World-Leading Scholarship in Computer Science and Psychology

Project

Behaviour is the output of the nervous system. Watching what an animal does -precisely when and how- helps scientists link brain activity to specific actions, decisions and learning, and identify the early signs of disease.

Traditional methods to analyse behaviour are manual, time-consuming, and often lack scalability. We have previously developed PoseR to address some of these challenges, offering an AI-powered, modular tool for efficient and flexible behavioural analysis across various species and experimental contexts. This tool relies on data pre-processing by machine-vision methods that turn videos into ‘skeletons’ of the animals in the picture; PoseR is then able to determine from the changes in shape of these skeletons what the animals are doing.

However, behaviour is produced by the senses, body, and environment together; looking only at skeletons (pose) misses most of the causal clues. Therefore, in a new collaboration between the Schools of Computer Science and Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews, we will teach computers to read pose, video and sound together to determine behaviour and reveal what sensory inputs drive action, how this transfers across experiments, and to flag subtle signs of disease. By fusing video and sound with each pose, we keep sensory context exactly where it matters. That lets us find small cues -brief sounds, tiny visual textures, or local motion- that trigger actions and that pose-only methods routinely miss. The approach also has the advantage of being more robust when it is difficult to determine the exact pose of an animal, such as when videos have been made in a non-laboratory setting (i.e., in the field). These methods will therefore be of use to the many thousands of researchers in ecology, conservation, and those studying the brain in health and disease.

Value of award (per year)

The scholarship will comprise a full tuition fee award and an annual stipend paid at a rate set by the University of St Andrews. For 2026-2027, the stipend is £19,775 p.a., with an annual uplift published by the University each academic year.

The stipend will be paid pro-rata to part-time students.

The scholarships do not cover any continuation, extension, or resubmission period/fees, Visa fees, Immigration Health Surcharge, IELTS fees, costs for travel to and from the UK or research training grant or another equivalent award for research expenses.

Duration of award

Up to 3.5 years (full-time) or 7.0 years (part-time). Scholarship holders will be expected to have submitted their thesis for examination by the end of that period. The award term excludes the continuation period and any extension periods.

At what stage of my course application can I apply for this scholarship?

Please apply for the scholarship after you have submitted your application for a place at St Andrews. You do not need to wait until you have received an offer of a place before applying for the scholarship.

Additional criteria

You must have applied for a PhD programme at St Andrews.

You must not already (i) hold a doctoral degree; or (ii) be matriculated for a doctoral degree at the University of St Andrews or another institution.

As part of the scholarship application you will be required to upload a personal statement. This should serve as a cover letter for the research project application as a whole, and should include:

• An outline of your suitability for the project (project criteria can be found in the "Eligibility" and "Project Description" sections above).
• Why the project interests you.
• What you would bring to the project in terms of previous skills and expertise.
• Any ideas that you may have for the realisation of the project.

How to apply

1. Apply for your chosen course at the University St Andrews: Postgraduate research. Select School of Psychology and Neuroscience as the academic school. After submitting your course application, you must allow up to three working days to receive login details for the My Application portal.
2. When you have received your login details, apply for the scholarship:
   • Log into My Application and follow the links to Scholarships and Funding
   • Select 2026/7 as the Academic Year and click Refresh list.
   • Find the specific World-Leading St Andrews Doctoral Scholarship that you wish to apply for in the list of scholarships (using the filter box if necessary), click Apply and complete the application form.

You can also use the catalogue to search and apply for other scholarships for which you are eligible. 

Scholarship application form guidance

If you are a current student at St Andrews, you can access Scholarships and Funding through MySaint. However, you should wait until after you have applied for your intended postgraduate programme before doing so, to ensure that the scholarship application is linked to that course.

Terms and conditions

Please read the University of St Andrews scholarships terms and conditions

If you apply to this scholarship, details from your course application may be passed to the selection panel solely for the purpose of merit-based assessment. 

When will I know the outcome?

The outcome of your scholarship application will be available on View or continue my funding applications in the Scholarships and Funding section of My Application within two months of the application deadline.