Acoustics
Loughborough University
About the Project This research project focuses on the development of an advanced AI-driven system specialised in interpreting Acoustic Emission (AE) data, which aims to facilitate real-time monitoring of critical industrial components, such as electric vehicle batteries and hydrogen fuel cells. AE sensors, operational within a frequency range of several MHz, have the capacity to capture stress waves emanating from materials undergoing deformation.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 30 September 2026
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Aerospace Engineering
Loughborough University
About the Project Ensuring the reliability and availability of modern engineering systems is fundamental to the safety, efficiency, and sustainability of future energy and transport infrastructures. This PhD project aims to develop new modelling, analysis, and decision-support methods for reliability, availability and maintainability (RAM) within complex, data-rich engineering environments such as renewable powertrains and energy-supply systems.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 30 September 2026
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Actuarial Science
Loughborough University
About the Project Methane (CH₄) is the second most significant greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide (CO₂), with over 30 times the global warming potential over a 100-year period. It plays a key role in near-term climate action due to its short atmospheric lifetime and its prevalence in waste, energy, and agricultural sectors.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 30 September 2026
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Energy Technologies
Loughborough University
About the Project In order to maximise wind farm performance, it is essential that operation and maintenance strategies are optimised. In this project probabilistic models will be developed of whole turbine systems that are able to predict availability and performance over time. The models will incorporate the details of the turbines structure and the complexities of its operation hence enabling consideration of various scenarios including both offshore and onshore turbines.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 30 September 2026
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Aerospace Engineering
Loughborough University
About the Project The rise in digital crime means that almost every modern investigation now involves the recovery of electronic evidence. From hidden mobile phones to concealed storage devices, locating and retrieving these items can be critical to criminal investigations, yet current methods rely heavily on time-consuming manual searches. This PhD project will explore innovative approaches for detecting hidden electronic devices using robotic and autonomous ground vehicles.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 30 September 2026
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Computational Physics
Loughborough University
About the Project The idea that strongly interacting spins in a solid can evade ordering down to zero temperature by forming a quantum spin liquid (QSL) has a long history [1]. QSLs exhibit topological order and a plethora of remarkable quantum phenomena, including long-range entanglement, topological degeneracy, emergent Majorana fermions and gauge fields [2,3].
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 30 September 2026
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Applied Mathematics
Loughborough University
About the Project Since the discovery of graphene, various two-dimensional (2D) materials have been the focus of intense research and important applications. They have potential to induce disruptive technology change in chemical, energy, electronics and quantum industries. The aim of this project is to carry out multiscale modelling of selected 2D materials, including binary systems and stacked layers of them, and databases for machine learning and computer simulations.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 1 October 2026
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Artificial Intelligence
Loughborough University
About the Project Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) is an emerging research area and has been attracting great attention in recent years. VANET is a special case of MANET (Mobile Ad hoc Network) and is a key part of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) framework. Nowadays, Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication in VANET has emerged as a crucial component in both advanced ITS and Internet of Things (IoT) for information transmission and vehicular communication.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 1 October 2026
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Computer Science
Loughborough University
About the Project This self-funded research project is in the area of Kinesemiotics, the study of motivated movement. Kinesemiotics is an interdisciplinary research area combining Computer Science, Engineering and Linguistics. Following a successful European project exploring formal modelling of ballet we are looking to broaden the applicability of our research into modelling martial arts.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 1 October 2026
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Aerospace Engineering
Loughborough University
About the Project Tyres are a leading source of microplastics globally, as well as a primary contributor to cars' particulate matter emissions. Minimising the impacts of future tyre emissions requires new knowledge about factors that influence tyre emissions, and how these can be balanced with safety factors such as tyre grip.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 1 October 2026
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Nanotechnology
Loughborough University
About the Project Harnessing Non-Equilibrium Effects in Nanomagnetic Devices Modern information technologies demand ever-increasing computational power and data storage capabilities. However, these advances come with significant energy costs, as a substantial fraction of the electricity consumed by today's computing hardware is ultimately dissipated as heat.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 14 October 2026
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)
Artificial Intelligence
Loughborough University
About the Project This PhD project is part of a funded collaboration with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), designed for a highly motivated and innovative early-career researcher to build strong skills in experimental and theoretical photonics and optics. The goal is to develop extremely low-noise optical sources (microcombs) for precision timing applications.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 16 October 2026
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Computational Mathematics
Loughborough University
About the Project Random Matrix Theory (RMT) arose in the 1950s out of a need for a model to predict the spectral behaviour of systems that were too complex to describe precisely.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 31 October 2026
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Artificial Intelligence
Loughborough University
About the Project The ‘what’ This PhD will develop reinforcement learning-driven swarm robotic systems that enable multiple robots to collaborate autonomously in unstructured and dynamic manufacturing environments. The ‘why’ Future manufacturing systems must move beyond fixed, highly structured production lines toward flexible, resilient, and reconfigurable environments capable of handling variability in materials, tasks, and layouts.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 31 October 2026
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Artificial Intelligence
Loughborough University
About the Project The ‘what’ This PhD will develop reinforcement learning (RL) methods to enable robots to autonomously disassemble, repair, and remanufacture high-value products such as aerospace components, automotive systems, and electronics. The ‘why’ High-value products are often discarded or underutilised at end-of-life due to the complexity and cost of disassembly and remanufacturing.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 31 October 2026
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Chemical Engineering
Loughborough University
About the Project High shear mixers such as rotor-stators, ultrasonicators, high pressure jets, are used for dispersion processes during the manufacture of numerous high value products. These may be in the form of liquid-liquid dispersions (emulsions), a dispersion of fine powder (nanoparticle, nanoclay, graphite dispersions) or three phase systems, for ex. Pickering emulsions.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 5 November 2026
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Chemical Engineering
Loughborough University
About the Project Coatings are used for a wide range of applications with formulations developed or adapted according to the needs specific to the surfaces they are used on- smoothness, brightness, scratch resistance are among these.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 5 November 2026
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Biological Sciences
Loughborough University
About the Project Sleep disturbances have emerged as one of the most persistent and debilitating symptoms reported by individuals with Long COVID. Prospective cohort work demonstrates that Long COVID is associated with shorter sleep duration, poorer sleep quality, and increased rates of moderate‑to‑severe sleep disturbance up to three years post‑infection.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 18 December 2026
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Epidemiology
Loughborough University
About the Project Long COVID (post‑COVID condition) is a chronic, multisystem disease state that persists for ≥3 months after SARS‑CoV‑2 infection and impairs dailyfunctioning for many sufferers. Women consistently show higher prevalence and activity limitation than men, yet the drivers, biological (immune, autonomic, endocrine), and social, are not resolved.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 18 December 2026
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Fashion
Loughborough University
About the Project The global textile industry faces major environmental challenges associated with textile waste generation, microplastic pollution, excessive water consumption, and the widespread use of petroleum-derived synthetic fibres and toxic dyes.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 30 December 2026
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Energy Technologies
Loughborough University
About the Project The global textile and fashion industry is one of the most environmentally impactful sectors, with significant contributions to water pollution, carbon emissions, and resource depletion. Textile wet processing, particularly dyeing, is responsible for substantial environmental damage due to the extensive use of synthetic dyes and high thermal energy demand.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 30 December 2026
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Computational Physics
Loughborough University
About the Project We invite applications for self-funded PhD projects developing memristive reservoirs and artificial neurons for next-generation neuromorphic computing. The aim is to create hardware that can learn from time-varying signals efficiently, using device physics (including diffusion and stochasticity) as part of the computation.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 31 December 2026
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Chemistry
Loughborough University
About the Project This project will involve synthetic organic chemistry to prepare novel nitrogen heterocyclic compounds based (including pyridones, cinnolines or quinoxalines) using nucleophilic aromatic substitution (SNAr) of fluoroarenes to allow rapid construction of small molecules of interest as drug candidates as antibiotics, anti-cancer agents or against Neglected Tropical Diseases.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 31 December 2026
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Computer Science
Loughborough University
About the Project Given a finite set A, and an associative binary operation o, a semigroup is a set which contains A and is closed under o. If |A| = n, the free semigroup A+ is a particular example of a semigroup. Often in computer science, A is a set of symbols called letters, o is the concatenation operation, and A+ contains all nonempty strings (also called words) comprising symbols from A.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 1 January 2027
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Applied Mathematics
Loughborough University
About the Project Over recent years the modelling and understanding of complex phases, and their interfacial interactions, has developed at pace. Phases can be a solution of components, a mixture including colloidal particles, or different states such as in a frozen or vapour state.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 1 January 2027
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Developmental Psychology
Loughborough University
About the Project A growing body of research suggests that different aspects of language influence the way we think about, represent, and apply numbers and mathematical concepts. One aspect of language that has repeatedly been shown to affect numerical processing concerns the way numbers are named. Indeed, number-naming systems vary significantly across languages.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 7 January 2027
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Developmental Psychology
Loughborough University
