PhD, Master’s & Postdoc Opportunities in Polymer Science in United Kingdom

The University of Nottingham’s School of Chemistry is seeking research students for a 2026 Chemistry PhD. The programme supports independent, in-depth research addressing global challenges in cleaner energy, sustainable synthesis, new materials, healthcare and drug discovery. Research is organised around molecular bonding and spectroscopy, materials, synthesis and catalysis, and biological chemistry. Potential projects may involve chemical synthesis of bioactive natural products, novel catalyst ...

The University of Cambridge is offering a four-year 1+3 MRes/PhD studentship through the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Infrastructure and Built Environment: Unlocking Net Zero, in collaboration with Network Rail. The project investigates low-carbon cements and alternative cementitious binders for lower-strength and lower-risk applications across Great Britain's rail infrastructure. Potential applications include walkways and kerbs, blocks and pavers, drainage channels, cable troug...

The University of East Anglia is offering a full-time, three-year PhD studentship in N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC)-stabilised gold nanoclusters for intracellular catalysis, supervised by Dr Sophie Thomas. The project is based in Norwich, England, and starts on 1 October 2027. The research will develop water-soluble NHC ligands and atomically precise gold nanoclusters with tunable stability, solubility, catalytic activity, size, and surface properties. It will investigate how ligand structure affe...

The University of Oxford’s Department of Engineering Science invites applications for a fully funded 3.5-year DPhil studentship, Fatigue Failure of Target Graphite . The project focuses on graphite composite materials used as proton-beam targets for next-generation neutrino facilities, including DUNE. The research will investigate fatigue failure and degradation mechanisms in target graphite, develop new fatigue-testing methodologies, and study crack initiation and propagation under cyclic loadi...

Fully funded PhD opportunity at The University of Manchester, UK: The President's Doctoral Scholarship supports a four-year project titled Molecular Quantum Sensors for High-Resolution Immunomagnetic Mapping of Cancer Cells . The interdisciplinary research combines molecular chemistry, 2D materials , quantum sensing and cancer biology. The project will develop molecular quantum sensors based on spin-active organic molecules and use optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR), magnetic nanoparti...

The University of Bath is offering two exciting PhD opportunities in quantum science within Kristina Rusimova’s established and well-funded NanoBioPhotonics Research Group. The projects explore how light can be used to control individual molecules and investigate their quantum behaviour. Project 1: Loading the Quantum Dice: Controlling Matter One Molecule at a Time . Project 2: A Photon and a Molecule Walk into a Tunnel Junction: Quantum Optics Meets Single-Molecule Science . The opportunities a...

PhD project: Watching aggregation in liquids with terahertz spectroscopy The University of Southampton is offering a competition-funded Doctor of Philosophy project in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, focused on how molecular-scale dynamics connect to mesoscale structure in complex liquids. The research will use intense terahertz spectroscopy to monitor structural evolution as molecules or particles aggregate, separate into phases, or coalesce into larger domains. The work will ...

The University of Nottingham is offering a fully funded, four-year, full-time PhD studentship through the Net2Zero Centre for Doctoral Training. The project, “Development and Demonstration of a Laboratory-Scale Next Generation Multifunctional Reactor for Biochar Production and Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) Technology,” will contribute to innovative net-zero technologies. The successful candidate will design, manufacture and test a laboratory-scale multifunctional reactor capa...

The University of Nottingham is offering a four-year PhD CASE studentship investigating the interface material layer created during linear friction welding (LFW) of titanium alloys. The project will develop a fundamental understanding of thermo-mechanical effects and material flow within the high-strain-rate, high-temperature interface contact layer formed during LFW. It will examine links between process variables, process stability, machine and tooling behavior, flash extrusion, and the qualit...