Studentship funding
Successful applicants will be awarded a fully funded studentship. This includes:
- Annual national minimum doctoral stipend, currently £21,805 + £2,000 London allowance for 2026/27
- For 2027 cohort of studentships successful applicants with Home fee status will receive an enhanced stipend £30,000 under
- Annual Tuition fees
- A Research Training Support Grant for laboratory consumable costs of £3,500 per year
- Funding to attend conferences
- Transferable skills training
The annual national minimum doctoral stipend increases annually in line with the GDP deflator, and is secured for each studentship for the duration of the studentship i.e. 4 years (1 year MRes + 3 year PhD). For further information, .
Applicants with Home fee status
From October 2026 entry, the EPSRC CDT in Chemical Biology: Empowering UK BioTech Innovation was selected to be part of a government led TechFirst pilot.
, helping open pathways into the UK’s fast-growing tech sector.
TechFirst doctoral support students receive an enhanced stipend above the UKRI minimum, receiving a £30,000 stipend per year for the 2027 cohort. Students are expected to take part in up to 10 days of TechFirst doctoral support activity each year, including commercialisation and national security training, cohort networking, and engagement with the wider TechFirst programme.
The TechFirst doctoral support is only open to applicants with Home fee status; everyone is welcome to apply, if you are passionate about chemical biology and looking to develop your research and innovation skills at doctoral level.
For further information, please see our
Applicants with Overseas fee status
The Centre for Doctoral Training in Chemical Biology: Empowering UK BioTech Innovation is funded by the and is subject to their eligibility criteria.
Following the UK’s exit from the EU, EU and EEA students who are recruited and start from October 2021 onwards will become international students, if they do not meet UK fee status eligibility criteria.
In response to this, UKRI have opened up a limited number of UKRI funded studentships to international students. Successful applicants, both home and international, will receive a full studentship award to include a stipend and fees at the home level.
To fund the difference between home and international tuition fees, we have a very limited number of international student scholarships available to support the difference between the home tuition fee and the international tuition fee. This allocation is highly competitive, and we encourage applications.
Overseas candidates will need to have applied to their chosen project(s) by 31st January 2027, noting and applying by individual project deadlines, in order to be considered for one of the Overseas Student ICB CDT Scholarships.
Overseas/international students are also welcome to self-fund and join our cohorts or apply with scholarships. In this instance, students will need to design their PhD research project with their supervisors. Some scholarship examples are:
Imperiaoffers a Scholarships search tool which may be of use.
UK eligibility
To be classed as a home student, candidates must meet the following criteria:
- Be a UK National (meeting residency requirements), or
- Have settled status, or
- Have pre-settled status (meeting residency requirements), or
- Have indefinite leave to remain or enter
For a full description on eligibility criteria, please read the following documents and guidelines:
- Terms and conditions of training grants (PDF, 852KB) (April 2018), EPSRC.
- The education regulations 2007.
- Training Grant Guide (PDF, 231KB), EPSRC.
- ImperiaCollege fee status webpages
- The announcing the change in international student eligibility
Date last reviewed: 5 November 2026
Date last updated: 5 November 2026
