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Key Information

Applications are made online using the University of Glasgow online application system.

Pseudo-anonymous applications will be reviewed by academics, industrial partners and professional services.

Selected candidates will be invited to an interview, after which a final admission decision is made.

Interview questions will be made available to invited applicants in advance of interviews, and these will take place online.

Please read below for full details on how to make an application.

Start Your Application

Timeline

  • 15th October 2024: Applications Open
  • 28th November: Online Applicant Information Webinar
  • 31st January 2025: Application Deadline
  • 21st March 2025: Notification of Interview Invites
  • w/c 31st March 2025: Interviews
  • Mid-April: Notification of Interview Outcome
  • 1st September 2025: PhD Start

This is an estimated timeline, exact dates may vary slightly.

Applicant Webinar Recording

PLEASE NOTE: all applicants who have applied the for 2025 /26 academic year have been emailed in acknowledgement of their application and to inform them of the next steps. 

If you have applied to our PhD programme but have not received an email, please contact us at divein-cdt@glasgow.ac.uk

Why DiveIn?

  • An enhanced stipend that is £4,000 higher per year than the standard EPSRC stipend.
  • The chance to co-create your PhD project with a dedicated pool of supervisors who are committed to driving change and to support your PhD journey. This will be done once you joined the programme via a series of facilitation events, a research proposal is not required when applying, and you will be supported throughout the project co-creation phase. 
  • Ample resources for truly interdisciplinary projects.
  • A CDT learning experience centred around ethical, inclusive, and improved research culture. You will be part of a cohort of DiveIn students, providing an excellent peer learning and support network. 
  • The backing of a group of dedicated external partners who are committed to supporting the long-term career success of our PGRs.

Eligibility and Funding

All applicants must have or expect to obtain a first-class or second-class honours degree, or equivalent, in a relevant subject within the College of Science and Engineering remit.

Applicants with a lower second-class degree or equivalent, must meet one of the following criteria at the time of application:

  • have or expect to obtain a Master’s degree and have submitted a professional or academic reference at the time of application, which should cover your role on a research project.
  • have a minimum of 2 to 5-years full-time, or equivalent, relevant professional work experience and have submitted a professional or academic reference at the time of application, which should cover your role on a research project.

The funding provided for these fully funded PhDs will include four years of both tuition fees and monthly stipend payments. The DiveIn stipend will be uplifted by £4,000 per annum above the recommended UKRI rate (in total, £24,780 per annum for session 2025/26).

Fully funded studentships are available at the UK home rate and international rate:

UK Home studentship

To be eligible for a fully funded UK home studentship you must:

  • Be a UK national or UK/EU dual national or non-UK national with settled status / pre-settled status / indefinite leave to remain / indefinite leave to enter / discretionary leave / EU migrant worker in the UK or non-UK national with a claim for asylum or the family member of such a person, and
  • Have ordinary residence in the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man or British Overseas Territory, at the Point of Application, and
  • Have three years residency in the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, British Overseas Territory or EEA before the relevant date of application unless residency outside of the UK/ EEA has been of a temporary nature only and of a period less than six years

International studentship

There are a limited number of international studentships for exceptional candidates who do not meet the UK home status mentioned above.

Unfortunately, ATAS requirements and our CDT structure mean we can only accept international applications for this cohort from nationals of countries which do not require an ATAS certificate (EU, European Economic Area, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland or the USA); eligible nationalities are listed here (UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office).

International candidates whose first language is not English must demonstrate their proficiency in the English language with IELTS certification or equivalent. 

Information on visa requirements can be found here (University of Glasgow Immigration Compliance).

Making an application

Application Requirements

  • Diversity Survey (complete survey online); due to mandatory reporting obligations set by our funder this is a requirement of your application. 
  • CV, prepared from our CV template (download CV template), which includes personal and contact information, academic qualifications and professional experience. This CV template must be used and completed fully; applications which do not include this will not be accepted. 
  • Application Statement,(download Application Statement) answering five questions and completing one exercise (download exercise files). Upload on the Supporting Documents section. 
  • Transcript/Degree Certificates (with official English translation if applicable).
  • One Reference; this should be an academic and/or professional reference, which should cover your role on a research project. All applicants will be required to provide one reference, but please note that applicants with a lower second-class degree or equivalent must submit this at the time of application, with the exception of those who have at least 5 years full-time, or equivalent, relevant work experience.
  • English Language ability evidence (if your first language is not English).

