King's College London is expanding its doctoral training programme across physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering, and technology, using EPSRC funding to place PhD students in priority research areas. This matters because the UK needs a steady pipeline of researchers trained at the intersection of fundamental science and emerging technology. The programme targets gaps in areas where King's already has strength—such as health data, medical imaging, and biophysics—and deliberately builds new capacity in fields like robotics, big data, and telecommunications that currently lack deep expertise at the university. If successful, the programme will produce a cohort of scientists and engineers equipped to work across traditional disciplinary boundaries. That could accelerate progress in medical diagnostics, secure data handling, and intelligent systems that quietly underpin everything from hospital imaging to urban infrastructure. The strategic studentship fund also allows King's to respond quickly to unexpected research opportunities or national priorities as they arise. Much of the training is in fundamental science—condensed matter theory, geometry, number theory—where the immediate payoff is deeper understanding, not a product. Past investments in such foundational fields have seeded breakthroughs in computing, materials, and cryptography that no one predicted at the time.
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King's College London has recently embarked on a strategic programme to expand the breadth and depth of its science and technology, with doctoral training lying at the heart of this very significant development. Growth in these areas will: build on existing strengths within the university in physical science and engineering; build on the thriving interface with the university's leading activity in health sciences; include expansion into new areas of technology. Our EPSRC DTP funding provides the flexibility to target PhD studentships in priority research areas of growth and provide opportunities for doctoral research in areas of active current research supported through EPSRC funding. In all cases, students will be immersed in a supportive and thriving research environment. King's has a strong bedrock of basic sciences and DTP funded opportunities will be available in: statistics and applied probability in Mathematics; Condensed Matter Theory and Simulation, and Experimental Biophysics & Nanotechnology in Physics; and in Chemistry in areas with a focus on understanding the chemistry of life and the interface with biology and biomedical sciences. Further EPSRC funded doctoral training opportunities in mathematical and physical science exist within our EPSRC CDTs in Geometry and Number Theory and in Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to Non-Equilibrium Systems (CANES). We are also committed to growing new activity in the areas of Technology and Engineering. DTP funded opportunities will be available within our present vibrant research groups in Agents & Intelligent Systems, Algorithms & Bioinformatics, Robotics, Telecommunications, Planning and Software & Logic within Informatics, and in the broad area of Big Data which we will develop further, building upon our considerable expertise in Health Data. The university has significant strength in Imaging Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, where DTP funded opportunities will complement those within our EPSRC CDT in Medical Imaging. DTP funding will also be offered in new areas of research we will develop; our intent is to build practitioner focused multidisciplinary Technology and Engineering research for the 21st Century that interfaces with our existing research strengths in health, security, behavioral science, law, economics, management, development and natural sciences. Students are supported through training at three levels, centrally through the Researcher Development Unit (www.kcl.ac.uk/RDP), at Faculty level and at departmental level. The interdisciplinarity of King's research and our partnerships and collaborations with other institutions in London and beyond will enhance and broaden the applicability of the research and the student experience. Prospective students can find out more about the subject areas we offer by visiting the postgraduate prospectus (www.kcl.ac.uk/study/pg). In addition they can identify specific areas of interest through supervisor profiles on the Faculty web-pages including the Faculty of Natural and Mathematical Sciences including Mathematics, Physics, Informatics and Chemistry (www.kcl.ac.uk/nms/research), the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine (www.kcl.ac.uk/lsm/research/divisions) including the Division of Imaging and Biomedical Engineering, Randall Division of Cell & Molecular Biophysics and the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and the Dental Institute (www.kcl.ac.uk/dentistry/research). DTP funding will be in two streams: a core studentship fund to ensure provision of doctoral training opportunities in areas with a strong research environment supported through EPSRC awards; a strategic studentship fund to provide flexibility in the use of DTP funding, and to provide PhD opportunities in areas of investment and growth. Allocation of DTP funding will be made to Departments in November and PhD opportunities will be advertised from December to March, with assignment and award of studentships from February onwards.
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