Bioengineering
University of Southampton
About the Project Supervisory Team: Tiina Roose and Siul Ruiz Soil is one of the most complex and important self-assembling organo-mineral composites in the world. All human food supply, ecosystem and infrastructure services depend on soil, yet we have very little understanding of what happens in soil. Developing an understanding of soil composition is important, as climate change is likely to alter soil function.
- Location
- Southampton, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 30 September 2026
- Funding
- Competition Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)
Bioengineering
University of Southampton
About the Project Supervisory Team: Tiina Roose and Siul Ruiz Soil is one of the most complex and important self-assembling organo-mineral composites in the world. All human food supply, ecosystem and infrastructure services depend on soil. Movements of water into, within and out of soil are especially important.
- Location
- Southampton, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 30 September 2026
- Funding
- Competition Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)
Bioengineering
University of Bath
About the Project This project is one of several in competition for funding from the GW4 BioMed3 MRC Doctoral Landscape Programme (DLP), which is offering up to 17 studentships for entry in September 2027. The partnership brings together the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter to develop the next generation of biomedical researchers.
- Location
- Bath, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 21 October 2026
- Funding
- Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Bioengineering
Imperial College London
About the Project Overview of Project: A three-year PhD developing microbial co-cultures that combine protein-rich filamentous fungi with fat-rich yeasts to produce nutritious, functional food ingredients. The project combines research at Imperial College London with bioprocess development and scale-up in Singapore. Motivation: Most microbial food ingredients are produced using a single strain, often selected for either protein or fat production.
- Location
- London, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 31 October 2026
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Bioengineering
Imperial College London
About the Project Overview of Topic A three-year PhD investigating why engineered yeast strains lose productivity during large-scale fermentation and how to make them more robust. The project combines functional genomics in Singapore with strain engineering at Imperial College London. Motivation: Precision fermentation uses microorganisms to produce proteins, lipids and other valuable ingredients.
- Location
- London, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 31 October 2026
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Bioengineering
Imperial College London
About the Project Overview of Project: A three-year PhD designing synthetic microbial communities to produce nutritious, functional food ingredients. The project will combine microbial community design at Imperial College London with pilot-scale fermentation and nutritional characterisation in Singapore. Motivation: Single-strain fermentation can limit the nutritional range of a microbial ingredient.
- Location
- London, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 31 October 2026
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Bioengineering
University of Basel
About the Project We aim to pursue a new interdisciplinary approach, combining the synthesis of multi-functional culture-matrices with cell-instructive viscoelastic properties, in-depth cell characterisation, and computational modelling to investigate the relationship between matrix properties and osteogenesis.
- Location
- Basel, Switzerland, Switzerland
- Deadline
- 31 December 2026
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Bioengineering
Imperial College London
About the Project Project Summary Imaging blood flow in the brain is crucial to diagnose neurological disorders such as strokes and aneurysms, understand their root causes, and develop better treatments. However, no imaging method currently exists that can capture the dynamic, multi-scale nature of brain blood flow with sufficient detail, across all relevant patients, and in every possible clinical setting.
- Location
- London, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 4 January 2027
- Funding
- Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Bioengineering
University of Leeds
About the Project This project is part of cohort 4 of the EPSRC CDT in Developing National Capability for Materials 4.0, with the Henry Royce Institute. This PhD Project sets the foundation for a new class of smart, durable hydrogel coatings designed using digital-first principles.