Completing your Application

Please follow these instructions when completing your online application:

  • Proposed Start Date: 01/09/2025
  • How do you intend to fund your studies?: University of Glasgow Scholarship 
  • Research: Please enter N/A on the supervisor details section; a research proposal is not required.  

How-To Videos 

We have created How-To videos to help guide you through the Application Statement and the key documents of your DiveIn application.

Play How-To Videos

How You Will Be Assessed

The Application Statement is the main document of your application to DiveIn and should contain your written answers to 5 questions and one exercise. Each question should be answered within the word limit stated.

An initial threshold will be applied based on your CV and eligibility criteria.

Only the statements of applicants passing this threshold will be used to obtain a shortlist of candidates that will be invited to interview.

The shortlisting panel will review the Application Statement document.

Your answers will be evaluated using the Equity in Doctoral Education through Partnership and Innovation (EDEPI) Competencies Framework.

We have expanded this framework, adding an additional domain called “Fit for Centre for Doctoral Training and DiveIn”, which includes three aspects: Cohort-based development (a key aspect of CDTs), Interdisciplinary research and Advocacy (both key features of DiveIn). 

FAQs

CDT Programme & Funding

A CDT or Centre for Doctoral Training, brings together cohorts of postgraduate researchers to work on significant scientific challenges in a supported environment as they seek to obtain a PhD.

Conventional CDTs coalesce around a specific scientific area, DiveIn inverts this model by focussing on the diversity of its students, supervisors, and partners to foster disruptive interdisciplinary research projects, with an extensive programme of researcher development activities.

A stipend is a tax-free payment, paid monthly and in advance, to each PhD student. DiveIn offers an enhanced stipend, which is £4k higher per year than the recommended UKRI rate.

The payment is to cover your living costs and the basic expenses associated with study. It is not a loan, so you are not required to pay this back.

At DiveIn, we recognise that full-time study is not an option for everyone. We would be delighted to discuss alternatives and tailored study arrangements that suit personal circumstances at any stage of your application. Due to funder requirements, part time study is possible with a minimum of 50% full time equivalent. A lower full-time equivalent may be possible if this is deemed to be a reasonable adjustment for disabled students. 

Because of the nature of our in-depth training, mentoring, and support programs, remote study is not possible.

Full-time students may engage in non-PhD work, however this is restricted to around 6-8 hours per week. Local School policies may apply for each student, and this should be discussed with and approved by academic supervisors. Students working full-time cannot receive a stipend. 

DiveIn has a diverse supervisory pool, with academics across all six Schools at the College of Science & Engineering; and diversity will also be part of the external partners network, offering multiple possibilities to students conducting their research.

DiveIn provides students with opportunities to engage with external and industry partners, which will support student employability in the industry sector and beyond, for those who do not wish to pursue an academic career.

In the 2021 Review of EPSRC-funded doctoral education, figures showed that 42% of EPSRC-funded doctoral students were employed in industry, which represented a 20% increase over students not funded by EPSRC. 

Application & Recruitment Process

The programme is open to students with a science background in a subject within the College of Science and Engineering remit: Physics, Astronomy, Maths, Chemistry, Engineering, Computing Science, Geographical and Earth Sciences.

Interdisciplinary projects with areas outside this remit could be possible; the research project must align with our Mission Priority Areas and the primary supervisor should be based at the College of Science and Engineering. 

Entry requirements apply to all disciplines and the recruitment process is the same for all applicants.

Offer decisions may be based on discipline to achieve a diverse interdisciplinary cohort.

The key qualities for candidates are motivation to pursue a PhD with shown enthusiasm to conduct research, and being part of an interdisciplinary team; as well as to actively engage with the DiveIn cohort and take advantage of the CDT offerings.

We ask you to submit an Application Statement which addresses these qualities, and there are videos available on the website to help you understand how best to complete this.

A member of the DiveIn team will contact you via email to provide you with information, answer any queries you may have, and guide you through the formal application process, should that be your decision.

If you studied your degree in a majority-English speaking country (as defined by the UKVI ), this will be valid to proof your English language abilities.

The admissions team can review your qualifications to confirm validity after you have submitted your application. The team can be contacted at pg-research-admissions@glasgow.ac.uk 

The Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) certificate is a compulsory requirement to study in the UK from nationals of certain countries conducting research in certain fields.

