Postgraduate Research

Research Studentships

Supporting Our Researchers

Postgraduate students are an integral part of our research community. They work alongside talented academics and researchers from around the world, contributing to our growing reputation for internationally excellent research.

To help you fund your studies and achieve your career goals, we offer a range of scholarships and funded project-specific studentships across various disciplines, giving you the chance to get involved in some of the exciting research projects taking place at Lincoln. We are also offering exciting opportunities through our doctoral training partnerships and centres, which bring together academic expertise and cutting-edge resources to help deliver innovative and transformative research.

Current Research Studentships

Agri-food and Artificial Intelligence (SUSTAIN)

PhD Studentships

UKRI AI Centre For Doctoral Training in Sustainable Understandable Agri-food Systems Transformed by Artificial Intelligence (SUSTAIN)

Applications are invited for fully-funded four-year PhD studentships to join the SUSTAIN doctoral training programme conducting research in the application of artificial intelligence to sustainable agri-food. There are 12 studentships available as part of the first cohort, starting in October 2024.

Successful students will study a four-year PhD at their chosen host institution (either the University of Lincoln, University of Aberdeen, Queen’s University Belfast, or the University of Strathclyde), investigating a research area that links both an identified industry need and individual academic interests, helping to develop a new generation of AI systems across the food supply chain.

You can explore the projects available at https://www.sustain-cdt.ai/research.

Project Background

Bringing together the expertise and resources of four academic institutions, SUSTAIN spans the landscape of UK agriculture, critical AI research areas, and the national geography of England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. It provides training in technical and social science aspects of AI, alongside training in plant, animal and/or biosciences, tailored to individual students’ needs and interests.

This is your chance to make a real difference by helping to address the challenges facing the global agri-food industry, through application and/or consideration of AI, climate change, population growth, political pressures affecting migration, and the demographics of an ageing population.

Associated Training

A cohort-based, integrated research training programme will take place throughout the four-year PhD, to include tailored training pathways in computation and data, animal science, agronomy, sustainable land management, and responsible innovation. SUSTAIN will deliver training in several formats, designed to meet the research development needs and learning styles of individual students. Students can also benefit from participation in the CDT’s annual summer schools and conferences.

How to Apply

Recruitment for October 2024 entry is now open, and applications close at midnight on 25 February 2024.

Full details on how to apply can be found at https://www.sustain-cdt.ai/vision.

Chemistry

PhD Studentship

Investigation of structural reconstruction of metal-organic thin films under electrocatalytic conditions: catalyst or pre-catalyst?

Supervisory Team: Dr Souvik Roy, University of Lincoln 

Applications are invited for outstanding candidates to join our 3-year PhD programme at the University of Lincoln's School of Chemistry. Applicants are invited from motivated and enthusiastic candidates with undergraduate/Master's degree level studies in chemistry, ideally inorganic, material, organic or physical, who are interested in interdisciplinary and collaborative science. 

The PhD programme will have a focus on studying metal-organic framework (MOF)-based electrodes for energy related applications.

Candidates are expected to start their position on 1 April 2024, or as soon as possible after the intended date.

Project Background

The development of electrochemical technologies is attracting considerable interest due to their growing part in renewable energy conversion and the storage and decarbonisation of the energy sector.

Application of metal-organic frameworks in electrochemical systems is an emerging area because of the unique capabilities of these materials, including modularity, molecularly defined structure, and large number of accessible active sites. The concepts of MOFs in electrocatalysis are still underdeveloped, with open questions about their electrochemical stability and structural reconstruction under operation conditions.

Aims

To augment the fundamental understanding of how MOFs operate as electrocatalysts through a combination of ex-situ and in-situ techniques, with the findings guiding the design of the next generation of MOF electrocatalysts. 

The project will focus on:

  • Designing, synthesising, and characterisation of new linkers and metal-organic frameworks
  • Developing and optimising methods for integrating metal-organic frameworks into mesoporous electrodes and investigate their electrocatalytic properties
  • Developing in-situ spectroscopic tools to probe the electrode materials at molecular level. 

Person Specification and Requirements

Applicants will have an Honours or Master's degree in chemistry or relevant areas of research, with a background and interest in coordination chemistry, electrochemistry, and materials science. They will have excellent communication skills, the ability to conduct self-motivated and independent research, and preference will be given to students with hands-on research experience. 

About the School of Chemistry at Lincoln

The School of Chemistry is located in the Joseph Banks Laboratories, and is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities for material synthesis, characterisation, and catalyst testing. The School has heavily invested in infrastructure to support our Advanced Functional Materials research group and, in recent years, in the existing electrochemical infrastructure for both laboratory-based and in-situ characterisation. The School also has direct access to the newly opened ERDF co-funded research facility for advanced engineering materials, 'The Bridge', that houses state-of-the-art microscopes (SEM, TEM, AFM).

Funding

A tax-free stipend of ca. £18,622 p.a. for 3 years is provided, alongside the payment of all University fees for home students. Non-home students would be required to secure funding for the additional international fees, and should clarify this in their cover letter. 

How to Apply

Applications including a covering letter and CV should be directly sent to chemistry@lincoln.ac.uk with the subject title “Studentship 1AB-2CA-800028”.

For any informal enquiries, please contact Dr Souvik Roy at sroy@lincoln.ac.uk.

