PhD Studentships

PhD studentships at the IfA

Each year, the IfA welcomes a cohort of up to about a dozen PhD students from around the UK and the world. In order for your application to be given full consideration for one of our regular funded places, it must be received by the deadline of 5th January 2026 (see below for earlier deadlines for special funding). Please note: there is only one open call each year for PhD applications.

The IfA is committed to advancing equality and diversity, welcoming applications from everyone irrespective of gender, age, (dis)ability, race, nationality, carer status, religion or belief, and sexual orientation. Our aim is to ensure that our culture and systems support flexible and family-friendly working. We encourage all qualified applicants to apply for our places. If you'd like to know about our parental leave policies, please email Gradschool.Physics@ed.ac.uk.

Special Opportunites for 2026 

Career Development Scholarship

The School of Physics and Astronomy Career Development Scholarship provides full PhD funding for students from a Black heritage, including mixed Black background.  We welcome applications from prospective students, both UK and International. The deadline for applications to this scholarship is 24th November 2025. Successful candidates will be guaranteed a fully-funded PhD and will also be considered for the Institute of Physics Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship. For more information, see the following website: https://www.ph.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate-research/funding-studentships/career-development-scholarship

Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship

The Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship provides a unique opportunity for students from underrepresented backgrounds in physics, both from the UK and international. To be considered, complete Step 1 of our normal application process via the University of Edinburgh Application Portal, and send a one-page CV and a 1-2 page personal statement to Trent.Dupuy@ed.ac.uk. Following the BBGSF scheme, the personal statement should describe (a) your reasons for wanting to study for a PhD; (b) how you meet the BBGSF eligibility criteria clearly stating which under-represented group you identify as; (c) how you propose to gain benefit from a grant, if awarded; and (d) how you would be an ambassador for the scheme. The deadline for applications to this scholarship is 5th December 2025.

How to Apply (Regular Funding)

The deadline for applications in this round is 5th January 2026.

Be sure to start the process well in advance of the deadline!

Step 1: University of Edinburgh Application Portal

Find the link to apply here and select a September start date: https://study.ed.ac.uk/programmes/postgraduate-research/189-astrophysics

This is a standard application form for postgraduate study across the whole University, so it includes some sections that are not relevant to your IfA application. We only recruit once per year, so even though students may start any time, we only use the September start date here. This link also lists many things that you "need" for the application, but this is incorrect; you do not need to specify funding, add a CV, personal statement, etc. (Also, you may notice these webpages erroneously refer to 3-year PhDs, when in fact all our funded places are for 3.5 years.)

From here you will be taken to our EUCLID webpage to complete your application. Fill in all mandatory information. On the Programme tab, for any mandatory fields (e.g., Personal Statement, etc.) you should simply put "See 1-page IfA form." We do not use this part of the EUCLID application, and you do not need to upload a research proposal document. Submit your application. You should soon be given a Unique University Number (UUN, the letter S followed by a 7-digit number) to be used in the next step.

We recommend completing this step as early as possible to make sure the system provides your UUN well in advance of the deadline.

(Also note: your letter writers may receive an automated email with an incorrect early deadline for uploading their letters. Letters only need to be submitted by our application deadline, or whatever the email says, whichever date is later.) 

Step 2: Select the PhD projects that interest you

At the Institute for Astronomy, we study every astronomical scale from the solar system up to the large-scale structure of the Universe.

On our PhD project pages, you'll find the wide range of PhD projects that are on offer for entry in September 2026. You will also find some short videos from supervisors introducing their projects.

When you apply for a PhD place at the IfA, we strongly encourage you to select 3 projects from 3 different supervisors to maximize your chances for a good match. If selected for an interview, you will have the option to choose from any project on offer if your interests change.

Step 3: Complete the IfA Anonymous PhD Application Form

The IfA is committed to advancing equality and diversity, welcoming applications from everyone irrespective of gender, age, (dis)ability, race, nationality, carer status, religion or belief, and sexual orientation. We shortlist interview candidates anonymously to minimize any unconscious biases in our initial candidate selection.  

Please fill in the IfA Anonymous Application Form (to edit it, you will need to make your own copy of the Google Doc: File > Make a copy) and follow the instructions on the form for submission. This form must not exceed one page and must be emailed directly to Trent.Dupuy@ed.ac.uk. As part of the application process, it is important to accurately tell us your UK fee status, as there are some modest funding limitations on students either not from the UK or not having pre-settled status within the UK.

The filename of the PDF you email in should include your UUN as well as the unique project codes of all projects you are interested in. See the table below for the project codes. For example, if your UUN is S1234567, and you are interested in projects A, E, and N, then the filename of the PDF you submit by email should be: S1234567_AEN.pdf

This form is not optional.

Your 1-page PDF must be submitted by email to Trent.Dupuy@ed.ac.uk by the deadline of 5th January 2026.

Step 4: Reference Letters and Transcripts

After our anonymized review of your application form, we will review your two reference letters and your academic transcript to ensure that you are qualified for a PhD program. It is unusual for us to accept students into the Astrophysics PhD program without a strong (predicted) Honours degree (2.1 or above) in Astrophysics or Physics or its international equivalent. If you have had significant and relevant research experience, we are eager to consider your application, provided you have a strong BSc degree from anywhere in the world.

Step 5: Review Other Funding Options

The above steps will allow you to be considered for all of our internally funded studentships (STFC, ERC grants, Edinburgh Doctoral College Scholarship, and other various prize studentships). However, we are only able to make so many offers each year, and so alternative sources of funding may be relevant to even the most excellent applicants. For example, the CSC Scholarship is an option for Chinese nationals. We are unable to maintain an exhaustive list of all possible funding opportunities (some are listed here), but we are eager to consider anyone able to secure external funding for their PhD studies. Note that, like most UK universities, Edinburgh charges higher fees to some categories of overseas students.

If you have any application-related questions that aren't already answered on this webpage, please e-mail gradschool.physics@ed.ac.uk.

Timetable 

• 24th November 2025: Deadline for Career Development Scholarship
• 5th December 2025: Deadline for Bell Burnell Graduate Student Fund Scholarship
• 5th January 2026: Deadline for all applications to the PhD program at the IfA
• Early-February 2026: first round of interviewees contacted 
• Mid-February to Early-March: first round of interviews conducted (in person, where possible)
• Late March: decisions (mostly) finalized for funded places