The University of Birmingham is a public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham, and Mason Science College, making it the first English civic or 'red brick' university to receive its own royal charter. The University have a long and proud history of firsts, at the University of Birmingham; they were the first – and are now one of the largest - civic universities in the UK.

At Birmingham, the institution teach and research across the full breadth of academic disciplines, creating a vibrant community with multi-disciplinary opportunities for research and education. The University is a truly international community consisting of more than thousands of staff, students, and alumni. The student community is not only one of the largest of any UK university, it is highly diverse, with 82 per cent of home undergraduate students from state schools, 32 per cent from a BAME background, and 35 per cent in the first generation of their family to attend university.

Our Biosciences PhD offers four key themes, each representing areas of research excellence in human, animal, plant, microbial, cell and molecular biology. The course sits within the School of Biosciences, which has excellent teaching and research profiles.

Research in the School of Biosciences centres around four interlinked groupings, which focus on multi and interdisciplinary research.

Each theme represents areas of research excellence in human, animal, plant, microbial, cell and molecular biology, and these areas integrate with systems biology and structural biology.

If you already have a supervisor in mind, you can contact them directly about their projects currently on offer.

Research students at the School are members of the Biosciences Graduate Research School, and receive training in many generic and transferable skills in addition to those that are specific to their research discipline. We give special emphasis to postgraduate student research training, including regular monitoring of progress and the provision of an induction programme and short courses in core and specialised techniques.

You can study for a PhD on campus or by Distance Learning.

In the video Professor Neil Hotchin describes what studentships are available for studying a PhD in the College of Life and Environmental Sciences.

PhD funding opportunities
CENTA NERC
Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership (MIBTP)
Wellcome IMI
IMPACT
Physical science for health
Darwin Studentships
The Forest Edge Doctoral scholarship
PhD by Distance Learning
The following research staff in the School of Biosciences may be able to offer a project appropriate for the distance learning programme. Clicking on the name below will take you to their research profile. If the option of a PhD by Distance Learning is one that appeals to you, please contact the relevant member of staff to discuss further.

Professor John Colbourne
Professor Rob Jackson
Dr Lindsey Leach
Dr Nigel Maxted
Dr Jim Reynolds
Dr Eugenio Sanchez-Moran
There is a postgraduate seminar programme at which students present their work and all students are strongly encouraged to participate at national and international meetings. The School also provides each PhD student financial support to become a student member of a learned Society of their choice.

You will need to book the accommodation after you have been accepted.

You can choose to live on campus or off campus in private accommodation.

• Make a booking online after you have been accepted (in this case please let us know your choice when you apply).
• Register when you arrive - its not possible to reserve a room before arriving. You can arrive a few days before and book it