Information for potential supervisors

2026-27 call for projects

  • MRC LID Studentships has funding for up to 9 doctoral training studentship 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).
  • The selected projects will be advertised to prospective students in early November 2025.
  • A proposed project must fit within one or more of the DTP2 themes
  • 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, University of London 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, low and middle income countries.)
  • 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)?

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.

Please use the MRC LID Training for Supervisors page to book your training (or notify MRC LID of your requirements) by 1 September 2025 at the latest.

Bid details

The project call will be sent out to academic staff at LSHTM and City St George’s, University of London, via local mailing lists on 1 September 2025.

  1. Please read the 2026-27 MRC LID Project Bid Guidance & Information document before starting your bid.
  2. Submit your completed 2026-27 MRC LID Project Bid by the deadline of Tuesday 30 September 2025, 23:59 BST.

(We use the REDCap Online Survey for project bids. This allows multiple returns to an application as long as you use a return code. If you are involved in more than one project bid, and return codes have been shared for these, please take a second to check which project bid you’re editing before you wipe out your colleagues’ work! MRC LID will not restore lost drafts.)

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. 

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