UKRI Centres for Doctoral Training

A CDT is not a single project with a PhD attached. It is a training programme with a theme, a leadership team and a pool of supervisors, which recruits a group of students together each year and keeps them learning from each other within and across cohorts. The call for the 2023 AI round shows the usual shape: each centre was funded for 102 months to train five cohorts on four-year doctorates, with a minimum of 50 students, cohorts of at least ten and a pool of about 20 to 40 supervisors. UKRI had to pay at least half of each studentship, and centres were expected to find the rest from universities and partners.

Most centres open with a taught year, or taught courses spread over the first two years, before students settle on a project with their supervisors. Many do not ask for a research proposal at all, and some recruit to advertised projects instead. Placements, secondments with partners, summer schools and cohort conferences are common. Final cohort years matter: most centres in the current rounds take their last students in 2028 or 2029, and UKRI's list gives the date for each.

UKRI sets a minimum stipend for the students its training grants fund: 21,805 pounds a year from 1 October 2026, up from 20,780 in 2025 to 2026 and 19,237 in 2024 to 2025, pro rata for part-time study. The London-weighted rate is 23,805 pounds, but EPSRC does not offer London weighting, and centres may pay more within their budgets. The minimum fee level for 2026 to 2027 is 5,238 pounds. UKRI contributes only up to the home fee rate, so an international student may have to find part of their fees, though many centres cover the difference. Centres also get money for research training costs such as conferences.

The TechFirst Doctoral Support programme, run for the government by EPSRC with BBSRC and NERC, supports 1,000 home doctoral students across two intakes with a stipend top-up of up to 10,000 pounds a year at participating CDTs and focal awards. Some centres call it the TechExpert pilot, and several of them quote a total stipend of 31,000 pounds for 2026-27. Students receiving it take part in extra activities for up to ten days a year, such as outreach and industry engagement. International students are not eligible, and at least one centre has told its funders it is concerned about the gap this opens within cohorts.

As a UKRI-funded student you are entitled to at least 30 days of annual leave, paid medical leave of up to 28 weeks in a rolling year, family leave, reasonable adjustments for a disability or long-term condition, and to ask to switch between full-time and part-time study. Your university cannot make you do extra work in return for your stipend or charge you further tuition fees during your funded period, other than some international fees. UKRI funding does not pay for visas or the immigration health surcharge.

Home applicants can apply to any centre, subject to its entry requirements, which are usually a first or upper second-class degree in a relevant subject, or a 2:1 with a master's. International applicants can usually apply too, but each council limits the share of studentships that can go to international students in a cohort. Many centres state a cap of 30 percent, and some use university or partner money to fund more. You must live in the UK for most of your studies, apart from fieldwork or long attachments.

Many centres welcome applicants from outside their core discipline, people with work experience instead of a master's, and groups under-represented in research, and several use anonymised shortlisting or panels trained in fair recruitment.

UKRI publishes a list of all current doctoral focal award investments, grouped by research council and, for EPSRC, by theme, with the lead university, the year the final cohort starts and a link to each centre's website. A companion list covers doctoral landscape awards, such as the ESRC's partnerships in the social sciences. UKRI also keeps a page for its AI centres from the 2018 and 2023 rounds, and GOV.UK lists the centres taking part in TechFirst Doctoral Support.

Universities list their own centres on their postgraduate research pages, often with open deadlines. Organisations usually start recruiting about twelve months before a studentship begins, so for an October start the searching is best done the previous autumn. Most students start in October, but a start at another time can be agreed.