DPhil Studentship – Investigating and Modelling Brain Dynamics Across Species University of Oxford in United Kingdom

[Covers course fees up to home-fee level, plus a tax-free stipend at the UKRI standard rate of £21,805 per annum, with additional support for research expenses and conference attendance. Overseas fee status students must fund the fee difference from other sources.]

DPhil Studentship in Computational and Translational Neuroscience at the University of Oxford

This funded DPhil project sits in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford and is part of the ERC-funded ROSETTA project. The studentship focuses on investigating and modelling brain dynamics across species, using a “functional coordinate system” to integrate neuroimaging findings across experiments, disorders, and species.

The successful candidate will join Dr Andrea Luppi’s research group. The group works at the intersection of multi-modal neuroimaging, consciousness science, information theory, network science, and whole-brain biophysical modelling. A central goal is to compare fMRI data across humans, macaques, and mice in order to understand species differences and improve cross-species translation.

The specific project will be refined with the candidate, but it is expected to centre on causal interventions from anatomy to function across species. Research will involve analysis of brain dynamics from fMRI datasets linked to targeted perturbations such as pharmacology (including anaesthetics and psychedelics) and brain stimulation, with an emphasis on macaque data, cross-species comparison, and whole-brain computational modelling.

Training will cover complex systems analysis of neural dynamics and networks, consciousness neuroscience, cross-species neuroimaging, whole-brain computational modelling, and NeuroAI. The project also offers experience with extensive in vivo databases combining whole-brain neuroimaging and causal interventions, as well as funded travel for collaboration visits to the Italian Institute of Technology. The group is connected to the Oxford Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing and collaborates with institutions including Cambridge, Imperial College London, the Italian Institute of Technology, NeuroSPIN (Paris), Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona), and the Montreal Neurological Institute.

Applicants should have at least an upper second-class honours degree or equivalent, and/or a relevant master’s degree in neuroscience, physics, computer science, engineering, or a related discipline. Experience of independent research is expected, and prior work with large neuroimaging datasets, data science, and computational/statistical programming in Python or MATLAB will strengthen an application. Strong communication and collaboration skills are important, and interdisciplinary applicants are especially encouraged.

The scholarship provides course fees up to home-fee level, a tax-free stipend at the UKRI standard rate of £21,805 per year, and additional support for research expenses and conference attendance. Overseas-fee applicants must secure funding for the fee difference from other sources. Applications must be submitted through the University of Oxford online graduate application form, together with all supporting materials and the £20 application fee. The submission deadline is 12:00 noon UK time on Friday 6 November 2026.