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CENTA offers studentships through two main pathways. 

Project-based studentships

CENTA Science Opportunity Scholarships (CSOS)

You can apply directly to a project, or, if eligible, you can apply directly for one of our Science Opportunity Scholarships (or both).  The routes have different eligibility criteria and application deadlines.

CENTA will not be offering an option for the submission of student co-designed or co-developed projects in the recruitment round for autumn 2026 entry. This will be reviewed for future recruitment rounds.

Further information about CENTA studentships and the financial support provided can be found on our CENTA Studentship Information page.

Have any questions about applying for a studentship / PhD project with CENTA? Visit our Studentship FAQs page.

Applications to our project-based studentships for 2026 entry will open soon, please keep checking back here for more information.

You may only apply to one project at any one university but you may apply to more than one CENTA project if they are hosted at different universities.

Further information on our project-based studentships and support for studentships is also available on our CENTA Studentship Information page.   

During the period that applications to CENTA are open you will be able to view details on all available CENTA projects on this website. Once you have decided on which project to apply for you will need to apply directly to the university that is hosting the project through their application system. Details of how to apply to each project can be found in the Further Details’ section of each individual project advert.  You will also need to ensure you submit the following documents:  

• A CENTA studentship application form 2026  (Word document – 717kb) 
• A CV with the names of at least two referees (preferably those who can comment on your academic abilities) 
• The application form of the university you are applying to.  This may be an online form or a form to complete and send to an email address. 
• Do not forget to complete the EDI survey via the link on the CENTA application form and to add in your receipt number to the application form. 

If applying for a project hosted at one of our Research Centre partners, you should apply via the partner university and inform the point of contact at the Research Centre. 

Applicants should be aware that the CENTA Studentship Application Form is used for the assessment of the application and therefore applicants should focus their efforts on the completion of this form rather than on any personal statement required on the host institution application portal. Please complete this form in full and do not skip any sections.  You must ensure that this form and your CV are attached to your application, as applications without the CENTA Studentship Application Form will be automatically rejected.   Forms must be completed without coaching / assistance of the project supervisor or use of chatbots.  

CENTA Studentship Application Forms are submitted to the host institution via their application portal.  They are then shared with CENTA admin in order to facilitate processing of candidates through the selection and offer process and processing of EDI data for reporting purposes.  

Deadline 

Please note: the application deadline for 2025 entry has now passed.  

Eligibility

Our project-based studentships are open to all applicants who meet the academic requirements (at least a 2:1 at UK BSc level or at least a pass at UK MSc level or equivalent).  

International Applicants 

UKRI allows international students to be eligible for studentships but only for a maximum of 30% of the cohort (please see.: https://www.ukri.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/UKRI-030221-Guidance-International-Eligibility-Implementation-training-grant-holders-V2.pdf). CENTA can only fund tuition fees at Home fee level.  Unless you are eligible for a Home award you will need to consider the potential gap between the home and international fee rate and contact the named supervisor of the project you apply for to discuss any support the hosting University may  offer you  (e.g., self-funded difference, or – if available – an international fee waiver).    

Please also note that CENTA cannot reimburse the costs of choosing to relocate to the UK if you are an International Student. These include visa fees (for you or your family), Immigration Health Surcharge fees, relocation fees, flights, accommodation, taxes and other expenses accrued as part of coming to live and study in the UK. Please ensure you have considered what the likely costs might be and how you will meet them if you are choosing to relocate to the UK. 

For more information about likely costs, visa and other regulations affecting international students, please contact the international student office of your intended host university 

Interviews  

Applications to CENTA project-based studentship are considered by a local university-based recruitment team.  If successful at the shortlist stage, you will be invited to an interview. CENTA interviews normally take place during early February each year.  At present CENTA interviews are conducted online. 

Applications to our CSOS studentships for 2026 entry are now open. 

Webinar

Coming soon: we are planning to hold an information webinar for prospective CSOS applicants in November.  Please keep checking back here for further information.

General information

In order to address a historical imbalance, it is our ambition to offer up to 3 fully-funded scholarships to Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME) Home-award-eligible applicants who meet the academic requirements.

These scholarships are awarded to candidates prior to any project development. Please note international students are not eligible to apply via this route and should apply via the project-based route outlined above. 

