In 2026 UKRI’s seven research councils list 65 current EPSRC centres for doctoral training, 17 MRC and 15 ESRC doctoral partnerships, 16 BBSRC landscape awards and formula-allocated studentships at 50 AHRC, more than 40 EPSRC and more than 60 STFC institutions — and which of those a candidate can apply to is decided by discipline before anything else.
The figures below come from UKRI’s doctoral landscape award and doctoral focal award investment lists, published in March 2026 and updated through May 2026, and from UKRI’s studentship guidance for students. They describe the funded routes as they stand for candidates starting in 2026 and 2027. Counts are of investments listed by UKRI, not of studentships, except where UKRI gives a studentship figure; where a council publishes no number, that is said rather than estimated. Regulations and application routes differ by institution, so check the partnership’s own pages before applying.
The two award types, and which councils use which
UKRI states that landscape awards and focal awards are the two types of doctoral training investment under its collective talent funding scheme. Landscape awards are broad, flexible investments across a council’s subject areas; focal awards are theme-based, strategic and often cross-council, and include the centres for doctoral training. Three councils now allocate landscape awards by formula to individual institutions — EPSRC, STFC and, from 2026, AHRC — while the others award them competitively to consortia. The practical consequence for a candidate: in engineering, physical sciences, astronomy and particle physics, and from 2026 the arts and humanities, the funded studentships sit inside the university you apply to; in the social, biological, medical and environmental sciences they sit inside a regional partnership that recruits across several universities.
| Council | Disciplines | Landscape award route (2026) | Focal awards and CDTs listed (2026) | Source, year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AHRC | Arts and humanities | Formula from 2026: 50 institutions, 15 studentships each (three a year for five years), final cohort October 2031; plus seven regional training hubs, ten competition-era doctoral training partnerships and the collaborative doctoral partnerships with non-university hosts | 13 focal awards, including three Leverhulme-linked centres | UKRI investment lists, 2026 |
| BBSRC | Biosciences | 16 landscape awards, all with final cohorts starting 2029, two co-funded with NERC | 7 focal awards, final cohorts 2028, several in engineering biology and AI | UKRI investment lists, 2026 |
| EPSRC | Engineering, physical sciences, mathematics, computing | Formula: more than 40 institutions from grants totalling £300 million, a minimum of three studentships per intake year; plus industrial doctoral landscape awards allocated to industry partners | 65 current CDTs in nine themes, plus the UKRI AI CDTs awarded by EPSRC; over 70 CDTs from the 2018 round no longer recruit | UKRI investment lists, 2026 |
| ESRC | Social sciences, including economics, management, education, psychology | 15 doctoral training partnerships, all with final cohorts starting 2028 | 3 focal awards | UKRI investment lists, 2026 |
| MRC | Biomedical and health | 17 doctoral training partnerships, all with final cohorts starting 2026 | No MRC-led CDT listed; co-funds two led by BBSRC and NERC | UKRI investment lists, 2026 |
| NERC | Environmental sciences | 23 listed investments, a mix of second-round partnerships with final cohorts in 2024 and new landscape awards with final cohorts in 2029 | 17 CDTs | UKRI investment lists, 2026 |
| STFC | Astronomy, particle and nuclear physics | Formula: more than 60 institutions, approximately 220 studentships a year, each of at least three years | 5 data-intensive science CDTs, final cohorts 2024 | UKRI investment lists, 2026 |
What the stipend is worth across every council
The minimum stipend is set by UKRI and does not vary by council. UKRI’s guidance for students gives £20,780 for 2025 to September 2026 and £21,805 from 1 October 2026, with London weighting taking those to £22,780 and £23,805; the same page notes that EPSRC does not offer a London weighting, although grant holders may pay more within their budgets regardless of location. Part-time students receive a pro-rated amount. The composition of the award — fees, stipend, research training support — and the figures UKRI does not publish are set out in our piece on UK PhD stipends and studentship funding; the council decides where you can apply, not what you are paid.
