Coventry University Scholarships

Coventry University is currently offering fully funded scholarships for prospective Ph.D candidates, beginning in 2024.

All Coventry University Scholarships have been put together by leading researchers across the institution. Covering a breadth of disciplines and research areas. Our goal is to achieve ‘excellence with impact’ through our challenge-led, interdisciplinary Research Centres, boasting nearly 600 exceptional academics.

This means the research goes beyond just enhancing academic knowledge and effects real change in the wider world. Coventry University offers diverse PhD opportunities, from autonomous vehicles to sustainability, designed to inspire and engage participants effectively.

Coventry University Scholarship Details:

Host: Coventry University (UK)

Eligible Countries:

• All Countries.

Reward:

• Tuition.
• £18,000.
• IELTS waiver for those with (WAEC C6).
• Application fee waiver.
• Join the Doctoral College and Research Capability Center for quality training and career support, enriching your academic journey effectively.
• Technical, personal and professional skills.
• Additional allowance for training, conference attendance and fieldwork.

Start Date:

September 2024.

Entry Requirements:

Applicants must meet the admission and scholarship criteria for both Coventry University and Deakin University for entry to the cotutelle programme.

For B.Sc Holders:

• A minimum of a 2:1 first degree in a relevant discipline/subject area with a minimum 60% mark in the project element or equivalent with a minimum 60% overall module average. PLUS.
• The potential to engage in innovative research and to complete the PhD within 3.5 years.
• IELTS overall minimum score of 7.0 with a minimum of 6.5 in each component. OR WAEC C6 minimu

For M.Sc Holders:

• A Masters degree in a relevant subject area, with overall mark at minimum Merit level. In addition, the mark for the Masters dissertation (or equivalent) must be a minimum of 80%.
• The potential to engage in innovative research and to complete the PhD within a prescribed period of study.
• Please note that where a candidate has 70-79% and can provide evidence of research experience to meet equivalency to the minimum first-class honours equivalent (80%+) additional evidence can be submitted and may include independently peer-reviewed publications, research-related awards or prizes and/or professional reports.
• IELTS overall minimum score of 7.0 with a minimum of 6.5 in each component. OR, WAEC C6 minimum.

List of Fully Funded Programmes:

1. Fully Funded PhD Position in Critical geopolitics and international relations in South Asia:

This project analyzes geopolitical issues between South Asian nations, focusing on gender, environmental politics, grassroots border politics, soft diplomacy, and diaspora politics. Prospective candidates are also welcome to contact supervisors A/Profs. Yamini Narayanan (Deakin) and Serena Hussein (Coventry) with topics of their choice.

Deadline: 29 April, 2024

2. Fully Funded PhD Position in poor mental health: 

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recognised that wearables can improve mental health in the general population. Perinatal mental health research lacks support due to stigma, hindering advice extension to the perinatal period effectively. Importantly, recent studies have speculated a correlation between aberrant expression of lactogenic hormones and pathological changes in mood and sleep.

Deadline: 27 May 2024

3. Fully Funded PhD Position in Pathogen Transport in River Systems:

This project’s overarching aim is to expand current knowledge of human health risks from waterborne disease pathogen dispersal during flood events. Infectious diseases from waterborne pathogens (e.g., E. coli, norovirus, adenovirus, sapovirus) are estimated to cause between 1 and 2 million deaths each year. The anticipation, mitigation and prevention of flood-driven waterborne disease outbreaks requires suitable modelling approaches for predicting pathogen transport within riverine systems. This project’s vision is to realize a synoptic modelling approach, that enables and enhances preparedness against infectious disease outbreaks.

Deadline: 30 April 2024

3. Fully Funded PhD Position in Internal temperature sensing towards advanced thermal management for lithium-ion batteries:

Batteries tend to have elevated core temperatures, particularly under high currents, leading to uneven degradation, lithium plating, and safety risks. Here, this project will develop an advanced thermal management system through multi-objective optimization and sensing internal temperatures of batteries. 

