Research Postgraduate Studies

PhD Vacancies

During the year the College has a large number of vacancies for funded and non-funded doctoral research degrees (PhDs). An up-to-date listing can be found on our PhD Vacancies Database.

View Current Vacancies

Research within the College is founded on strong academic disciplines, and ranges from fundamental research to applied projects, working closely with industry. There are strong links between disciplines, and a number of research themes span disciplines across the College and the University.

The College has a truly international perspective on its research activities, with a number of internationally renowned and internationally active staff, and an increasing number of formal international research collaborations. These include the International Technology Alliance in Network and Information Sciences - a consortium of 24 UK and US universities and companies, led by IBM. The following senior academics all hold Sixth Century Chair appointments at Aberdeen in addition to their posts at prestigious US institutions: Professor Katia Sycara (Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University), Professor Ron Steele (University of Texas at Austin, Geology), Professor Bob McMeeking (University of California Santa Barbara, Engineering), Professor Doug Price (University of Wisconsin at Madison, Archaeology), and Professor Neil Smith (CUNY, Geography).

The Scottish research pooling initiatives, which pull together research strengths in various disciplines across Scotland, encourage and enable collaboration with partners in other Scottish research universities. The College is a partner in the Scottish Research Partnership in Engineering (SRPe) through the Northern Research Partnership (NRPe), the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA), Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (SULSA), the Scottish Alliance for Geoscience, Environment and Society (SAGES), the Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA), and is an associate member of ScotChem, the Scottish Chemistry Alliance. Discussions of a Mathematics research pooling initiative, involving the leading research groups in pure mathematics across Scotland, are currently ongoing. The pooling initiatives provide excellent opportunities for postgraduate students and researchers to interact and network with colleagues in other leading research universities across Scotland. Many offer funding for postgraduate studentships – please check their websites for details.

Interdisciplinary research at Aberdeen is encouraged through a number of research centres and institutes, such as the Water Research Centre, the Centre for Transport Research, Institute of Energy Technologies, the Marine Biodiscovery Centre.

The College offers a supportive and dynamic environment for aspiring researchers – building on the recommendations of the Roberts Review and the UK Research Councils Joint Skills Statement. Discipline specific support and academic guidance is provided through supervisors and research groups, of which postgraduate students are an integral part.

Further details about research within the College can be found by following the links below:

• Archaeology
• Chemistry
• Computing Science
• Engineering
• Geography & Environment
• Geology & Petroleum Geology
• Mathematical Sciences
• Physics