PhD Scholarship Competitions 2024-2025

The School of Geography and Sustainable Development (SGSD) is offering five fully funded PhD scholarships to join the School’s vibrant research community as part of the 2024-2025 PhD Scholarship Competitions. Two scholarships are part of the SGSD scheme initiated in 2020, representing the School’s ongoing commitment to postgraduate research. Three scholarships, the Edwards Scholarships, are specifically for candidates conducting research in the field of spatial data science for environmental geography.

The successful candidates will receive funding for three years as follows:

a stipend in line with UKRI rates, currently £19,237
for the Edwards Scholarships only, an annual Research and Training Grant of £750 to £2000
payment of tuition fees, whether home or international

Students funded from this call will also have opportunities to contribute to teaching within the School, typically taking on demonstrating, tutoring and marking duties. This will be paid separately and on top of the annual stipend throughout their studies.

The scholarships do not cover continuation, extension, or resubmission period or fees, Visa fees, Immigration Health Surcharge, IELTS fees or relocation costs for travel to and from the UK. Please also note that the stipend is sufficient to cover the cost of living for the scholarship holder, but not for any dependants. If you are considering bringing dependents, please be aware that you require an alternative source of funding. Find out more about the cost of living in the UK.

The Scholarships are funded by the School of Geography and Sustainable Development, the Robertson Scholarship, the Edwards Scholarship, and the University of St Andrews Handsel Tuition Fee Scholarship scheme. There are no restrictions with regards to research topic for the SGSD scholarships. Applications to the Edwards Scholarships must fall into the field of spatial data science for environmental geography.

There are two ways to apply for the 2024-2025 Scholarship Competitions. You can apply to an existing staff-led project or you can develop your own proposal, either for the SGSD competition or the Edwards competition. Applicants should contact the named member of staff to discuss their fit to the project before submitting a formal application as outlined in the How to apply section.

Successful candidates will preferably start on 27 September 2025.

Academic staff within SGSD have been invited to submit proposals for PhD projects that they would like to supervise. Prospective students are invited to apply to undertake one of the listed projects. Only lead supervisors are listed, but projects may involve additional supervisors.

SGSD competition project proposals:
- Dr Mary Abed Al Ahad: Ambient air pollution and Covid-19 morbidity and mortality: generating evidence to guide preparedness for future pandemics (Word)
- Dr Hon Chim Chiu: Understanding historical urban development in the Gorbals, Glasgow (Word)
- Dr Lydia Cole: Exploring the role of Rwanda’s peatlands in its sustainable future (Word)
- Dr Althea Davies: Montane mosaics in Scotland: understanding the past to inform the future (Word)
- Professor Nissa Finney: The mobilities slowdown and the reproduction of socio-spatial inequalities (Word)
- Dr Qiong He: Education-led residential (im)mobilities and urban/regional (re)development in Scotland (Word)
- Dr Chia Liu: Violence in partnership in Scotland (Word)
- Dr Fernando Benitez-Paez: Advancing environmental monitoring through data fusion methods to link UAV multispectral data with ground sensors for native vegetation classification in subtropical areas (Word)
- Professor Doug Benn: Understanding glacier surges (Word)
- Dr Ian Lawson: Peat-forming seasonally flooded forests of the Peruvian Amazon: distribution, carbon storage, and long-term ecology (Word)
- Dr Tania Mendo: Bridging the divide between distant water fleets and coastal communities in the biggest unregulated fishery in the world (Word)
- Dr Timothy Stojanovic: Characterising seascape: visual and spatial methods for sustainability assessment in the oceans (Word)
- Dr Richard Streeter: Upscaling arctic soil nutrient availability from plot to landscape (Word)
Research and Training Support Grant funding

Edwards scholars will as standard be provided with a Research and Training Support Grant (RTSG) at the present School rate, currently £750 per annum. Where the nature of the research means that greater expenses are expected, for example, due to lab costs, staff and students can request additional funds up to a maximum total RTSG of £2000 per annum.

Any request for additional funds must be clearly justified in the proposal and will be awarded at the discretion of the School. The School does not provide financial assistance to cover relocation and visa costs.
Prospective students wishing to study a PhD topic not already covered by the staff-led proposals are invited to write and submit their own proposal.

Proposals for the two SGSD scholarships can address any topic that falls within the remit of the School of Geography and Sustainable Development. Please consider how your topic aligns with the research profile of your prospective supervisors. Given the School’s requirements for teaching support, please also explain in your cover letter in which areas you could contribute to teaching. Your prospective supervisors can advise you on our School’s teaching portfolio.

Proposals for the three Edwards scholarships must address topics that fall within the field of spatial data science for environmental geography. This includes, for example, projects that apply new methods for spatial data analysis but does not include projects that focus primarily on the collection of environmental or spatial data.

Project proposals should be no more than two sides of A4 and should contain an overview and rationale for the project, aims, research questions and methods, and, for the Edwards scholarships only, a breakdown and justification of the Research and Training Support Grant funding (RTSG), where the requested amount exceeds the standard allowance of £750 per annum (see the Research and Training Support funding section).

Applicants must secure the support of a supervisor within SGSD, who must be named on the proposal. Details of academic staff and their supervisory interests can be found on the School’s people page and through the ‘Research projects’ section of the postgraduate research degree webpage. Once support of a supervisor has been obtained, a formal application may be submitted as outlined in the ‘How to apply’ section.
Applications should be made via the central University's central research programmes application system. You should select School of Geography and Sustainable Development and clearly indicate SGSD Scholarship Competitions 2024-2025 in the funding section.

For the application you will need:
- A covering letter (called a statement of purpose on the online application system), explaining your reason for wishing to undertake PhD study at SGSD and why you believe you are a good candidate to undertake the proposed research.
- A curriculum vitae (CV) focusing on your academic track record and relevant experience.
- Transcripts and certificates of academic qualifications. Check that you fit the entry requirements for University of St Andrews Postgraduate studies – scroll down to find requirements for your country.
- If you are applying through the student-led proposal pathway you should include your research proposal, indicating whether your application should be considered for the SGSD scholarships or the Edwards scholarship. Students applying for a staff-led proposal should upload the two-page research proposal of their intended supervisor, unedited.
- A sample of academic writing in English, for example, your MSc dissertation or a conference paper or a similar piece of work on your research. The piece of writing should be a maximum of 1500 words if you are writing it specifically for this application, but it can be longer if you are submitting an existing piece of work.
- Names and contact details of two referees who can provide references.
- Evidence of English language capability, which may include evidence of prior Higher Education study in English or relevant certification, for example, IELTS (if not available at the time of application, this evidence can be provided later). For more information see the University’s English language requirements for postgraduate students.
For general criteria for entry to PhD programmes at St Andrews see the University’s Research programmes webpage.

Entry requirements vary by country: for UK students, the minimum academic qualification is a 2:1 Honours degree in a relevant subject. International students should check postgraduate academic requirements and English requirements for their country on the University’s entry requirements webpage. Non-native speakers of English will be expected to reach the scores specified under the St Andrews English language profile 6-D.

Application documents should not contain any AI-generated content, as per the University of St Andrews admissions policy. This may lead to an offer of study being withdrawn or, if found subsequent to matriculation, to termination of studies. See the University’s Admissions policy for details.

The successful applicants will be expected to engage in full-time study at the University of St Andrews and reside within a commutable distance of St Andrews, in keeping with the University’s Location of Studies policy.

The closing date for applications is Wednesday 12 February 2025 at 5pm (UK time).
Due to the mixed staff and student-led approach, applications will be judged based on the academic track record and relevant experience of the candidate and their fit to the proposed work, rather than on the proposal itself, though student-led proposals must be approved by the named supervisor and will be reviewed for feasibility.

Where supervisors have received multiple applicants for their advertised projects or requests to supervise student-led proposals, they can only nominate one applicant to go through to the School competition.

A panel of staff from the School will review nominated applications. The School will invite shortlisted candidates for online interview on MS Teams. We will inform candidates of the outcome following the interviews.

Please also read the University of St Andrews scholarships terms and conditions.

PhD Scholarship Competitions 2024-2025

Staff-led proposals – apply to an existing project

Edwards competition proposals

Student-led proposals – propose your own project

How to apply

Selection process