Deadline: 27 May 2024

4. Fully Funded PhD Position in Hierarchical federated learning framework for safe and secure connected and autonomous vehicles:

Fuelled by the availability of more data and computing power, recent breakthroughs in cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) have transformed various aspects of our lives, including face recognition and medical diagnosis. However, this centralised approach is not suitable for connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) due to the reduced capacity of wireless links, long delays in exchanging data with the cloud, limited scalability, and data privacy concerns. To overcome these limits, federated learning (FL) has recently emerged to enable many clients to collaboratively train a model without sharing their local data.

Deadline: 29 April 2024

5. Fully Funded PhD Position in Electric Drives System of High Speed Permanent Magnet Motor Control:

This project aims to enhance the system performance of high-speed permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) drive which are critical in numerous applications including domestic appliances, aerospace, electric vehicles, and industrial automation, where high power rate and compact size are required. By increasing the motor speed, either boosting power output without altering motor size or maintaining the same power output while reducing motor dimensions is made possible.

Deadline: 27 May 2024

6. Fully Funded PhD Position in Feedback, attainment and underperformance in higher education (Deakin Starting)

A recent review identified that students’ prior level of achievement influences their engagement with feedback leading them to take up feedback opportunities differently. Who is able to elicit feedback and seek teacher support varies through any number of student characteristics and local circumstances. Feedback information may be worded differently for lower rather higher scoring papers. Significant questions remain around the intersections of feedback and performance. Understanding student engagement, particularly for those with low outcomes, remains inadequate in terms of inputs, processes, and their involvement.

Deadline: 29 April 2024

7. Fully Funded PhD Position in User-Centric and Network-Level Analysis of Remote Parking Strategies in Connected and Automated Vehicles:

In the rapidly evolving landscape of urban transportation, Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) have emerged as a groundbreaking innovation, reshaping the paradigms of parking in urban settings. As CAVs can operate without a human driver, they present revolutionary parking options, enabling vehicles to be dispatched to farther, possibly less crowded zones, thereby hinting at a reduced parking strain in central urban areas. This not only reimagines urban mobility but also introduces fresh challenges centered around user convenience and network traffic management.

Deadline: 25 April 2024

8. Fully Funded PhD Position in Shaping Modernity:

Focusing on these spaces and their functions as sites of creation, self-fashioning, new gender identities and sociality, this study’s key aim is to shed light on why and how the interconnectedness of such spaces made them multifaceted cultural loci for new projections of modernity. Considering the relevance and distinctiveness of the Belgian contexts, this PhD will examine the creation of semi-private exterior spaces, their uses by artists, and their broader significance, including beyond Belgium, as sites of cultural memory and identity-construction.

Deadline: 27 May 2024

9. Fully Funded PhD Position in Protective Security & Defence (Deakin University Led):

This is an exciting opportunity to study a PhD as part of a cotutelle arrangement between Coventry University, UK and Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. The PhD Student will graduate with two PhDs, one from Deakin University and one from Coventry University, each of which recognizes that the program was carried out as part of a jointly supervised doctoral program.

Deadline: 29 April 2024

10. Fully Funded PhD Position in Using Extended Reality (XR) to improve team performance and enhance training for maintenance of future vehicles:

The NTDC was launched in 2017 where we employ state-of-the-art visualisation and simulation techniques, and design tools to address future mobility challenges from bicycles, through autonomous cars to eVTOL aircraft. You will have the opportunity to work alongside our team of human factors experts, psychologists, designers and engineering experts who have led impactful AR / VR research. Including the development of customer experience AR / VR applications for the world’s first urban air transport hub, and the design and evaluation of novel AR displays for future commercial aviation cockpits. NTDC works closely with industry, presenting excellent opportunities for collaboration and the development of impactful research.

Deadline: 29 April 2024

11. Fully Funded PhD Position in Mechanistic insights into Family B G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) using SMA-like polymers:

The project will address this knowledge gap by focusing on the molecular pharmacology of three distinct CLR-containing GPCRs: calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor (CGRP-R; CLR-RAMP1), adrenomedullin 1 receptor (AM1-R; CLR-RAMP2) and adrenomedullin 2 receptor (AM2-R; CLR-RAMP3). Novel genetically-engineered mammalian cell system will be generated to study CLR-RAMPs molecular pharmacology. This will facilitate mechanistic insights, aid the rational design of chemical probes and potential therapeutics targeting CLR-RAMPs in the future.

