University College London Research Excellence Scholarship (UCL-RES) in UK

The UCL’s prestigious Research Excellence Scholarship (UCL-RES) aims to attract outstanding scholars to undertake doctoral research at UCL.

For the 2027/28 academic year, up to 40 fully funded UCL Research Excellence Scholarships (UCL-RES) are available to exceptional applicants from any country.

Applicants must be prospective UCL MPhil/PhD or EngD students starting on or after 1 October 2027. Current students who began their studies before this date are not eligible to apply.

To APPLY, you must:

• have submitted a complete admission application to an eligible** full- or part-time degree programme at UCL by the scholarship deadline;

• hold or expect to achieve at least an upper second-class Honours UK undergraduate degree or equivalent qualification.

To be AWARDED IF SELECTED, you must:

• be in receipt of an offer of admission to a full-time or part-time research degree programme at UCL.

• The UCL-RES scholarship consists of full tuition fees (either Home or Overseas) plus a maintenance stipend during the research portion of the programme, which increases each year with inflation.

• For 2026/27, the stipend rate is £23,805 for full-time study (rates are calculated 'pro rata' for part-time students). For 2027/28, the stipend rate is to be confirmed.

• The scholarship also includes additional research costs of up to £1,200 per year for the standard duration of the research portion of the programme.

The mandatory documents are as follows: 

• Your academic department will compile your CV, research proposal, academic transcripts, and references from your admission application.  

• After submitting these documents for your admission application, you will not need to resend them to your academic department directly for your UCL-RES application.   

• Your academic department will combine these documents with your cover sheet to create a complete scholarship application to be reviewed.    

To apply for the UCL-RES, you must complete the following steps: 

Step 1 - apply for admission to UCL

You must submit a complete application for admission to an eligible degree programme by 8 January 2027. You do not need to have secured an offer of a place at UCL to apply for the scholarship, but you must have submitted a complete admission application.

Step 2 - submit your Research Scholarships cover sheet to your academic department

You must contact your academic department/institute/division/unit to notify them that you would like to be considered for the UCL-RES and submit the document below to them.

You can use this list of faculty and department contacts to find the contact details for your department. Please contact the administrator or your supervisor for guidance on where to send your application document.

You must submit both a completed admission application and a completed Research Scholarships cover sheet to your academic department no later than Friday, 8th January 2027.