Urdu Report Desk
Pakistani students can apply for two fully funded PhD scholarships at University College London (UCL) for 2027, focusing on climate change, biodiversity and climate modelling.
The scholarships will cover full tuition fees, a maintenance stipend at the applicable UKRI rate and research support. The opportunities are offered through the NERC-funded UNRISK Centre for Doctoral Training.
Applications will open on November 16, 2026, and close on January 13, 2027, at 1:00 PM GMT. Pakistani students are eligible to apply as international candidates.
Scholarship Benefits
The PhD programme will be based at UCL and will run for 3 years and 9 months. Funding includes full tuition fees, a UKRI-rate maintenance stipend, an individual research grant and cohort-level training support.
The current London-weighted UKRI stipend for 2026-27 is £23,805 per year. The applicable rate for 2027 will be determined according to the UKRI rate in effect at that time.
Each student will receive a £6,000 Individual Research Training and Support Grant, along with around £5,000 in cohort-level training support. The programme is also expected to include a three-month placement.
Project 1: Climate Change and Biodiversity
The first PhD project, titled “Reducing Uncertainty in the Impact of Climate on Biodiversity,” will examine how climate change affects biodiversity and how predictions of these impacts can be improved.
The research will use Species Distribution Models alongside long-term information from fossil records, museum collections, historical surveys and other palaeontological sources.
The project will focus particularly on marine biodiversity, including arthropods and corals. Computational methods, including text and image mining, will also be used to gather ecological information from historical and palaeontological sources.
Applicants with backgrounds in environmental science, Earth sciences, ecology, biology, palaeontology, computer science and related fields may be suitable. Experience with R or Python, statistics, programming, data analysis or machine learning could strengthen an application. Previous fossil-related experience is not required.
Project 2: Spatio-Temporal Climate Modelling
The second project, titled “Robust and Scalable Spatio-Temporal Modelling,” will develop statistical and machine-learning methods to improve the reliability of climate predictions.
The research will examine challenges including incomplete climate observations, irregular data and measurement errors. It will cover areas such as Gaussian processes, Kalman filtering, generalised Bayesian inference, robust statistics and scalable machine learning.
The project will use climate datasets, including satellite observations of the cryosphere and polar regions.
Applicants from mathematics, statistics, computer science, machine learning and other quantitative disciplines may be suitable. Strong programming skills and an interest in mathematical and computational research are considered important.
Funding for Pakistani Students
Pakistani students can apply for the available internationally funded places. Successful international candidates may receive overseas tuition fee coverage along with the maintenance stipend and research support.
However, international funded places are limited under UKRI funding rules, meaning Pakistani applicants will compete for a restricted number of funded positions.
The studentship does not cover UK visa fees, relocation expenses or the Immigration Health Surcharge.
Academic Eligibility
Applicants normally need a UK 2:1 honours degree or an equivalent international qualification in a subject relevant to their selected project.
Relevant Master’s-level study may also be considered during the selection process. UNRISK does not specify a general 3.3 GPA requirement for these studentships.
Applicants who already hold a PhD or are currently registered for a PhD are not eligible.
English Language Requirements
International applicants whose first language is not English must meet UCL’s applicable English-language requirements for postgraduate research study.
Applicants may not necessarily need to complete their English-language test before the initial UNRISK application deadline.
How to Apply
UNRISK uses a central application process administered by the University of Leeds, although the selected PhD projects will be based at UCL.
Applicants must complete the required University of Leeds application as well as a separate UNRISK application form. They should select NERC UNRISK CDT as their intended programme of study.
Candidates can select up to two PhD projects in their application. UNRISK also encourages applicants to contact the relevant project supervisors before applying to discuss the research and determine whether their academic background matches the project.
