AHRC Doctoral Landscape Awards

Announcing 3 PhD Studentships within Royal Holloway, University of London, funded by the AHRC Doctoral Landscape Awards (DLA)

As a research-intensive university, we're one of the UK's top 30 universities for research quality according to The Complete University Guide. We encourage innovation and rising talent, enabling established and emerging research leaders to achieve excellence and respond to new opportunities.

Royal Holloway leads and is a member of a number of Doctoral Training Partnerships and Doctoral Landscape Awards (AHRC DLA, AHRC Techne, ESRC SEDarc, BBSRC LIDo, NERC Aries, NERC TREES) as well as Centres for Doctoral Training (UKRI AI and Digital Inclusion, EPSRC Cybersecurity for the Everyday). We have an excellent Researcher Development programme, and wider institutional postgraduate (PGR) training. We are committed to supporting a strong and growing PGR community, comprising PGR-led activities (including "The Other Kind of Doctor" podcast and blog), annual conference, and opportunities to connect and engage with PGRs outside your main discipline.

Details of the Award

The studentship will fund full-time UK-rate tuition fees and UKRI-rate stipend (for 2026/27 academic year this is £23,805, including London Allowance) for 3.5 years including a 3-month placement for career enhancing research activity.

• We can offer up to an additional 6 months of funding to support additional training in the field of study, to prepare strong candidates who may not have background in the area of study to gain additional skills, to upskill candidates to undertake interdisciplinary projects, and to enable broader opportunities for our PGRs that support career development aspirations
• A limited number of awards (30%) are available for international students
• Applicants must be available to start 20 September 2027

Before Applying

1. Applicants should visit the Royal Holloway webpage here to find out more about applying for a PhD programme within their field of interest. You may also wish to explore department specific webpages to find out more. 
2. Applicants must identify a supervisor and get in touch with them directly before preparing an application for submission. You should have an agreement from your proposed supervision team that they will support your application. You may submit your own proposal or can select and develop a project proposed by a potential supervisor. Potential projects are available to view at the bottom of this webpage. If you are interested in one of these, please get in touch with the project supervisor directly.
3. Complete the 'Getting to know our applicants' form. We aim to understand more about our applicants to monitor the diversity of those applying for our funded studentships.  This information is collected to support our equality, diversity, and inclusion initiatives. Data will be held securely and not form part of your assessed application.
4. Prepare your application following the applicant information guidance document available here.

Where to Apply

Once you have secured the support of a supervisory team, apply directly through the Royal Holloway Applicant Portal

The timetable for the competition is as follows:

If you have questions about opportunities within Departments, contact the relevant Department Postgraduate Lead:

AHRC Disciplines: 

In order for a proposal to be eligible for AHRC funding, the choice of primary research area must come from the list here.

If you have any questions please email AHRC@rhul.ac.uk.

Proposed Potential Projects: