A A A

Centres

In Focus

CoMPLEX

Applying Mathematics and Physics to the complexity of life.

Watch now

lightbox thumb

Events Calendar

Overseas Doctoral Award

The EPSRC allows 10% of its research studentship allocation to institutions to be used to support Overseas (non-Home) scholars. The allowance covers the Doctoral Training Account, Centres for Doctoral Training and CASE studentships.

EPSRC expects institutions to use the allowance to recruit the brightest and best scholars from around the world to research studentships in the UK. 

The Overseas Doctoral Award is UCL's mechanism for managing the allowance and ensuring that the EPSRC's expectations are met. Supervisors and Programme Directors wishing to offer EPSRC research studentships to overseas scholars must submit applications for Overseas Doctoral Awards.

Applicants must hold EPSRC studentship funding and have identified the overseas candidates that they wish to appoint. Candidates should be of outstanding academic potential. Applicants must be able to demonstrate that they have made all reasonable attempts to identify equivalently qualified Home candidates.

It is anticipated that demand for the scheme will be high. Applications must therefore be approved by the relevant head of department. To manage demand and ensure rapid processing, departments will be restricted to a maximum of 3 applications to any given deadline. Deadlines will fall monthly.

An application consists of a 1 (A4) page case outlining the candidate's suitability for the position and summarising the attempts that were made to identify an equivalently qualified Home candidate. The candidates study application, CV and references must be appended in support of their overseas doctoral award application.

EPSRC research studentship funding may be used to cover stipend and Home/EU fees. Applications may not be submitted to this scheme to cover overseas fees. Applicants may indicate whether they wish candidates to be considered simultaneously for the Deans Prize overseas fee scholarship. However, applications bringing match-funding in the form of fee scholarships and/or fee payment will be favoured.

Proposal Criteria

  1. Candidate students should be of outstanding academic potential.
  2. Candidate students must satisfy the minimum College entry requirements for their point of entry (prior qualifications and experience, and English language competence).
  3. Applications must be submitted by the candidate academic supervisor or Doctoral Training Centre Director.
  4. The relevant Head of Department must approve the application.
  5. There must be a sound case for award; applicants must be able to demonstrate that an equivalently qualified Home applicant could not be identified.
  6. Candidate students may not receive more than one award in their lifetime.
  7. Applications should ideally bring match-funding in the form of fee scholarships and/or fee payment to complement the overseas doctoral award.

Proposal Format

A proposal should take the form of a one A4 page case for support (single-sided) laying out the candidate's suitability for the position and summarising the attempts that were made to identify an equivalently qualified Home/EU student. The study application for the candidate student should be appended, together with their CV and references. A note of approval by the Head of Department should also be appended.

Award Conditions

Awards are made to candidate students and are non-transferable.

Make Application