Postgraduate Funding and Scholarships
If you plan to apply for scholarship funding, please note that some schemes require applications to be submitted up to a year before your intended start date.
Sainsbury PhD Studentships
Up to three Sainsbury PhD Studentships are offered each year to undertake a PhD at a UK university.
The PhD studentships provide an enhanced stipend, as well as laboratory expenses and university fees for four years. Students are encouraged to spend part of their studentship at another university or institute to gain additional experience.
Cambridge Biosciences DTP PhD Programme
The Cambridge Biosciences Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) is a fully-funded 4-year PhD programme providing training opportunities across the scientific areas encompassed by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) strategic research priorities:
- Understanding the rules of life
- Transformative technologies
- Bioscience for sustainable agriculture and food
- Bioscience for renewable resources and clean growth
- Bioscience for an integrated understanding of health
The Programme offers 3 types of studentships: Standard, Targeted and iCASE.
Application Deadline: The application deadline for the 2026 intake has now passed. The next opportunity to apply will be from September to December 2026, for students starting in 2027.
University of Cambridge Central Funding
To find out more about funding and how to apply, visit Postgraduate funding
Search the University Funding Database and discover some of the different sources of funding on offer, including deadlines and how to apply.
Scholarships and Studentships
There are a number of funding opportunities for prospective postgraduate students which can be applied for by ticking a box on the online application admission form. Providing you have submitted a full application, including references, by the funding deadline, you will be considered for funding, through the Postgraduate Funding Competition, run annually by a central University office.
- Gates Cambridge Scholarship applications require additional information to be included as part of your application. Further information can be found on their website.
- Cambridge Trust offers Cambridge International Scholarships, College studentships as well as other matched funding awards.
Department and College Scholarships
In addition to the University's Postgraduate Funding, funding is also available directly from the University’s colleges and departments.