- Location
- Leeds, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 8 January 2027
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)
Bioengineering
Loughborough University
About the Project Astrocytes (the brain’s most abundant glial cells) play a crucial role in energy management, information processing, and neural support. Their metabolic efficiency enables the brain to learn and adapt while consuming remarkably little power. Understanding these processes could help inspire a new generation of sustainable, brain‑like computing systems.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 1 July 2027
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Bioengineering
Loughborough University
About the Project This project aims to design, study, and understand materials that mimic the behaviour of biological tissues, opening the door to electronics that can learn, adapt, and process information efficiently. Together, we aim to contribute to a new era of brain-inspired materials science.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 1 July 2027
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Bioengineering
University of Sydney
About the Project Project Overview : Blood clot formation (thrombosis) remains a major life-threatening complication in patients supported by Extra-Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), a form of heart-lung machine used in intensive care units. Despite current heparin-coated circuits and systemic anticoagulation, circuit thrombosis still occurs in up to 35% of patients, leading to increased mortality and bleeding complications.
- Location
- Sydney, Australia, Australia
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Bioengineering
Monash University
About the Project The Project In the developing embryo, the heart begins as a simple, straight tube that pumps blood inefficiently. As the embryo grows, the heart twists and grows and morphs into a four-chambered organ with intricate cardiac structures. Some of the most important cardiac structures are the heart valves, which increase pumping efficiency by preventing blood from flowing backwards through the heart chambers. How do heart valves form?
- Location
- Melbourne, Australia, Australia
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Bioengineering
University of Sheffield
About the Project Biopharmaceuticals offer the most promising pathway to treatments for diseases including cancer, Alzheimer’s and autoimmune disorders. However, the production of ‘next-generation’ products, such as trispecific antibodies, is typically associated with low yields and poor quality.
- Location
- Sheffield, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Bioengineering
The University of Manchester
About the Project Computational haemodynamic modelling provides a powerful framework for linking blood flow dynamics with cardiovascular disease, using in silico approaches to systematically study flow environments associated with vascular health and pathology. Atherosclerotic plaque formation in arteries is strongly influenced by local blood flow patterns.
- Location
- Manchester, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)
Bioengineering
Adelaide University
About the Project Help pioneer the next generation of sustainable biomanufacturing by developing a fully continuous precision-fermentation platform for producing and purifying recombinant lactoferrin in Pichia pastoris . Lactoferrin is a high-value bioactive protein with applications across nutrition, health, and biopharmaceuticals —and continuous processing offers a pathway to dramatically improved productivity, consistency, and cost-effectiveness .
- Location
- Adelaide, Australia, Australia
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Bioengineering
Lancaster University
About the Project The rapidly evolving field of microfluidics, in which fluids are manipulated at a microscopic scale, finds many applications in industries, ranging from the pharmaceutical to the oil industry. Most ubiquitous fluids are non-Newtonian and complex such as paints, blood, inks and personal-care products are just a few examples.
- Location
- Lancaster, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Bioengineering
Anglia Ruskin University ARU
About the Project Research Group Biomedical Engineering Research Group Proposed supervisory team Dr Adil Mustafa Dr Mohammed Zahed Khan Theme Optical Biosensing Summary of the research project Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) constitute a rapidly growing global health challenge.
- Location
- Cambridge, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Bioengineering
University of Liverpool
About the Project The aim of the project is to understand how individual traits like tooth shape and material properties affect the success of various restorations approaches of molar teeth. The proposed PhD project seeks to address the complex, multi-factorial issue of dental caries and its implications that lead to endodontic treatment.
- Location
- Liverpool, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Bioengineering
University of Sheffield
About the Project Several primary tumours such as breast, prostate and lung cancers create bone metastases in the spine, increasing the risk of fracture in these patients. Even treatments in some cases (for example androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer patients) may reduce the bone density and increase risk of fracture.
- Location
- Sheffield, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Bioengineering
University of Sheffield
About the Project Late stage kidney and prostate cancers are associated with bone metastases, which usually occur in the spine. These lesions may increase the risk of fracture in these patients but it is unclear when there is a need of intervening due to the complexity of the structure of the metastatic vertebrae. Moreover, treatments of the primary tumours may also affect the amount of bone there is in the vertebrae, even before metastases, and increase the risk of fracture.
