PhD Opportunities and Funding

PhD opportunities

‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌Graduates of our PhD programmes are active with industrial firms, universities and research establishments, not only within the aerospace sector, but in fields as diverse as deep-sea oil rigs, atomic reactors, submarine and ship design, bridge research, racing car and engine research, atmospheric pollution, and in many other aspects of industrial aerodynamics, structural analysis and materials.

Find out how to apply for a research programme.

Highly qualified prospective PhD students are also encouraged to obtain their own PhD scholarship. Opportunities for this can be found on the postgraduate scholarship webpage (note that most of these are highly competitive).

Prospective students should contact relevant academic staff to agree on a suitable project if interested in this option.

Funded PhD opportunities

• Title: Doctoral Programme in Sustainable Aviation
  Research Institute: Brahmal Vasudevan Institute for Sustainable Aviation
  Ref: AE0064
  Deadline: 6 January 2025
  
• Title: Aerodynamic theory of ultra-efficient aircraft rotors
  Supervisors:  Dr Kostas Steiros
  Ref: AE0063
  Deadline: 9 January 2025
  
  
• Title: Scientific machine learning to support aviation sustainability
  Supervisor: Dr Sebastian Eastham and Dr Urban Fasel
  Ref: AE0062
  Deadline: 9 January 2025
  
  
• Title: High-Fidelity Simulation of Titan/Mars Entry Vehicles with PyFR
  Supervisor: Professor Peter Vincent, Professor Oliver Buxton, Dr. Paul Bruce and 
  Professor Matthew Santer
  Ref: AE0061
  Deadline: 9 January 2025
  
  
• Title: High-fidelity simulations of turbulence flows on heterogeneous computer systems
  Supervisor: Professor Sylvain Laizet
  Ref: AE0060
  Deadline: 9 January 2025
  
  
• Title: Magnetic Suspension Balances (MSBS) for Drag Reduction
  Supervisor: Professor Jonathan Morrison
  Ref: AE0059
  Deadline: 9 January 2025
  
  
• Title: Theoretical/Computational Fluid dynamics
  Supervisor:  Professor Yongyun Hwang
  Ref: AE0058
  Deadline: 9 January 2025 
  
  
• Title: Reinforcement Learning for controlling nonlinear physical systems: application to wind farm optimization
  Supervisor: Professor Sylvain Laizet and Dr Georgios Rigas
  Ref: AE0057
  Deadline: 9 January 2025 
  
  
• Title: Safe Data-Driven Control - Bridging the Gap Between Nonlinear Control and Machine Learning 
  Supervisor:  Dr Thulasi Mylvaganam
  Ref: AE0056
  Deadline: 9 January 2025
  
  
• Title: Advanced representations of orbital uncertainty in astrodynamics
  Supervisor: Dr Davide Amato
  AE0055
  Deadline: 3rd December 2024
  Ref: AE0055
  
  
• Title: Beyond Self-similarity in Turbulence
  Supervisor: Dr Kostas Steiros
  AE0054
  Deadline: 23rd October 2024
  Ref: AE0054
  
  
• Title: Amelia and John Kentfield PhD Scholarships
  Supervisor: Various
  AE0053
  Deadline: 9th January 2025
  Ref: AE0053
  
  
• Title: Design, manufacturing and characterisation of functional and green end-of-life cellulose-based materials 
  Supervisor: Dr Koon-yang Lee
  AE0052
  Deadline: 18^th August 2024
  Ref: AE0052
  
  
• Title: PhD Studentship in Modelling and Observation of Aircraft Condensation Trails
  Supervisor: Dr Sebastian Eastham
  AE0051
  Deadline: 8^th August 2024
  Ref: AE0051
  
  
• Title: Understanding and modelling accidental hydrogen explosions (AE0048_v2)
  Supervisor: Dr Vito Tagarielli
  AE0048_v2
  Deadline: Until filled
  Ref: AE0048_v2
  
  
• Title: Predictive Performance Dispersion Model of Satellite Thrusters
  Supervisor: Dr Aaron Knoll
  AE0046
  Deadline: 21 May 2024
  Ref: AE0046
  
  
• Title: Brahmal Vasudevan Institute for Sustainable Aviation - PhD Studentship on Multidisciplinary Aircraft Design
  Supervisor: Dr Rhea Liem
  AE0045_V2
  Deadline: until filled
  Ref: AE0045
  
  Title: Coarse-grid CFD for plant-scale simulations
  AE0037 
  Supervisor: Prof Joaquim Peiro
  Deadline: until filled
  Ref: AE0037
  
  Supervisor:  ‌Dr Qianqian LI
  Deadline: Until filled
  Ref: AE0013v3
  Title:  Advanced lightweight metal nanocomposites for the energy transition: interface design and manufacture
  

  Advanced lightweight metal

Fees, Funding and Scholarships

The amount of funding you will need to fund a PhD will vary according to your fee status (UK, EU or overseas). Please see Imperial College's student fees and funding pages for information on fees, living costs and College-administered scholarships.

Students in the department are funded from a variety of sources, including UK Research Councils, industry, College scholarships and departmental funding.

For scholarships administered from either the College or our Department, any applicant is automatically considered for any scholarships they are eligible for, unless stated otherwise by the applicant and unless it is the President’s PhD Scholarship. Special procedures apply when applying for the President’s PhD Scholarship.

There are many funding options available for students, including, but not limited to the below:

• President’s PhD Scholarship
• Project-specific studentships
• Centres for Doctoral Training
• Imperial College Scholarships (search tool)
• External funding
• International scholarship collaborations