PhD Studentships

Masters (MPhil) Widening Participation Fee Scholarship

This scholarship is for University of Salford graduates and will cover tuition fees for the year (UK tuition fees). There is no bursary.

All research areas are eligible, you can study anything, but please note some research areas, such as laboratory work, come with additional costs that will need to be funded separately.

To apply, you need to be a UK applicant (i.e. eligible for UK fees) and a University of Salford graduate who is applying to undertake a research degree for the first time. You must first apply for an get an offer for the MPhil (or MSc by Research) programme, before you will be considered for the scholarship. In addition, these scholarships are targeted at increasing participation from groups currently underrepresented within research and priority will be given to students that meet one or more of the criteria below.

• Your home postcode (i.e. the postcode you used to apply to university through UCAS) is listed as a ‘1’ or ‘2’ in the POLAR4 column on the POLAR checking tool.
• You are from an ethnic group that is underrepresented in research careers (Black, Asian, or Minority Ethnic).
• You identify as having a disability. The term ‘disability’ is quite broad, and further definitions of what might be considered a ‘disability’ can be found under the Equality Act 2010.
• You are a first-generation student (you are the first person in your family to go to university).
• You are a mature student (you were aged 21 or over when you started your first undergraduate course).
• You are care-experienced or an estranged student.

The application details and timeline for this scholarship are below.

PhD Widening Participation Scholarships

We are delighted to be offering 10 PhD widening participation scholarships each year for UK candidates.

For entry in September 2025, the scholarship will cover tuition fees (UK tuition fees), a stipend for 3.5 years of £20,142, and an annual research budget of £1,000 (years 1-3). Please note: these costs are based on the 2025/26 academic year and may change in future years.

All research areas are eligible, you can study anything, but please note some research areas, such as laboratory work, come with additional costs that will need to be funded separately.

Any UK candidates (or eligible for UK fees) are able to apply, however these scholarships are targeted at increasing participation from groups currently underrepresented within research and priority will be given to students that meet one or more of the below criteria. Priority will also be given to University of Salford graduates.

• Your home postcode (i.e. the postcode you used to apply to university through UCAS) is listed as a ‘1’ or ‘2’ in the POLAR4 column on the POLAR checking tool.
• You are from an ethnic group that is underrepresented in research careers (Black, Asian, or Minority Ethnic).
• You identify as having a disability. The term ‘disability’ is quite broad, and further definitions of what might be considered a ‘disability’ can be found under the Equality Act 2010.
• You are a first-generation student (you are the first person in your family to go to university).
• You are a mature student (you were aged 21 or over when you started your first undergraduate course).
• You are care-experienced or an estranged student.

How do I apply? 

All candidates who wish to apply for the MPhil or PhD widening participation scholarship will first need to apply for and be accepted onto a research degree programme.

As long as you have submitted your completed application for September/October intake by 31 January and you qualify for UK fees, you will be sent a very short scholarship application. This form must be returned by 28 February.  

Your completed scholarship application form will be considered in conjunction with your research programme application (including your proposal, personal statement, CV, references, and interview outcome). The first stage will be a school level shortlisting process which will take place in April/May. Those candidates shortlisted by each school will be invited to meet the central selection panel in late April (PhD applications) and late May (for MPhil/MSc by Research applications) (~20 minutes) about the candidate’s motivation for applying and their aspirations for the programme. The panel will meet to make final decision the following week. 

Postgraduate research application workshop

This online one-hour postgraduate research application workshop is designed for those who are applying for the MPhil or PhD widening participation scholarship.

The session is jointly run by the Director of the Doctoral School, who will go through the application process, and the Postgraduate Research Directors from the different schools who will provide insight into what makes a good application and what the common slip up are.

Attendees will also find out about the current scholarships available and where to get addition information and support. The workshop will end with a Q&A session. Book your place on Eventbrite now.

Arts and Humanities Research Council 

North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership (NWCDTP) 

Funded PhD Studentships for 2025-2026 entry 

The NWCDTP brings together the Universities of Salford, Manchester, Keele, Lancaster, Liverpool, Manchester Metropolitan University, and the Royal Northern College of Music which between them award NWC PhD studentships annually. 

A full postgraduate award for full-time study provides funds to meet: 

• The payment of approved fees to the institution 
• A maintenance grant 

The level of the grant for the academic year 2025-26 is as follows (the level of the grant for following years is subject to confirmation from the AHRC): 

• Maintenance Grant £19,237 (or part-time pro rata)  

The Consortium also provides access to additional funding for field research and further training. 
 