In order to apply for an ATAS, applicants need to have a defined project when applying; unfortunately, the structure of the DiveIn programme, in which students do not have projects defined in advanced of joining the programme, means that we can only accept applications fom nationals of countries which do not require an ATAS: EU, European Economic Area, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland or the USA.

This requirement is based on nationality and not residency.

Yes, you can apply and provide provisional transcripts of your degree. Any offer will be conditional of you meeting the entry requirements and providing final award information once the undergraduate programme is completed.

During your online application, you will be asked to supply the name and email addresses of two referees. They will receive an automated email asking them to follow online instructions to submit their references directly to the University of Glasgow’s online admissions system.

If the referees fail to respond to this email, you can follow the steps below.

There are two ways that references can be submitted to your application:

  1. Uploaded by the applicant as a PDF (on officially headed institutional paper)
  2. By email from the referee directly (using their professional email address)

Once your online application has been submitted, you have the following options to ensure your references are included:

  1. Contact your referee for the reference and upload it yourself as a PDF by logging into the Applicant Self Service Area
  2. Contact your referee and encourage them to respond to the link in the email sent to them by UofG Admissions in order to submit a reference confidentially

If your referee has not received the email from UofG Admissions but would like to submit confidentially, please ask them to forward the reference to divein-cdt@glasgow.ac.uk with your name and application number clearly stated. 

If you are experiencing difficulties accesing the online application system you can contact the admissions team via  gla.ac.uk/study/enquire 

If you are experiencing an issue using Firefox web browser, please try using an alternative such as Edge, Chrome or Safari. 

 

Yes, you can apply for multiple schemes at the same time.

If you use different details, such as a different email address, the system may identify it as a duplicate and it will need to be manually reviewed; we recommend that you email us at divein-cdt@glasgow.ac.uk so we can make sure that your application is processed in the sytem.

Your application will go through initial checks based on your CV and our eligibility criteria.

Eligible applications will then be assessed anonymously, with only the answers you provide in the application statement being used to shortlist around 20 candidates for interview. We aim to inform all applicants if they are invited to interview by 21st March 2025.

If you require the application documents in an alternative format, or need to communicate any accessibility requirements or adjustments when invited for interview, please contact us at divein-cdt@glasgow.ac.uk

We will communicate the outcome of the interview by mid-April via email.

PhD Projects

There are no defined projects for the programme; students will co-create the projects during the first 4 months of the programme (September to December).

The process of forming interdisciplinary teams and projects is enabled through a series of events:

The Lido (beginning of September)

This event will bring together the pool of supervisors and students, and will have two objectives:

  1. to develop the skills and confidence of both groups to undertake collaborative, interdisciplinary research
  2. to generate a compelling series of problem statements that reflect the interests, curiosity and expertise of the participants.

A shortlist of supervisors will be selected by the students, the supervisors and the management team.

The Splash Pool (end of September)

Students team up with two or more academic supervisors and together, they craft the blueprint of their research projects.

Through fully facilitated open dialogue, collaboration, and mentorship from invited interdisciplinary provocateurs and mentors, the Splash Pool supports project teams in shaping proposals with a clear interdisciplinary focus, poised to make impactful contributions to the mission-inspired themes.

Shaping up the project (October -December)

  1. Project teams develop proposals with regular catch-ups and updates to the cohort
  2. Students pitch their emerging projects to DiveIn’s external partners
  3. Partners have an opportunity to steer projects with problem-based questions.

DiveIn Management curates feedback sessions, quality checks, and approval of proposals by the end of the period. 

The programme website has a section called “Catalogue of Possibilities”, this includes information on the key research themes (Mission Priority Areas) with examples of work being done at the University on each area, a pool of potential supervisors with individual profiles with information on their research intererest, as well as a list of external partners with which students can collaborate during their PhD.

Applicants should explore this catalogue and think of potential areas/projects they would like to work on, and this is one of the questions on the Application Form, in which we ask what you can see yourself working on.

There is no need to contact a supervisor to prepare your application; while you can browse potential supervisors on the website, you will get the chance to meet supervisors at an event when starting the programme and it is then that teams and projects will be form.

You should not select a supervisor in advance, and keep your options open to co-create the project and team which best works for your research interests.

Get in touch

The DiveIn team can assist with any enquiries you may have on the programme and the application process.

You can contact us at divein-cdt@glasgow.ac.uk