Positions starting in October 2025
For students aiming to start a PhD in October 2025 with a funded scholarship the interviews will take place in February, so applications should be submitted by the 29 of January 2025.
Later applications will be considered until all positions are filled, or when as new opportunities arise. We are happy to consider students with external sources of funding and for those students that deadline does not apply.
The available positions will be within one of our exciting experimental activities (see the Particle Physics Research pages) and will be discussed and agreed between the particle physics team and the successful candidate. To apply for a position please contact the Particle Physics PhD Admissions director Professor Neil McCauley and also make a formal online application (here) to the University of Liverpool.
Available now: Fully Funded Position On LHCb
We are pleased to advertise a fully funded PhD studentship in Particle Physics with the University of Liverpool. The studentship is available to start now and covers fees (for UK and international students), a research travel grant and a stipend.
The PhD project will explore the use of Machine Learning (ML) techniques for particle tracking in high energy physics experiments. Compute accelerators such as FPGAs, GPUs, and NPUs will be used to run and evaluate the performance of ML algorithms. We will use the LHCb experiment as a test environment for studies and the initial target of the project will be to test, evaluate and deploy solutions in the next detector upgrade. Extensions to other experiments can also be explored. The applicant is expected to have a good aptitude for programming and an appetite for learning about new technologies.
Please feel free to contact Tara Shears (tara.shears@liverpool.ac.uk) with any questions. Instructions for applying for the studentship are given here:
https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/how-to-apply/
(apply listing Tara Shears as the supervisor and use the outline of the research project above). Applications will be open until November 20 or until the position is filled.
Projects for PhD students
If you are interested in a PhD on Particle Physics with us see the list of experiments that our group participates. Within the framework of these experiments, we offer 8-10 positions supported by STFC and other partners. Several projects are also linked with the Centre for Doctoral Training for Innovation in Data Intensive Science - University of Liverpool. In this website you can find past, current and future opportunities to guide your choice in this very interesting research domain.
Funding
We offer fully-funded STFC studentships as well as positions funded form other sources. The postions are mostly targeted at UK nationals or UK-based students, however, for students starting in academic year 2025-26 we can award funded studentships to a small number of overseas students as well. For more information about the STFC funded scholarships, including their terms and conditions, please also see this website: Studentship information for students – UKRI.
We welcome and support prospective students who are either able to self-fund their PhD studies or are planning to apply for or have already secured a funded PhD scholarship. We can point interested candidates to suitable schemes. More information about the level of funding needed to self fund is available at this University webpage.
English Language requirement
International students whose first language is not English are usually required to provide an IELTS (or equivalent) test score to demonstrate their proficiency in English. See this link for full details.
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