PhD Studentships: Smart Infrastructure

Following on from our recent workshop on Smart Infrastructure, we are delighted to announce two PhD studentships for research into Smart Infrastructure (e.g. transport, information systems, energy, etc).

Infrastructure plays a key role in society, from transportation to energy. Real-time monitoring becomes increasingly important for effective decision making. This requires an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together leading experts in the 'physical world' (engineers who design the infrastructure) with the 'digital world' (engineers and scientists who design instrumentation and data analytics).

Eligible Projects

Nominated projects should represent new research collaborations aligned with the topic of Smart Infrastructure, and have a supervisory team which spans at least two of the Faculty's schools/institutes. Nominations must already have a candidate in possession of an offer to study. An allocation panel will be convened to evaluate nominations and make a recommendation to the Graduate School on which two to award. Nominations will be evaluated on the basis of quality and strategic fit.

Student Eligibility

We welcome applications from those with a first- or upper second-class degree or an equivalent standard in other qualifications approved by the University.

The studentships are funded from the University's Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). These studentships cover the tuition fees and, for UK students (and some eligible EU students) they also provide a stipend of £15,009 to cover living expenses for up to 3.5 years (a maximum of 3.5 years, or until the date of the first submission of the thesis, whichever is the soonest).

For more information, visit the EPSRC website to check whether you meet the eligibility criteria for a DTP studentship.

Application Process

1. Interested students should contact a suitable supervisor in the first instance, highlighting their interest in Smart Infrastructure and mentioning this studentship opportunity. You can find more information about the Faculty's academic staff by browsing the Schools and Research Institutes at https://www.feps.soton.ac.uk/;

2. Once an applicant is in possession of a formal (unfunded) offer to study at the University, the supervisory team should complete the nomination form to be considered for the studentship;

3. Nominations will be considered at an allocation panel(s), with membership from ECS, Engineering, and any other Faculty school/institute who are involved in a nomination (though supervisory team members will not be able to assess their own proposal(s). Successful candidates will then be awarded the scholarship/funding.

Deadlines

- The first allocation panel will take place in May 2020 (date tba)

- If either studentship remains unallocated, a second allocation panel will take place in July 2020 (date tba)

- The PhD student must have enrolled and begun their candidature by 01 October 2020