About the Project Once children have become proficient in using small numbers, they are faced with new challenges as soon as numbers get bigger. One of these challenges concerns the place-value structure of multi-digit numbers. Placevalue understanding involves recognising that a digit’s meaning depends both on its face value and on its position within a multi-digit number.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 7 January 2027
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Acoustics Engineering
Loughborough University
About the Project Automotive vehicles are becoming heavier with wider tyres to support this weight. Above a speed of around 30 miles per hour, the noise produced by the tyres is the dominant source. Environmental noise pollution is only one design attribute for vehicles and yet is one of the most important attributes relating to people who don't purchase the vehicle but are impacted by it.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 10 January 2027
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
American Studies
Loughborough University
About the Project This PhD project provides an opportunity to investigate and challenge the boundaries and definitions of ‘Victorian’ and ‘modernist’ literature across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Key issues to be explored include: how do we define Victorian and modernist writing? How do these concepts relate to historical periodisation; for example, the idea of a radical transformation between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries?
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 1 February 2027
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Mathematics
Loughborough University
About the Project Lieb-Thirring inequalities provide upper bounds on the negative eigenvalues of Schrödinger operators in terms of the potential. Such inequalities have important applications in quantum mechanics, in particular for establishing stability of matter. The aim of this project is to establish analogue inequalities for general second order ordinary differential equations (in the form of generalized indefinite strings and canonical systems).
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 1 February 2027
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Analytical Chemistry
Loughborough University
About the Project The aim of this PhD project is to synthesise luminescent molecules that bind reversibly to target biological anions, which are produced during pharmaceutically important enzyme reactions. Anion binding to the molecular receptor will induce a luminescence response that enables measurement of enzyme activity in real-time.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 1 February 2027
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Applied Chemistry
Loughborough University
About the Project A major unsolved challenge for environmental agencies is to monitor inorganic phosphate in water, to predict the breakout of harmful algae blooms that lead to aquatic ‘dead zones’. To solve this challenge, in this PhD project we will synthesise molecular probes that bind selectively to phosphate anions and generate a sensitive luminescent signal that enables precise measurement of phosphate in water.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 1 February 2027
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Analytical Chemistry
Loughborough University
About the Project In recent years, simulated analytical experiments have become an increasingly valuable tool for supporting undergraduate learning.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 31 March 2027
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Computational Chemistry
Loughborough University
About the Project Reprocessing spent nuclear fuel generates waste that contains long‑lived radioactive isotopes capable of remaining hazardous for thousands of years. To protect human and environmental health, this waste must be immobilised within stable inorganic materials before placement in deep geological repositories. Selecting and optimising these waste‑form materials is therefore critical to ensuring safety over geological timescales.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 1 April 2027
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Applied Chemistry
Loughborough University
About the Project An exciting self-funded PhD opportunity to join the Advanced Materials Modelling (AMM) Group at Loughborough. Pressurisation, corrosion and other factors may pose a threat to the safety and integrity of nuclear material packages in long term storage. Understanding the surface chemistry of bulk nuclear material during storage is essential in assessing and understanding these risks. A large proportion of this inventory is mixed metal oxide (MOX) material.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 1 April 2027
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Child Psychology
Loughborough University
About the Project Difficulties in learning mathematics emerge early in education and are robust over time. The number of students not reaching basic levels of mathematics achievement remains a major societal challenge, at a time when societies are increasingly demanding mathematics skills due to scientific and industrial progress. So how can research effectively contribute to this? Spatial skills have been identified as a promising contributor to mathematics learning.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 1 April 2027
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Linguistics
Loughborough University
About the Project Learning the number system of a new language is more than memorising vocabulary, it is a window into how languages encode numerical concepts. Number words are essential for everyday activities such as handling money, telling the time, and navigating dates, yet they vary widely across languages. Some systems closely resemble English and are easier for learners to acquire, while others introduce structural challenges.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 1 April 2027
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Developmental Psychology
Loughborough University
About the Project A growing body of research suggests that emotional factors play a significant role in shaping how children learn and apply mathematical concepts. One such factor that has repeatedly been shown to affect arithmetic performance is mathematics anxiety (MA), which is a negative emotional response towards mathematics that interferes with learning and performing mathematics.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 1 April 2027
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Adult Nursing
Loughborough University
About the Project Men’s health is a major public health concern in the UK, with mental and physical health challenges disproportionately affecting men. Around 74% of all suicide deaths are among men, and suicide remains the leading cause of death for men aged 20-49. Yet only 36% of referrals to mental health services are male - reflecting men’s lower engagement with traditional forms of support (e.g., psychotherapy, medication).
