This latest round of the Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarship is part of a suite of funding opportunities to mark the Leverhulme’s centenary.
For this round of the scheme, Leverhulme offers awards to fund up to 30 doctoral scholarships per institution. Ten awards will be made in this round. Applications to the scheme will be accepted from consortia of a maximum of two universities, as well as from single universities.
- Oxford is able to submit one application as lead - whether as a single applicant, or as the lead in a consortium
- Oxford can also apply to the scheme as non-lead partner in multiple consortia applications
Each award will fund up to 30 doctoral scholarships
- 18 four-year Leverhulme Centenary Doctoral Scholarships at UK/home rates
- 6 four-year scholarships at international/overseas rates
The above 24 scholarships will be offered at 8 per year.
- Additionally, institutions can apply for up to 6 additional five-year scholarships (masters-plus PhD) to fund students from a low-income and/or a Black background.
The value of individual scholarships can be found on the Leverhulme Trust's funding webpage, under “What the Trust offers”. Please note that lead applicants are expected to work with their divisional offices, to ensure that their application complies with the University’s Graduate Access Strategy.
New for this round of the Scheme, the Leverhulme offers additional funding for:
- Cohort building activity (up to £75,000)
- Post-doctoral support of the LCDS graduates (up to £400,000)
- Administrative support (up to £225,000)
As Oxford is only able to lead one application, Research Services will run an internal process to select the application that will be put forward to the Leverhulme Trust: in order to be considered for the scheme, the applicant lead should submit an expression of interest to the Strategic Research Development Team in Research Services (srd.team@admin.ox.ac.uk) before Oxford’s internal deadline of 12.00pm on Thursday 6 November 2025. Applications will be assessed by a cross-divisional panel.
Oxford’s internal deadline is intended to provide sufficient time for the successful applicant to write a full proposal before the scheme closes (6 March 2026), and for other applicants to tactically partner with another university.
Further information about the scheme can be found on the Leverhulme Trust’s funding webpage.
Guidelines on how to submit an expression of interest to Oxford's internal process can be found here:
Oxford Guidelines
Please note that individual graduate students cannot directly apply to this Scheme. If the Leverhulme Trust grants a Doctoral Scholarship Award to Oxford, as a result of the above process, details will be advertised to departments, faculties and students as applicable.