Engineering and physical sciences: the largest and most institution-bound map
EPSRC is the council with the most listed investments and the most formula-driven structure. Its university doctoral landscape awards fund more than 40 institutions from grants totalling £300 million, each with at least three studentships per intake year; the industrial doctoral landscape awards route allocates studentship vouchers to industry partners for four-year doctorates with an academic partner. On the focal side, UKRI lists 65 current EPSRC CDTs grouped in nine themes, and the distribution shows where the council has concentrated its cohort training.
| EPSRC CDT theme | Current CDTs listed | Examples | Source, year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advanced materials and physical sciences | 12 | 2D Materials of Tomorrow; Superconductivity; Technology-Enhanced Chemical Synthesis | UKRI, 2026 |
| Engineering | 11 | Future Fluid Dynamics; Net Zero Aviation; Robotics and AI for Net Zero | UKRI, 2026 |
| Energy and decarbonisation | 8 | Fusion Power; Engineering Hydrogen Net Zero; Offshore Renewable Energy | UKRI, 2026 |
| Manufacturing and the circular economy | 7 | Compound Semiconductor Manufacturing; Digital Transformation of Metals Industry | UKRI, 2026 |
| Health technologies | 6 | Healthcare Data Science; Data-Driven Health; Organ-on-a-Chip Technology | UKRI, 2026 |
| Information and communication technologies | 6 | Autonomous Intelligent Machines and Systems; Photonic and Electronic Systems; UK Semiconductor Industry Future Skills | UKRI, 2026 |
| AI, robotics, digital security and resilience | 5 | Machine Learning Systems; Cyber Secure Everywhere; Cyber-Physical Risk | UKRI, 2026 |
| Mathematical sciences | 5 | Statistics and Machine Learning; STOR-i; Mathematics for our Future Climate | UKRI, 2026 |
| Quantum technologies | 5 | Quantum Computation and Quantum Communications; Quantum Informatics | UKRI, 2026 |
For a candidate in computer science or engineering this means two distinct applications exist in the same department: a landscape studentship attached to a supervisor, and a CDT place with a first-year cohort programme. The two shapes are compared in our piece on integrated and traditional PhD routes. UKRI also notes that the CDTs funded in its 2018 round — more than 70 — are no longer recruiting, so a centre named in a paper from 2021 may not exist for a 2026 applicant.
Social sciences: fifteen partnerships and a hard boundary with other councils
ESRC funds its doctoral training through 15 partnerships, every one listed with a final cohort starting in 2028, and each a consortium: the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science spans 14 institutions, the Midlands Graduate School, the South West, SENSS and NINE partnerships have seven or eight members each, and the LSE partnership is the only single-institution award. The discipline boundary matters more here than elsewhere. Psychology, health services research and human geography sit on the ESRC–MRC–NERC borders, and a project on the wrong side is not fundable by the partnership that reads it. Candidates in management, education, economics and sociology apply through the partnership their target university belongs to; the proposal that gets funded is written to the partnership’s pathways, a point our guide to the research proposal for a UK studentship develops.
Biosciences, biomedicine and environment: partnerships with different clocks
The three life-and-environment councils run partnership models on different cycles. BBSRC’s 16 landscape awards all list final cohorts starting in 2029 and run from Cambridge, Norwich, London, the Midlands, the North West, Yorkshire, Scotland and Wales, with two — ILESLA at Oxford and QUARTILES at Aberdeen and Belfast — co-funded with NERC. MRC’s 17 partnerships all list final cohorts starting in 2026, which means a candidate applying for October 2027 should expect a new round of awards rather than the partnerships named today. NERC’s 23 listed investments mix second-round partnerships whose final cohorts started in 2024 with landscape awards running to 2029, several of them successors to the same consortium under a new name. Medical candidates should also note that MRC leads no CDT of its own in the 2026 list and co-funds two led by BBSRC and NERC; the data infrastructure a medical doctorate will actually use is set out in our piece on medical and epidemiology data sources.