- Location
- Sheffield, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Bioengineering
University of Bradford
About the Project A major challenge in cancer therapy is to develop therapeutic agents that selectively target tumour cells but are not harmful to normal tissue. A promising way to increase selectivity of cytotoxic molecules (payloads) is to tether these to antibodies that preferentially bind to antigens expressed on the surface of membranes of cancer cells.
- Location
- Bradford, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Bioengineering
Newcastle University
About the Project Detrimental effects upon the cardiovascular system are a major concern for drug development, both in terms of developmental drug attrition and life-threatening toxicities. Understanding the mechanisms of drug-induced cardiotoxicity and development of strategies to predict and/or mitigate clinical effects is highly important. Drug-induced cardiotoxicity manifests either acutely as a functional disturbance or progressively as a structural effect.
- Location
- Newcastle, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Bioengineering
Kingston University
About the Project This PhD project explores the development of next-generation biomaterials for orthopaedic regeneration, focusing on engineering sustainable ceramic-based implants that address both clinical needs and environmental pressures. Musculoskeletal disorders and traumatic injuries are a leading cause of disability worldwide, often requiring surgical intervention and long-term implant solutions.
- Location
- London, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Bioengineering
The University of Manchester
About the Project The progression and rupture risk of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) are governed by a complex interplay between blood flow dynamics and the mechanical properties of the aortic wall. Much like aeroelastic structures in engineering, the aorta is a compliant, deformable vessel that responds dynamically to pulsatile hemodynamic loads.
- Location
- Manchester, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Bioengineering
University of York
About the Project Lung diaphragm is an integral part of respiratory system, which plays a pivotal role in the initiating and maintaining breathing cycle. Lung functionality can be compromised due to physiological conditions resulting in hypoxemic failure (Type 1 respiratory failure) to hypercapnic failure (Type 2 respiratory failure).
- Location
- York, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Bioengineering
University of Birmingham
About the Project Early diagnosis remains one of the greatest challenges in cancer treatment. Subtle molecular changes often occur long before clinical symptoms appear, yet existing diagnostic tools struggle to detect them with sufficient sensitivity and accuracy. This PhD project aims to address this challenge by developing new glycan sensing technologies with the potential to significantly improve early cancer diagnosis.
- Location
- Birmingham, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)
Bioengineering
Imperial College London
About the Project Mechanical loading plays a key role in a range of neurological conditions. For instance, brain exposure to mechanical loading in sports and road traffic collisions can damage brain tissue, axons and vasculature, leading to traumatic brain injury (TBI). Understanding the relationship between loading and brain injury is key to predicting brain injuries and preventing and managing their consequences.
- Location
- London, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- See advert
Bioengineering
Adelaide University
About the Project The School of Chemical Engineering of The University of Adelaide is pleased to offer two prestigious PhD positions focused on transport phenomena in porous media. This research, grounded in applied mathematics, involves the development of exact and asymptotic solutions to non-linear partial differential equations.
- Location
- Adelaide, Australia, Australia
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Bioengineering
University of York
About the Project A fundamental component of human body is connective tissue which serves various structural and supportive functions including skin integrity, abdominal wall enforcement and bone formation. It comprises of diverse cell types, fibers, and an extracellular matrix, which provides structural strength and flexibility to organ systems. Various types of cells are part of that tissues like immune response cells, fat cells, mast cells etc.
- Location
- York, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Bioengineering
University of Birmingham
About the Project Cell and gene therapies are transforming medicine by enabling personalised treatments for patients with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Despite their clinical success, the widespread adoption of these therapies remains limited by complex, costly and failure prone manufacturing processes.
- Location
- Birmingham, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)
Bioengineering
University of York
About the Project Collagen is a key protein in mammals providing the basis for connective tissue, bone, teeth and other important components of the body. Its hierarchical organisation is enabling the formation of materials with unique mechanical and optical properties and its self-similar assembly over many length scales makes it an intriguing object of studies.
- Location
- York, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only