated by the CBU’s commitment to the ideals of fairness, inclusivity, and equality of opportunity. It is also our experience that self-funding can place the student and supervisor under considerable strain and has the potential to seriously impact wellbeing.

An offer of a place to undertake postgraduate training with us and being offered funding are independent processes. That is, successfully receiving an offer of a place does not guarantee funding. To take up your place at the CBU, you will need to be awarded a minimum of 3 years of funding that covers university and college fees, and that provides a maintenance stipend. If we offer you a PhD or MPhil place, we will nominate you for all available funding schemes that we consider you to be eligible for.

These include our MRC-funded studentships (see MRC eligibility details), which typically run for four years and cover university and college fees while also providing a maintenance stipend (£17668 per annum from October 2022). Other funding awards tend to vary in duration and can be for 3, 3.5, or 4 years. Please indicate in your application any funds that you consider yourself to be eligible for so that you are given consideration. If we offer you a place, we will also enter you into the University postgraduate funding competition (Cambridge Trust awards), and where appropriate, for Gates Cambridge, ESRC DTP, or other funds.

The good news is that in 2021, 75% of new PhD students and 25% of new Masters students at the University were awarded full or partial funding. You can learn more about the different funding opportunities from across the collegiate University using the University’s Student Funding Search. For more information about funding sources outside the University, please see the External Funding Page.

Once we have nominated you for funding, decisions are out of our hands. Applicants begin to hear about funding decisions in March, though decisions are sometimes communicated as late as June or even July. As the University funding rounds are highly competitive, we always recommend that you seek out and apply for any additional funds that could support your PhD (e.g. funds from your home country’s government or a charity). In such instances, we are always happy to do what we can to assist, and so please let us know if there is anything we can do to help with your application.

Additional opportunities to secure funding for a PhD at the MRC CBU

There are several funding competitions that are run independently from the route described above and that require applicants to make a separate application. In such cases, we recommend that you also apply via the above standard route to ensure the best possible chance of being awarded funding for a PhD. As of 15th September, the details and available projects for these schemes have not yet been confirmed or detailed on the relevant websites, but we do expect projects from a number of CBU researchers to be offered in these schemes, and so do keep checking.

There are the MRC iCASE (Industrial Collaborative Awards in Science and Engineering) awards. If you apply for an MRC iCASE studentship, you will need to select from the list of available projects which often includes one or more offered by MRC CBU scientists. These studentships enable successful individuals to receive high quality research training, while additionally benefitting from a placement with an industrial partner and thus gaining unique technical and transferable skills, insight into how commercial science is conducted, and knowledge of entrepreneurial opportunities. Projects will be posted at some point *after* 3rd October 2022.

The Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine DTP in Medical Research will also be offering at least nine fully funded PhD SCM DTP-MR studentships. Projects will be based in a Department or Research Unit within the School of Clinical Medicine, and applicants in relevant research areas are encouraged to apply. The programme will be structured as 0.5 + 3.5 years, and in the first 6 months, students will undertake two 3-month rotation projects in different laboratories. These projects will be in different disciplinary areas from the student’s field of research, and will allow refinement of their final PhD project in line with their emerging research interests as the programme progresses. Towards the end of the second project, students will confirm their preferred project and supervisor for the full PhD, which will commence after Easter in year 1 and last for 3.5 years. Further information will be available here in due course, with projects listed at some point *after* 3rd October and with applications opening on 17th October.

We are also hopeful that BBSRC DTP 4-year studentships will be on offer for entry in October 2023 and October 2024. If this scheme goes ahead as hoped, students will undertake 2 rotation projects in their first year and in April-May select the group in which they wish to undertake their PhD project. The DTP website will in due course offer information about potential supervisors and research areas, with CBU projects falling under one of the following BBSRC Research themes (Understanding the rules of life, Transformative technologies, Bioscience for an integrated understanding of health). Further information can be found here.