Arts and humanities: the switch to formula funding in 2026
AHRC is the council whose map changed most. UKRI records that AHRC moved to allocating landscape awards by formula from 2026: 50 institutions, 15 studentships each, three a year for five years, with the final cohort starting in October 2031, supported by seven regional hubs for cohort training. The ten competition-era partnerships — CHASE, LAHP, Midlands4Cities, the North West Consortium, Northern Bridge, Open-Oxford-Cambridge, SGSAH, SWWDTP, technē and the White Rose College — all list their final cohort as 2025, and the collaborative doctoral partnerships with museums, archives and other non-university hosts continue with cohorts of at least three studentships a year. For an applicant in 2026 the practical change is that the studentship is now the institution’s to award, not the consortium’s.
Astronomy, particle and nuclear physics: many institutions, a fixed annual number
STFC is the only council for which UKRI publishes an annual studentship figure in the 2026 list: approximately 220 studentships a year across more than 60 institutions, each awarded for at least three years within the council’s core programme. Its five focal awards are all data-intensive science CDTs with final cohorts in 2024, so the landscape route is the live one for 2026 applicants.
What the figures do not show
Three gaps should be stated plainly. First, UKRI’s lists count investments, not studentships; outside STFC, AHRC and EPSRC’s minimum-per-intake rule, the number of funded places per partnership is published by the partnership, not by UKRI. Second, the lists describe UKRI routes only; charity, industry and university-funded studentships are not in them, and the trade-offs of going without a council award are set out in our comparison of UKRI studentships and self-funding. Third, none of the figures say who gets the places; UKRI’s own equalities monitoring, which we examine in diversity data on UK doctoral researchers, is the source for that.
Whatever the council, the application is decided by a proposal written to the partnership’s pathways and the institution’s regulations. Draft your studentship proposal in Tesify: keep the partnership’s criteria, the council’s remit statement and your proposal in one workspace, so that the project you describe sits unmistakably inside the council that will read it. The research is yours; the tool keeps the proposal aligned to the funder.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a doctoral landscape award and a focal award?
UKRI describes landscape awards as broad, flexible investments across a council’s subject areas, and focal awards as theme-based, strategic and often cross-council investments that include centres for doctoral training. Both are types of doctoral training investment under UKRI’s collective talent funding scheme.
Which councils allocate studentships by formula rather than competition?
EPSRC and STFC allocate landscape awards by formula to individual institutions, and AHRC changed to a funding formula from 2026. BBSRC, ESRC, MRC and NERC award them competitively to partnerships or consortia of institutions.
How many ESRC doctoral training partnerships are there in 2026?
UKRI lists 15 ESRC doctoral training partnerships, each with a final cohort starting in 2028, ranging from the single-institution LSE partnership to the 14-institution Scottish Graduate School of Social Science.
How many EPSRC centres for doctoral training are currently running?
UKRI lists 65 current EPSRC CDTs grouped in nine themes, the largest being advanced materials and physical sciences with 12 and engineering with 11, plus the UKRI AI CDTs awarded by EPSRC. The more than 70 CDTs from the 2018 round are no longer recruiting.
What is the UKRI stipend from October 2026?
UKRI’s guidance for students gives a minimum stipend of £21,805 from 1 October 2026, or £23,805 with London weighting, up from £20,780 and £22,780 for 2025 to September 2026. EPSRC does not offer a London weighting.
Does MRC run centres for doctoral training?
Not as lead funder in the 2026 list. UKRI records MRC as co-funding two focal awards led by other councils, Engineering Biology for Biomedicine led by BBSRC and OneZoo led by NERC, alongside its 17 doctoral training partnerships.
How many studentships does STFC fund each year?
UKRI states that STFC funds approximately 220 studentships a year across more than 60 institutions, each for a minimum of three years, through its formula-allocated doctoral landscape awards.
How did AHRC doctoral funding change in 2026?
AHRC moved from competitively awarded partnerships to a funding formula: 50 institutions receive 15 studentships each, three a year for five years, with the final cohort starting in October 2031, supported by seven regional training hubs. The ten earlier partnerships list 2025 as their final cohort.
Which council funds a psychology PhD?
It depends on the project. ESRC funds psychology within the social sciences, MRC funds biomedical and mental health research, and BBSRC funds neuroscience and animal behaviour; a project on the border is fundable only by the council whose remit it sits in, so check the remit statements before choosing the partnership.