Information for potential supervisors

2026-27 call for projects

• MRC LID Studentships has funding for up to 9 awards, with awardees expected to register for research degree study in September 2026.
• A call for projects will be sent out to academic staff at DTP partner institutions (CSG & LSHTM) in August/September 2025.
• The selected projects will be advertised to prospective students in November 2025.
• A proposed project must fit within one or more of the DTP2 themes
  • Global Health
  • Health Data Science
  • Infectious Disease
  • Translational and Implementation Research
• A proposed project must support substantial research training in one or more of the MRC core skills
  • Quantitative skills
  • Interdisciplinary skills
  • Whole organism physiology.
• MRC LID is particularly keen to encourage projects which involve collaboration between DTP partners (City St George’s and LSHTM).
• UKRI allows up to 30% of awards to be offered to international students (i.e. up to a maximum of two of the nine MRC LID Studentship awards available). The awards are paid at the UKRI studentship rate. Each institution has committed to providing a bursary for remaining fees to studentship holders who are nationals of, and resident in, LMICs.)
• All student awardees must be based in the UK (within commutable distance of the primary institution, and working at their primary institution) for the duration of the studentship, excluding fixed periods of fieldwork and placement.
• Because of commitments made on our grant MRC LID cannot consider project bids without specified mandatory training having been completed by every member of a potential supervisory team. Other training cannot be used as an alternative to DTP requirements.

Want to submit a doctoral project for the next round (2026-27 start)?

Please check your eligibility, and prepare for the bid in advance, by ensuring that
(a) your supervisory team meets institutional requirements for supervisory teams (for example, institutional supervisory team composition and experience).
(b) every member of the team’s institutional RD supervision training is up to date.
(c) every member of the team has met MRC LID’s training requirements.

MRC LID’s training information
Please book your training (or notify MRC LID of your requirements) by 1 September 2025 at the latest.

Bid details

Further information (guidance; project bid link and deadline) will be shared at the time of the project call.

Our most recent previous MRC LID Project Bid Guidance & Information is still available for reference and a general overview. Please be aware that there may be some additions for the next round, and/or some details may be amended or updated.

Other information

There will be substantial changes to UKRI training grant terms & conditions (and separate guidance and supplementary documents) from the start of the 2025-26 academic year. Details are shared in the Policy Statement and Annotated Revisions documents.

Contact

If you have any questions about the project bids, required training, or any other aspect of the studentships please contact the MRC LID Manager by email: mrclid@lshtm.ac.uk.