Deadline: 27 May 2024

12. Fully Funded PhD Position in Evaluating Regional Specific Training Stimulus (RSTS) for people with COPD attending pulmonary rehabilitation:

This PhD project aims to evaluate the proof of concept and feasibility of an alternative paradigm of exercise training for older adults with COPD, incorporating low-mass, high-repetition training – ‘regional specific training stimulus’ (RSTS) – into existing programmes. Using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, this research has the potential to provide new directions for pulmonary rehabilitation programme design and exercise prescription for people with COPD.

Deadline: 27 May 2024

13. Fully Funded PhD Position in Post-Hurricane Damage and Recovery: A remote assessment of agricultural resilience in the Caribbean:

The purpose of this research is to conduct a regional assessment of all hurricanes that made landfall in the Caribbean, 2010-2020, to determine the overall impact of hurricanes on agriculture and the factors that contribute to agricultural loss. Utilising satellite imagery, a standardised methodology will be developed that will enable the short-term damage and long-term recovery of agricultural land to be identified, as well as compare hurricane events and farming systems. The findings of this research will drive innovations in resilience by determining disaster-resilient farming systems that are able to withstand and recover from future events.

Deadline: 27 May 2024

14. Fully Funded PhD Position in Towards reliable detection of uterine contraction

This interdisciplinary project aims to develop a wearable system with nanostructured biocompatible electrodes to achieve reliable recording of high-quality multi-channel EHG signals for UC detection. The measurable objectives include: 1) Develop a stretchable EHG electrode with high sensitively, elasticity and biocompatibility using different advanced nanomaterials and test it on an artificial skin model; 2) Develop a multi-channel EHG recording system to achieve reliable UC monitoring in different physiological conditions; 3) Record multi-channel EHG signals by the system being developed in this project and comprehensively evaluate their accuracy and sensitivity.

Deadline: 25 April 2024

15. Fully Funded PhD Position in A brain trauma injury model and assessment method to reduce pedestrians threat to life in vehicles of the future:

The Transport Safety and Simulation (TSS) research group focuses in modelling and assessing human chances of survival in transport collisions, studying the human safety and crashworthiness responses in future micro-mobility, investigating design and legislative changes yielding to safer transport, programming complex routines to extract soft tissue injuries and researching opportunities to cascade research findings at a global level to support ‘Vision Zero’. The TSS research group addresses future mobility safety challenges, from e-scooters, through autonomous vehicles to eVTOL aircraft, considering vulnerable road users (VRU), occupants, Advanced Driver assistance (ADAS) and vehicle structures. Our team consists of scientists with strong theoretical engineering and medical knowledge and industrial experience.

Deadline: 25 April 2024

16. Fully Funded PhD Position in Designing and Testing Safer Public Transport for Women

This 3.5-year doctorate, supported by the West Midlands Combined Authority, will aim to design safer and more inclusive public transport for women. You will have access to the cutting-edge facilities at the National Transport Design Centre and the Centre for Healthcare and Communities. You will also work with leading researchers and industrial designers to research, design and test your work in the real world. What’s more, you will collaborate with both UK and European gender-design experts through the supervisory teams’ extensive network.

Deadline: 27 May 2024

17. Fully Funded PhD Position in Integrated Sensing and Communications for Vehicular Networks

The integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) technology is expected to be one of the key enablers of the sixth generation (6G) of wireless networks. ISAC utilizes radio signals to detect and estimate object characteristics, with the network acting as a sensor of the environment.

Integrating disparate communication and sensing systems into one offers benefits like ubiquitous sensing, reduced power consumption, and lower costs. This can be particularly beneficial for connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs), which strongly rely on sensing and communication capabilities.

Deadline: 25 April 2024

18. Fully Funded PhD Position in Understanding and addressing the uptake of Rehabilitative, Assistive and Restorative Technologies by underserved communities:

This project seeks to explore and understand variability in the acceptance and adoption of rehabilitation, assistive and restorative technologies. The research will explore individual barriers to the use of such technologies, and identify patient groups in which technology is particularly under-utilised. Working with representative participant groups and stakeholders, the research will go on to co-create an action plan and technology design requirements to improve uptake and acceptance of technologies in under-served communities.

