PhD studentships

Our PhD studentship scheme aims to encourage the best students to become involved in hearing, deafness and tinnitus research in the UK.

The projects should bring tangible benefits closer for deaf people and those who have hearing loss or tinnitus.

This year we are working with Cochlear Ltd to co-fund studentships in the area of cochlear implant and other implantable acoustic devices research.

We also encourage applications for part-funded PhD studentships. This may be with the host institute or an external partner (e.g. another funding body, charity or company).

Summary of grant

Deadline: Wednesday 15 July 2026 (17:00 BST)
Duration: 3 years
Eligibility: Students and supervisors must be based at a recognised UK university or research institute
Value: £99,949 (outside London), or £105,949 (London). Applications for partial funds will also be considered where the outstanding funds are/will be applied for from the host institute or an external source.

In the last round of funding (2025), we received 13 applications and awarded 4 studentships.

Application procedure

All applications should be submitted via our online grants management system, Flexi-Grant. There’s guidance on Flexi-Grant about how to complete your application.

If you have any questions about the scheme, please contact us at least three working days before the deadline so that we have time to help you.

Please note that as part of the application process, you are required to obtain approval to submit from an authorised representative at your institution. We will not extend the deadline to allow you to secure this approval, so please allow plenty of time for this. See the Flexi-Grant user guide (below) for more details.

You can download the call and guidelines for 2027, our standard terms and conditions (subject to review) and other useful documents below:

Please note that applications must be submitted by the proposed supervisor.

Selection procedure

Eligible proposals will be reviewed by at least two (ideally three) external referees in the field, who are asked to rate the application and answer the following questions: 

In what way is the research area novel, timely and relevant to RNID?  
Comment on the quality of the submission, the background information and the experimental design of the project
How appropriate is this project for a PhD study?
Is the project time-scale reasonable?
Based on the reputation of the supervisor(s), mentor and centre, is the student likely to receive appropriate training/guidance?
If the proposed work involves the use of animals, do you consider the work to be ethically acceptable and appropriately designed?
If the proposed work involves human volunteers, do you consider the work to be ethically acceptable and appropriately designed?

All external peer reviewers must agree to abide by our code of conduct for conflicts of interest and confidentiality for peer-reviewers (PDF, 169 KB).  

These reviews and the original proposals are then rated by our Future Leaders review panel. All members of the panel must agree to abide by our code of conduct for conflicts of interest and confidentiality for panel members (PDF, 175 KB), at all stages of the assessment process

Applicants are notified of the outcome as soon as possible, to allow successful applicants plenty of time to recruit a suitable student.

Future Leaders review panel

Chair – Dr Victoria Bajo Lorenzana, University of Oxford
Vice chair – Dr Magdalena Sereda, University of Nottingham
Dr Leila Abbas, University of Sheffield
Dr Rebecca Dewey, University of Nottingham
Dr Jennifer Bizley, University College London
Dr Juan Fons, King’s College London
Professor Jonathan Gale, University College London
Professor William Newman, University of Manchester
Dr Stuart Johnson, University of Sheffield
Mr Jason Powell, Newcastle University
Dr Antje Heinrich, University of Manchester
Dr Stefan Bleeck, University of Southampton

Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC) and open access publications

RNID is a member of the Europe PMC Funders’ Group. We support open access publications and require RNID grant-holders to make their publications open access.

Read our open access publication policy for more information and visit the Europe PMC website.

An illustration of a scientist looking into a microscope.

For more information

If you’d like more information about the PhD Studentship grant, please email us.

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