The studentships and training initiatives of various kinds and span the full range of the AHRC’s disciplines. As part of the scheme, the AHRC is also funding placement opportunities and additional skills training, working alongside partner organisations including museums, galleries, cultural organisations and businesses. 

NWC University of Salford Pathway Representatives: 

• Creative Writing - Professor Scott Thurston
• Dance, Drama and Performing Arts - Dr Kelli Zezulka
• English - Dr Jade Munslow Ong
• History - Dr Brian Hall
• Law - Ayesha Chowdhury
• Linguistics - Dr Jack Wilson
• Media and Cultural Studies - Dr Rania Kosmidou
• Heritage - Dr Juan Hiriart Vera
• Music - Professor Alan Williams 
• Visual Arts - Dr Toni Sant

Application process: 

The competition is now open for applications for the 2025/26 academic year and potential applicants are invited to submit to the University of Salford as follows: 

Stage 1: 

To apply for an NWC DTP award at the University of Salford, candidates must have applied for a place on a PhD programme at Salford by 13 January 2025.

Please contact the relevant Pathway Representative at Salford with an expression of interest as soon as possible. 

Stage 2: 

Candidates must then submit an NWCDTP funding application by 3 February 2025 (17:00).  

Ring fenced studentships 

The NWCDTP is committed to equality of opportunity and working to ensure our cohort of postgraduate researchers reflects the diverse community we serve. We have introduced a range of positive measures to assist in achieving these commitments, recognising in particular that postgraduate researchers from Global Majority, Disabled, and Socioeconomically Unequal communities are currently underrepresented on our programmes and across the UK university sector. The introduction of these measures follows a review of our recruitment processes and forms part of a three-year plan we have developed to achieve greater diversity and better equality outcomes.

In the current round, we will recruit directly to the following named studentships:

Global Majority or Global Majority Heritage studentship – recognising that our PGR cohort does not reflect the diversity of the UK population, this studentship is open to a Global Majority or Global Majority Heritage candidate. This studentship is available for Home and International candidates.

Broken Pipeline studentship – recognising the clear inequality within the HE sector this studentship is for a UK-domiciled candidate from an underrepresented group or background. This studentship is for candidates who feel that they are from groups or backgrounds that are underrepresented within UK higher education and experience barriers to access and participation. Many of these groups or backgrounds intersect and overlap and can pose barriers to equality of opportunity.

Application workshops

We will be running an online application workshop via Zoom for those who are interested in applying:

21 October, 15:00 - 16:00: https://zoom.us/j/98255836529
General Introduction with Jerome de Groot (DTP Director) and Nan Song (Application Support Fellow). This session will be recorded.

19 November, 17:00 - 18:00:  https://zoom.us/j/91386554273
Workshop for candidates thinking of applying to ring-fenced studentships, including discussion of mentoring scheme. With Jerome de Groot and Excy Handsa (Application Support Fellow). Parts of this session will be recorded.

6 December, 14:00 - 15:00: https://zoom.us/j/91414273413
Workshop for all candidates with Jerome de Groot and Pamela Forster (Application Support Fellow).

Applicants are strongly advised to discuss their interests with the relevant Pathway Representative and prospective supervisors before submission of a formal application to the University and to the NWC. For general advice concerning the NWC studentship competition, please contact pgr-supportsam@salford.ac.uk in the first instance. 

The Leverhulme Trust Aural Diversity Doctoral Research Hub (LAURA), based at the University of Salford, provides inter-disciplinary PhD and master's training in the study of hearing and listening differences. Applications for several fully-funded 4-year PhD scholarships are now open for September 2025 entry – closing date 31 January 2025.

Aural diversity is a new and highly interdisciplinary field and LAURA is the first PhD programme in the world to focus on it. Aural diversity is based on the simple observation that individual and group differences in hearing, listening and responding to sound are common, yet, outside medicine, when sound is produced, controlled, consumed or discussed a 'normal' listener is usually assumed.

LAURA students will be supervised by a highly diverse range of supervisors drawn from several departments across Salford. Most disciplines involved with sound are represented, including acoustics, anthropology, art, architecture, computer science, education, engineering, English literature, music/music technology, occupational science, psychology, sociology and speech.

