PhD scheme

Application Form Euan MacDonald Centre PhD Studentship 2026 

Supporting postgraduates is a key part of the Euan MacDonald Centre’s mission. We are passionate about encouraging, training and equipping the MND researchers of the future.

The Centre has an active community of postgraduate students and post-doctoral researchers who benefit from sharing knowledge with other MND researchers and people living with MND by attending Centre events and MND-related conferences.

Euan MacDonald Centre funded PhDs

Through the generosity of our donors and fundraisers, the Centre normally funds one or two non-clinical PhD studentship per year.

Applications for Centre-funded PhDs normally open in the Autumn of each year for programmes starting the following Autumn.

A range of projects is offered by Centre Principal Investigators, based at a University in Scotland. Project choices usually include basic (laboratory), clinical and social science.

The best student is chosen on the basis of application, interview and references, and then chooses the project he or she is most interested in.

What does the studentship include?

• UKRI-equivalent stipend for 3.5 years
• University tuition fees
• a generous allowance for travel and consumables (£10K per year for three years)
• oversight by a second supervisor and thesis committee
• access to all training and support available to postgraduates at the chosen University

An enriched experience

Because Euan MacDonald Centre funded students become part of our wide-ranging multi-disciplinary network, we are able to offer additional experiences and training that include opportunities to:

• shadow an MND Nurse Specialist, meet people with MND, and attend an MND clinic and/or home visit
• attend and present at six-monthly seminar afternoons featuring a wide range of Centre research
• obtain bursaries to present data at national and international MND-related meetings
• gain experience in public engagement by participating in open days and MND Awareness events.
• access the Centre’s communications pipeline to promote the student’s research

How to apply and deadlines

Step 1

Explore the projects listed below and decide which you are most interested in and best suited for. You can apply for up to 3 projects, although applying for more than 1 will not increase your chances of success.

You can contact the listed supervisors if you have questions or would like to request an informal discussion before applying.

Contact two people who know you in an academic or professional capacity to ask them to be your referees. Your referees should not be connected with the project(s) you are applying for. We will only request a reference if you are invited to interview; in this case we will contact your referees directly in early February and ask them to submit a reference within 2 weeks.

Step 2

Prepare answers to the questions on the application form. We strongly advise you to prepare and save your answers offline, in case of temporary difficulties with the online form.

The questions are shown here: Euan MacDonald Centre studentship 2026 application form questions (download Microsoft Word doc)

When you are ready, paste your answers into the Microsoft Forms application form and submit by the deadline of 17:00 UK time on Thurs 22nd January 2026.

Application Form Euan MacDonald Centre PhD Studentship 2026 

• If you can't complete the form in one go, you can save and come back to it later
• You can also edit your answers after submission, as long as it is before the deadline
• You can enter special characters such as Greek symbols by using ALT codes. However do not worry if you have problems doing this, just write out symbols as words.
• When you submit you will receive an automated acknowledgement

Step 3

All applicants will receive an update on their application by mid-February 2026. Please refrain from contacting us asking for a progress update before then. 

Successful candidates will be invited to interview, and we will contact referees to ask for a reference. Unfortunately we are only able to invite a small number of candidates to interview, based on the supervisors' assessment of your application. 

Interviews will be online on Microsoft Teams. The date is not yet finalised, but is likely to be late February or early March 2026. You will be given at least 2 weeks notice of interview attendance.

Step 4

The best candidate at interview will be offered the studentship. This individual will then be supported to apply for the relevant PhD programme at their chosen University, The start date is by mutual agreement between the supervisor and student, but will usually be around September 2026.

Projects on offer for 2026 entry

Application FAQs

Alumni destinations

This is what the previous Euan MacDonald Centre-funded students have gone on to do after completing their PhD.