We welcome proposals from supervisors based at our partner universities for PhD research projects in Materials 4.0. The research projects must fulfil two basic criteria:

1. they must develop a new capability, going beyond simply applying existing methods, that create new ways of working within the scope of Materials 4.0.
2. the capability developed must be applicable to multiple sub-domains of materials.

These criteria will ensure students develop the knowledge and skills required to drive impactful, ground-breaking research in materials science.

When planning a project proposal, potential supervisors should give due consideration for how to maximise the student’s enhanced training grant offered by the CDT that includes:

• research support:
  • high-performance laptop for computational work
  • equipment access and consumables for experimental work
• training support:
  • topic-specific training courses, both in-person and online
  • UK conferences relevant to the student’s research
  • an international conference relevant to the student’s research

• Round 1: Now Closed
• Round 2: Now Closed
• Round 3: Now Closed
• Round 4: Open; closes 12:00 Monday 30 March 2026

To submit a project to the CDT please complete either the webform, or fill in and email a Word document to doctoral-training@royce.ac.uk before the deadline.

• CDT Project Webform
• CDT Project Word document
• CDT Project Word document (Mac)

Do get in touch with your university co-investigator to discuss your submission, especially if you are an early-career researcher or are yet to secure industrial funding. You can also contact the Materials 4.0 CDT Team if you have questions about how the Centre will operate, your obligations as a supervisor, and potential industry contacts that the team can help with.