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 1 April 2027
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Mathematics
Loughborough University
About the Project The focus of the project is to use variational principles, in particular those of Lagrangian multiform theory, to study particular solutions to integrable PDEs. Most nonlinear differential equations cannot be solved exactly. Integrable systems are the exceptions to this. They possess some hidden structure that allows one to obtain explicit formulas for at least some of their solutions.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 1 April 2027
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Computational Chemistry
Loughborough University
About the Project Molecular materials have the promise of revolutionising electronics by providing low-cost and sustainable alternatives to silicon-based devices. Within this project you will study molecular materials and, specifically, how molecules interact with light providing the basis for new light sources, solar cells and sensors.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 30 April 2027
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Education
Loughborough University
About the Project A project in this area will aim to improve our knowledge about effective teaching of problem solving in school mathematics. Research suggests that although expert problem solvers use a variety of domain-general problem-solving strategies (e.g. draw a diagram, simplify the problem), novice problem solvers do not benefit from being advised to do these things.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 30 April 2027
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD 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
Inorganic Chemistry
Loughborough University
About the Project This PhD research project focuses on the design, synthesis, and self-assembly of supramolecular materials for applications in next-generation electronics and solar energy technologies. The project will explore how molecular-level control over structure and selfassembly can be used to tune electronic and photophysical properties.
- 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
Child Psychology
Loughborough University
About the Project Patterning refers to the ability to notice regularities in sequences (e.g. ABABAB, ABAABAAB, where the As and Bs might be colours or shapes. Recently, patterning has attracted substantial interest because performance on patterning tasks show robust, significant correlations with mathematics achievement.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 1 July 2027
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Applied Mathematics
Loughborough University
About the Project The impact of two bodies of liquid, such as droplets, is a phenomenon occurring widely in nature and in engineering applications, from waves breaking onto layers of marine biological matter to streams of different inks in additive manufacturing. Impacts are notoriously complicated problems to study, with rapid topological changes occurring over disparate lengthscales.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 31 July 2027
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Automotive Engineering
Loughborough University
About the Project Are you passionate about intelligent systems, autonomous technologies, and the future of transportation? This PhD opportunity offers the chance to contribute to the development of next-generation control and decision-making technologies that will enhance the safety, efficiency, resilience, and performance of future transportation systems.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Biomechanics
Loughborough University
About the Project Are you passionate about robotics, artificial intelligence, and shaping the future of autonomous systems? This PhD opportunity offers the chance to contribute to the development of next-generation robotic technologies inspired by the remarkable adaptability, intelligence, and decision-making capabilities of humans.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Physics
Loughborough University
About the Project The Quantum Systems Engineering (QSE) Research Group at Loughborough University has re-established with the ambition of becoming a world-class leader in the emerging, cross-disciplinary field of Qussical Systems - systems that integrate quantum technologies into existing classical infrastructures, such as secure communication networks and reliable navigation systems.
- Location
- Loughborough, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only