LAURA students will each receive a stipend of £19,237 per year (matching the UKRI rate). LAURA students will not pay tuition fees. In addition, LAURA students will each have access to up to £10,000 for research and professional development costs. The application deadline is 31 January 2025. Find out more on our dedicated LAURA webpage.

Our Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT), launching in autumn 2025, will train 70 PhD students who have the skills and knowledge to reduce the harms caused by noise and poor acoustics and forge a more positive sounding future. We have created an unprecedented collaboration for doctoral training in Acoustics across four universities (Salford, Sheffield, Bristol and Southampton) and over 50 project partners. The CDT is funded by the EPSRC with support from our project partners and the four universities.

The CDT has four research themes:

• New sound sources. The shift from fossil fuels to renewables, electricity and hydrogen will profoundly change how the world sounds. The new energy sources create challenges for industry and regulators, but also opportunities for us to innovate and improve the aural environment. 
• Perception of sound by human and other animals. If we are to create a better sounding future, how humans and other animals respond to sound must be at the heart of our engineering. We need to understand the interdependencies between physics and perception, exploiting new physiological measurement methods and virtual reality.
• Machine Learning for sound. This is the dominant approach in signal processing and is now emerging as the next disruptive technology across computer simulation, measurement, design optimisation and modelling of listener response.
• Positive uses of sound. As well as quietening noise, we need to think how to improve the quality of sound from products and within places. There are also other positive uses of sound we might investigate, e.g. the rapid growth of acoustic sensors (e.g., IoT, underground telecommunications) unlocks potential for sound sensing to monitor buildings.

To tackle a sustainable sound future, we need PhD students who have expertise created from their own specific research project, alongside a broad understanding of how sound fits into industry, society and the public sector. This is so they can help create a better sounding future in their career beyond the PhD. Students will be fully-funded for four years (tuition fees, stipend and bench fees). Some of our students will be part-time employees already in the acoustics industry.

Find out more

Applications are now open for entry in autumn 2025. To find out more about the CDT and how to apply, visit our dedicated website.

About the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Prosthetics and Orthotics:

The Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in prosthetics and orthotics combines expertise from the University of Salford, Imperial College London, the University of Strathclyde and the University of Southampton with more than 25 global industry partners and national facilities.

We have assembled a world-leading set of research organisations to address important global health challenges in the prosthetic, orthotic and wider healthcare technology sector.

Our aim is to create a new generation of highly skilled researchers who are able to deliver the technology and service innovations needed to meet the aspirations of prosthetic and orthotic users.

Our training enables students to work across the continuum of skills required in the sector, understanding how high-quality and interdisciplinary science and engineering research can improve the everyday lives of people across the globe.

Did you know?        

• 80-90% of prosthetic and orthotic users do not have access to appropriate services and devices (World Health Organisation 2018).            

There is a wide range of health problems that require prosthetic and orthotic devices and services:  

• Globally, 1.2 million people each year experience a major amputation due to trauma, the vast majority are of working age, with average age in some areas being 35 years of age.          
• In the UK a record high of 25,527 diabetes-related major/minor amputations occurred between 2013-2016 (Diabetes UK 2017), and many of these will require a prosthetic limb.          
• There are 1.2 million stroke survivors, the UK's leading cause of disability and many use orthoses to support walking and use of hands (Stroke Association 2017).          
• There will be 6.5 million people in the UK with knee arthritis by 2020 and 2.6 million of these will be of working-age . Many could benefit from specialist orthoses (Arthritis Research UK, 2014)          
• Some 400,000 people in the UK have rheumatoid arthritis and rely upon orthoses to protect there upper and lower limb joints          
• 30,000 children have cerebral palsy and use orthoses to help them walk (Arthritis Research UK, 2014).          

The EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Prosthetics and Orthotics aims to address these important health care needs, producing a new generation of highly skilled researchers who can help deliver technology and service innovations needed to meet the aspirations of users, and the industry and third sector agencies supporting them.

Students study over four years at one of either the University of Salford, Imperial College London, University of Strathclyde or the University of Southampton. Students are immersed in authentic real-world academic, industry and clinical experiences, working directly with users and future employers from the outset.

Staff, students and partners will be excepted to commit to our EDI mission: to create an inspirational, inclusive learning, research and working environment, celebrating the diversity of our community in our everyday conversation.

Contact us

Contact us: cdt@salford.ac.uk