The CSOS provides funding that is not attached to any specific project at the point of award, with the understanding that you use the CSOS to give you the flexibility to co-develop a tailored project in a research area that interests you, with a supervisor from within the CENTA network.  Please note, CENTA is funded by NERC – we can only fund projects which are within the NERC funding remit.  For example, we do not fund medical research.  

If your application is successful, CENTA will help you to identify and select an appropriate supervisor, who will collaborate with you to shape your PhD project.

In the 2026 recruitment round, for autumn 2026 entry, we aim to fund up to three studentships through the CSOS route, but are only able to host a maximum of one CSOS studentship at any one of our ‘host institutions’ (university or Research Centre partners)*.  Therefore we ask you to indicate on your application form which CENTA ‘host institutions’ (universities or research centres) might be a good fit for you by identifying at least one potential CENTA supervisor with whom you would be interested in working.  You may indicate more than one supervisor per institution if you wish. You are not tied to any supervisors you list – this is simply a means for CENTA to learn at the application stage which hosting institutions are potential fits for you. To help with this we have provided a series of accordions below containing information on the NERC remit areas covered at our different partners and how to find out information about our partners.

*In the 2026 recruitment round we may have an additional limited number of CSOS studentships available which must commence no later than the start of July 2026.  If you are interested and available to start on or before 1^st July 2026 then you will be able to indicate this on the CSOS studentship application form. Please note that all CSOS applicants, regardless of whether you tick this box on the application form or not, will be considered for our CSOS studentship opportunities commencing in autumn 2026.  Therefore if you tick this box and we are able to offer you a studentship, this may be for either a July 2026 start or an autumn 2026 start.   

If you are interested in any of the CENTA projects that have been advertised, you may apply directly to that project as well, through the separate project-based studentship pathway (see above).

How to Apply

To apply for a CSOS scholarship you will need to send:

• A CSOS Application Form 2026 (Word document – 98.2Kb) and
• A CV with the names of at least two referees (ideally those who can comment on your academic abilities)

to: [email protected]

Please do not forget to complete the EDI survey via the link on the CENTA application form and to add in your receipt number to the application form. 

Deadline

The deadline for applications to CSOS for 2026 entry is 23:59 on Monday 5th January 2026.

Please note this is a different deadline to the deadline for applications to our advertised projects.

Eligibility

Our CSOS scholarships are open to all home-award-eligible BAME applicants who meet the academic requirements (at least a 2:1 at UK BSc level or at least a pass at UK MSc level or equivalent).  

To be classed as a home student, candidates must meet the following criteria:

• Be a UK National (meeting residency requirements), or 
• Have settled status, or 
• Have pre-settled status (meeting residency requirements), or 
• Have indefinite leave to remain or enter, or
• Be an Irish National 

If a candidate does not meet the criteria above, they would be classed as an International student and would not be eligible to apply for a CSOS.

(For further information please see Annex B of this document from UKRI: https://www.ukri.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/UKRI-020424-TrainingGrantTermsConditionsGuidanceApril2024.pdf )  

Interviews  

At present we expect that interviews for CSOS studentships will take place during the period 15th-20th January 2026, although this may be subject to change.

If you’re offered a scholarship

If you are offered a studentship, CENTA will put you in contact with academics you will have indicated on your application form, or with other suitable academics at the same institution or research centre, who will, with your help, design a suitable project for you. There may therefore be projects offered by a number of supervisors at different institutions or research centres. By mid-February, you should be able to decide which one you would like to work on. CENTA will support you in this process.  

Successful candidates on both pathways will be made a conditional offer in late February or early March. 

The annual universal acceptance deadline for NERC PhD studentship offers is this year expected to be at  12 noon GMT, Wednesday 18th March 2026.  The purpose of the annual universal acceptance deadline is to ensure that PhD applicants who have applied for multiple studentship opportunities, and may therefore receive multiple offers, do not have to make a decision on the studentship they wish to accept before knowing the outcome of all of their applications.  

Applicants who receive a PhD studentship offer from a NERC DTP or CDT for the forthcoming academic year are therefore not required to accept an offer formally before this date unless they wish to do so.  

Please contact the CENTA Manager at [email protected]  for more information.