PhD Scholarship Opportunities in Biomedical Sciences

Edinburgh Doctoral College Scholarship (EDCS) 2025/26

The University and the Deanery of Biomedical Sciences will offer one studentship to a student starting their PhD research in the 2025-26 academic session. 

This exciting scholarship scheme provides a valuable opportunity for postgraduate research students to undertake a package of training and development, which will help them to develop the necessary skills required to meet their career choices. It offers them a breadth of development opportunities in areas such as teaching, public engagement, entrepreneurship, data science, and research.

The scholarship covers the University tuition fee as well as a full stipend in line with UKRI rate (£19,237 for 2024/25, rates for 2025/26 have not been agreed). Subject to satisfactory progress, the scholarship is offered for 4-years (or pro-rata for part-time).

The scheme is open to UK and overseas students applying to start their first year of study for an on campus PhD degree in 2025-2026. Candidates applying for a start date before September 2025 and continuing students are not eligible to apply.

Access

The University of Edinburgh has been working for some time to embed equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in its activities and to widen participation (WP) for students from disadvantaged and underrepresented backgrounds. The Doctoral College is committed to embedding EDI in all of its policies and processes, and widening access to postgraduate study to traditionally underrepresented groups, including BAME students and those from the most deprived communities in Scotland and the rest of the world. The Doctoral College wishes to attract the greatest diversity of applications to this scheme and will ensure that recruitment processes are robust and unbiased.

Applying

To apply for the EDCS scholarship please note that you must first apply for admission to the PhD programme that interests you. Applying to a PhD programme is done online through the degree-finder by selecting the appropriate programme from this list and following the application process:

Anatomical Sciences 

Infection Medicine

Integrative Physiology

Neuroscience

After you have formally applied to a PhD programme the next step is to apply for the EDCS scholarship. Links to do this will become available a week to two weeks after your PhD application is submitted.

The deadline for EDCS applications is 27th February 2025 (23:59BST).  Therefore you are advised to complete your PhD application well in advance of this date.

Please note that applications that are not supported by a supervisor will not be considered.

The scholarship application form will  be accessible via your EUCLID Applicant Hub. You will find guidance at https://www.ed.ac.uk/student-systems/support-guidance/applicants/apply-scholarship/pg-scholarship.

The selection panel will shortlist candidates by the end of March 2025, and we anticipate that interviews will take place online at a date that will be confirmed as soon as possible.

Please contact us at sbms-postgraduate@ed.ac.uk if you have any questions.

Further information

Full details about the EDCS scholarship can be found here:

Edinburgh Doctoral College Scholarships