Programme timeline
Students spend much of their time in our Franklin Hub at Harwell to learn from our scientists and use the state-of-the-art instrumentation and facilities.
As the Franklin does not hold degree-awarding powers, in their first year, students will be registered with our training partner, University of Edinburgh. In their first year, students will engage in courses with Edinburgh and Franklin training across our departments.
In addition the first-year students will develop a 12-week research project, these will be highly innovative projects centred around the Franklin technologies co-developed by the students, university academics and Franklin scientists. The initial starting point for the projects will come from a catalogue of ideas contributed by our UK university partners in academia. These 12-week research project will form the basis for the students PhD projects.
Following evaluation of the proposed PhD project, students will then register at their primary external supervisor’s university for Years 2-4, which will become the awarding body for their degree (e.g. if a student’s primary external supervisor is based at University of Manchester, this will become the awarding university for their PhD).
Projects
Early during their time at the Franklin, students will receive a catalogue of potential ideas for their PhD projects, from which they are asked to shortlist their preferred options. Students are asked to research and compose short proposals outlining how they would take the research forward.
The ideas in the project catalogue are very much starting points, as students are expected and encouraged to take an active role in co-developing their assigned idea into an interdisciplinary research project. This should be informed by their time spent rotating around the Franklin’s various scientific themes during their first weeks on programme. Initially, students will have the opportunity to explore their research idea via the mini-12-week project that takes place from January.
Following evaluation of this mini project in the Spring, students will have the opportunity to either develop it into a full PhD project, incorporating recommended revisions, or to explore an alternative project idea over the summer. In pursuing their research, students will work with a supervisory team comprising academics that are both internal and external to the Franklin, including a primary internal supervisor and a primary external supervisor.
International students will be registered with University of Edinburgh throughout their time at the Franklin and so must select a project with a University of Edinburgh academic supervisor.
Affiliations
Our collaborators include research institutes, universities and industrial companies from across the breadth of the UK. For the PhD programme, we are collaborating with Franklin member and non-member universities. Some of our PhD collaborators are shown here:
Although Franklin students will have a cross-institutional supervisory team, they will spend the majority of their time in our central Hub in Harwell Campus (Oxfordshire), to ensure that they have access to the resources and technologies which will be instrumental for their research. However, occasional visits to their awarding university and other external facilities are expected.
Supervision
Franklin students will each have a supervisory panel throughout their PhD journey. This includes Franklin academics and university co-supervisors. Each student will also have a personal tutor to meet with informally on a frequent basis. Our Early Careers Lead, Reshma Roy, and PhD coordinator, Phil King, who manage the PhD programme, will also be supporting students’ experience and professional development.
There are many potential supervisors available at the Franklin and potential supervisor’s are listed within the PhD project areas information.
Apply Now
Applications for the 2025/2026 academic year are now open.