Health and Science

PhD Studentship

Microplastic Contamination as a Threat to Human Health

Supervisory Team: Prof Jeanette Rotchell

This PhD aims to firstly examine the presence, distribution, levels, types, and targeted impacts of microplastics within the human body. A second aim is to relate the findings to a mathematical modelling approach to predict the distribution of microplastics within the body.

It is already established that microplastics are present in many tissues within the body and our earlier work has produced datasets for human lung, blood, and urine. Previous studies have focused on specific tissue types, have used a variety of isolation and characterisation techniques, and this has resulted in a patchwork of datasets. This study will take a holistic approach and use three commonly adopted microplastic characterisation techniques available at the University of Lincoln; micro-FTIR, Raman and SEM, to calibrate the findings. The techniques will allow polymer, size and shape characterisation which can inform the subsequent stage of biological effects investigation.

The second element involves mathematical modelling to explore the possibility of predicting microplastic particle fate within the body based on their properties and the size dimensions of the various transport systems within the body.

Training and Development

The successful candidate will receive comprehensive research training including technical, personal and professional skills.

All researchers at University of Lincoln are part of the Doctoral College and College of Health and Science wider postgraduate community, which provides support with high quality training and career development opportunities.

Funding

A tax-free stipend of ca. £18,622 p.a. (in monthly instalments). The fees are £4,712.

Entry requirements for applicants to PhD

A bachelor’s (honours) degree in a relevant discipline/subject area with a minimum classification of 2:1 and a minimum mark of 60% in the project element (or equivalent), and the potential to engage in innovative research, and to complete the PhD within 3.5 years.

How to Apply

To find out more about the project, please contact Professor Jeanette Rotchell, jrotchell@lincoln.ac.uk

Applications will require a two page CV and a 2000-word supporting statement, showing how the applicant's expertise and interests are relevant to the project. 

Mathematics and Physics

PhD Studentship

Implementation of GPU-accelerated simulations for real time propagated excited states and applications to organometallic photochemistry

Supervisors: Professor Matt Watkins, School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Lincoln and Dr Joshua Elliott & Dr Sofia Diaz-Moreno, Department of Physical Science, Diamond Light Source Ltd.

4-year Fully Funded PhD Studentship developing real-time time-dependent density functional theory simulations of photoactive organometallic compounds.

Diamond Light Source is the UK’s national synchrotron science facility. By accelerating electrons to near light-speed, Diamond generates brilliant beams of light from infra-red to X-rays which are used for academic and industry research and development across a range of scientific disciplines including structural biology, physics, chemistry, materials science, engineering, earth and environmental sciences.

Summary

Applications are welcome for a four-year funded PhD studentship jointly held at the School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Lincoln and the Spectroscopy Group at Diamond Light Source starting October 2023. The Studentship will focus on developing GPU parallelised routines for Real-Time Propagated Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory with the Open Source CP2K software and their application to Pump and Probe spectroscopy data collected at the I18 Microfocus beamline.

Background

Understanding, on an atomic scale, how light-activated processes drive chemical reaction mechanisms, local geometric rearrangements and charge transfer reactions will be pivotal in engineering next-generation devices and overcoming our overreliance on carbon-positive technology. X-ray pump and probe spectroscopy is a critical tool for probing light-induced reaction mechanisms and photo-excited states. However, this type of experiment typically provides data of seldom observed chemical states and therefore, further analysis and characterisation can be highly challenging.

First-principles simulations can be focal in interpreting experimental spectroscopic data collected at Diamond Light Source. Real-Time Propagation Time-Dependent DFT has emerged as a powerful and viable means to investigate the time evolution of excited states subject to a time-dependent electromagnetic field.

Project Description

The studentship targets the acceleration of the RTP-TDDFT routines within the CP2K code through GPU parallelisation. RTP-TDDFT will be deployed to provide insight into the fundamental dynamical excited state properties of organo-transition metal complexes of particular interest to the facilities’ user communities. In addition, it will implement an automated framework for RTP-TDDFT simulations of more generalised materials across different High-Performance Computing facilities available to Diamond Light Source scientists and users.

Further Information

Diamond Light Source Ltd holds an Athena SWAN Bronze Award, demonstrating their commitment to provide equal opportunities and to advance the representation of women in STEM/M subjects: science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine.

How to Apply

We seek a highly motivated student interested in research software development and materials science to join our team. Interested applicants are asked to provide an up-to-date CV and a one to two page cover letter outlining their scientific background, expertise and research interests and the names ad contact details of two references to Joshua.elliott@diamond.ac.uk and MWatkins@lincoln.ac.uk. Informal enquiries are also encouraged.

The position will remain open until a suitable candidate is found.

Lincoln Joins Social Sciences Partnership

The University of Lincoln has joined the South and East Network for Social Sciences (SENSS) Doctoral Training Partnership with a number of other leading UK universities to help train the next generation of social scientists via a range of fully funded research studentships.

Discover More About the Partnership
A student taking part in a practical session
Two students working with the Thorvald robot in a greenhouse

Research Spotlight

New Centre for Doctoral Training

In collaboration with leading partner institutions, the University of Lincoln has secured £10.6m in funding to establish a transformative Centre for Doctoral Training to support innovative research in the application of Artificial Intelligence to sustainable agri-food. A range of fully funded studentships is now available.

Contact the Postgraduate Team

University of Lincoln
Brayford Pool Campus
Lincoln
LN6 7TS

pgenquiries@lincoln.ac.uk

+44 (0)1522 886644