2027 Studentships

The UKRI AI Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Responsible and Trustworthy in-the-world Natural Language Processing is open to applications for studentships starting in September 2027 for our Designing Responsible NLP integrated PhD training programme.

For our 2027 studentships we have changed our application process compared to previous years, introducing a two-stage application process. The deadline for the Stage 1 of applying is midnight (GMT) on the 30th November 2026. You must submit an application by this first deadline to be eligible to be invited to make a full application for the Stage 2 (deadline in January 2027).

All of our studentships are fully funded with stipend, tuition fees waived, and a substantial support grant for travel, equipment, materials and to undertake placements with partners.

Following its pilot last year, the CDT expects to offer an enhanced stipend of £30,000 per year for students with Home fee status (as defined by UKRI) who are starting in September 2027. This is part of the UK Government’s TechFirst scheme (formerly referred to as TechExpert). Applicants with Overseas fee status are not eligible for this funding, and will receive the standard UKRI stipend rate (£21,805 as of 26/27). We provide more information on TechFirst and TechExpert funding here: https://www.responsiblenlp.org/techexpert-funding-for-home-fees/

Please visit the How to Apply page to find information on what you need to prepare for your application.

We are aiming to recruit all our students (Home and Overseas fee status) for the 2027 studentships through this deadline. We may be advertising an additional deadline just for home fees applicants – however, we strongly advise all applicants to apply for this Stage 1 deadline.

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How to Apply

About our training programme

Our students will gain the skills, knowledge and experience to study and design real-world applications of NLP in a highly interdisciplinary training environment, hosted by the new Edinburgh Futures Institute. The training programme brings together world-leading researchers at the University of Edinburgh in informatics, design, linguistics, speech science, psychology, law, philosophy, information science and digital humanities, who will supervise students and guide them in their training and learning.

The CDT will be seeking to fund approximately 10-12 studentships in each cohort, with the ambition to create cohorts of students that come from different backgrounds and disciplines. We are looking for applicants with a background in or related to:

  • Computer science, informatics and artificial intelligence
  • Design, human-computer interaction and human centred computing
  • Language, linguistics and speech sciences
  • Law, governance and regulation
  • Digital humanities and information science

These are just indicative, and we are interested in applicants who come from any background or discipline with relevant skills and expertise that connect to our five Skills Domains.

As well as the information on this page, please also look at the following links if you’re interested in applying:

What will being a student in our CDT be like?

Widening academic skillsets: The training programme is a four-year PhD with “integrated training” – this means during the four years of the PhD you will be taking credit-bearing courses at the University of Edinburgh to develop specific skills related to researching and creating real-world NLP applications that are responsible and trustworthy by design.

Some of these courses are mandatory for all students in a cohort to take together, and will cover topics such as: research methods related to studying responsible NLP; working in interdisciplinary teams with partners; the ethical dimensions of data and AI; how to analyse real-world applications of NLP, and conducting your first individual research project.

Beyond this, at the start of your PhD you will also be guided through a training needs analysis – this will identify which of our Skills Domains you’d like to develop both specialist and foundational skills in. Then, during the first two years of your PhD, we will guide you to take additional courses from across the University related to these areas for you to further develop these skills. This will primarily consist of courses from our School of Informatics, School of Philosophy, Psychology & Language Sciences, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh Law School, and the Edinburgh Futures Institute.

Public and industry engagement: You will also have opportunities to develop public engagement and communication skills (including sharing your work in an annual CDT festival associated with the Edinburgh Science Festival), to develop skills in working with other students coming from very different backgrounds, and to work with some of our 70+ CDT Partners. There will also be periods during your PhD where you can go on placement at a partner, experience a paid internship (for non-UK students this will be dependent on visa requirements), and apply for additional training related to starting a business, a social enterprise, or developing policy in government based on your PhD work.

Being part of a world-leading community: On top of all this, in the day-to-day of the CDT you will be physically based with your fellow CDT students in the Edinburgh Futures Institute. Here you will be co-located with a number of other high-profile research programmes (such as BRAID and the new Generative AI Lab), and with many of the CDT Partners who have a base within the building.

Benefits for CDT students

  • A fully funded four-year studentship, covering tuition fees and an annual stipend. For Overseas fees students the stipend will be set at the UKRI stipend rate (which was £21,805 per year for 2026/27). Home fees eligible students receive an enhanced stipend of £30,000 per year as part of TechFirst.
  • Approximately £17,000 for travel, equipment and materials, £8,000 for Placements, and additional funding towards compute and hosting costs per student.
  • Supervision from at least two supervisors from different disciplines, based in world-leading research groups, labs and units across the University of Edinburgh.
  • Interdisciplinary training programme with a focus on team collaboration and working on real-world projects with external partners.
  • Opportunities for placements and internships with our 70+ CDT partners.
  • Tailored training in public engagement, start-up and social enterprise creation, leadership skills, and responsible and ethical AI and NLP.
  • Wide variety of CDT events throughout the year, including seminar series, masterclasses, summer school, conferences, guest lectures and industry days.
  • Being embedded in the vibrant world-class and interdisciplinary research community within the Edinburgh Futures Institute, and access to cutting-edge computational, design, fabrication and testing, facilities across the School of Informatics, Edinburgh College of Art and EPCC.
  • Opportunities to connect and collaborate with students at the University of Edinburgh’s CDTs, including the new CDT in Biomedical Innovation and the Centre for Technomoral Futures PhD Fellows.

Minimum requirements for applicants

We expect successful applicants will have at least a 2:1 (upper second class) Undergraduate and/or a Master’s degree in a relevant subject to the focus of the CDT (see list above). We also welcome applicants who do not meet these requirements, but can demonstrate suitability for the training programme based on extensive professional experience or from working in research posts.

How to apply

As of the 2027 studentship competition, we are conducting a two-stage application approach . We have provided the following resources to help with the development of applications:

We also held webinars for potential applicants for the 2024, 2025 and 2026 studentships. While we will be holding new webinars for the 2027 studentships soon, recordings of these previous webinars might still be useful to review: https://www.responsiblenlp.org/applicant-webinars/