Deadline: 27 May 2024

19. Fully Funded PhD Position in AI enhanced 3D human body shape estimation and garment redressing from clothed 3D scan sequences:

To this end, two main subtasks are necessary: a) an accurate 3D body shape reconstruction, and b) dressing of the obtained body. An accurate 3D body shape can be obtained via 3D body scanning techniques. However, it is inconvenient and an infringement on the right to privacy to scan the undressed body directly. Existing methods of dressing the 3D body can be classified into two main categories: the physically based cloth simulation, and redressing garments from a template to another subject.

Deadline: 27 May 2024

20. Fully Funded PhD Position in Enhancing Healthcare Applications Through Cost-effective AI Solutions

The objective of this project is as follows: 1) Develop advanced deep active learning (DAL) algorithm to address the challenges posed by conventional methods; 2) Combine DAL with domain adaptation to reduce the annotation cost even further; 3) apply these algorithms to two healthcare applications: Uterine Contraction Identification and Cuffless Blood Pressure Estimation. This research marks a significant stride towards cost-effective AI, presenting a practical and impactful approach to advancing healthcare through innovative machine learning methodologies.

Deadline: 25 April 2024

21. Fully Funded PhD Position in Plastic Pollution as an Anthropogenic Threat to Human Health

This research explores how nano- and microplastics impact skeletal muscle function, providing vital insights into the health risks of plastic pollution. Recent evidence suggests that microplastics can accumulate in biological tissues, including SkM. Experts urge further research on plastic pollution’s effect on human health, particularly on skeletal muscle physiology and function.

Deadline: 27 May 2024

22. Fully Funded PhD Position in Interoception of breathing and the effects on the cortical control of balance:

Interoceptive pathways offer ripe opportunities for experimental manipu-lations of mind–body interactions, which can lead to promising interven-tions to reduce high levels of fear about falling. Breathing is profoundly in-fluenced by emotion and is one of the few physiological functions that can be volitionally controlled, potentially providing a powerful portal to entrain and modify high levels of fear. The proposed project brings together differ-ent disciplines (neuroscience, signal processing, physiology, and psychology) to probe the role of interoception (specifically breathing) in the generation of fear of falling. We will use neuroscientific techniques (such as electroen-cephalography [EEG]) to shed light on potential brain mechanisms involved in the interoception of breathing, and elucidate how these factors influence subjective fear and anxiety states.

Deadline: 27 May 2024

23. Fully Funded PhD Position in Pathophysiology of heart failure: the role of arterial stiffness and endothelial function

Heart failure occurs due to reduced cardiac function, leading to poor quality of life for patients and high mortality rates. Arterial stiffness and endothelial function are clinical hallmarks of heart failure, but further evidence is required to define their role in pathophysiology of cardiac dysfunction and exercise intolerance. The aim of the research programme is twofold; firstly, to evaluate and compare arterial stiffness, endothelial function, biomarkers and cardiovascular response to stress in different types of heart failure (i.e. Heart failure with preserved, mildly reduced, and reduced ejection fraction); and secondly, to evaluate the effect of pharmacological and/or lifestyle interventions on clinical phenotype in heart failure.

Deadline: 27 May 2024

24. Fully Funded PhD Position in Computational simulation of nanomedicine for coronary microvascular disease

This PhD project aims to create a new computational method for non-invasive, personalized optimization of nanomedicine for CMVD.

CFD simulations based on patient-specific imaging data will derive multimodal hemodynamic parameters to study coronary circulation physiologically. We will develop a multiphysics simulation model to investigate the features of nanomedicine distribution on the microvascular level. We’ll analyze clinical data to confirm the model’s accuracy in evaluating nanomedicine’s effectiveness for patients with CAD and CMVD.

Deadline: 25 April 2024

25.  Fully Funded PhD Position in Obstructive Sleep Apnoea and metabolic syndrome in different ethnicities

The prevalence of sleep apnoea is increasing globally; however, population-based studies have reported a wide variation of prevalence estimates, particularly from different ethnicities. Recent studies have examined how obstructive sleep apnea independently contributes to metabolic issues like obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia.

Deadline: 27 May 2024

Please review the entry requirements and deadline for each project, as they vary by program. Ensure you reach out to the Counsellor approved for each program for application guidelines.