We welcome applications from students wishing to undertake a PhD in the Astrophysics Research Centre starting in September/October 2021.

There will be an online information session about the PhD projects and studentships on Wednesday, February 3, from 13:00-14:00. Please register here so we can send the contact details.

We expect to have a number of fully funded PhD studentships. These funded positions are only available for students fulfilling UK national requirements (either UK nationals, or have been in the UK for the last 3 years for a purpose which is not full-time education). Self-funding students or students with their own international funding grants are also very welcome to apply:

• Information and application forms to study for a PhD at Queen's University are available at this website.
• It is essential that you read and follow the application instructions to fill in the University form for applications to ARC.
• For PhDs, we will normally consider applicants holding, or expecting to obtain in 2020, a UK MSci (or equivalent) degree in physics, astronomy or a related discipline with 2.1 or higher classification (or international equivalent).
• If you are unsure about any part of the process, contact the prospective supervisors of the project areas you are applying for, or e.demooij@qub.ac.uk for advice on the application procedure.

Please note that Queen's University will not accept applications that do not follow the required procedures.

Contact details for all staff are available here.

We recommend browsing the staff research pages to get a general overview of our work.

The following links provide information on a sample of our projects on offer:

• Multi-Wavelength Observations of Solar Flares (Supervisor: Dr. Ryan Milligan)
• Supernovae and explosive transients : data and theory projects (Supervisors: Prof. Stephen Smartt and Dr. Stuart Sim)
• Crowd-Sourced Applications to the Next Generation Transit Survey (Supervisor: Dr. Meg Schwamb)
• High-resolution characterisation of exoplanet atmospheres (Supervisor: Dr. Ernst de Mooij)
• Modelling the impact of stellar activity on exoplanet observations (Supervisor: Prof. Chris Watson)
• Spectroscopy and Photometry of Active comets (Supervisor: Prof. Alan Fitzsimmons)
• The largest acoustic guitar in our solar system: Understanding global eigenmodes in the Sun’s most powerful magnetic fields (Supervisor: Dr. David Jess)
• The magnetic and thermodynamic properties of small-scale solar magnetic structures (Supervisor: Prof. Mihalis Mathioudakis)
• Relativistic R-Matrix Calculations in the EUV/soft X-ray energy regime (Supervisor: Dr. Connor Ballance)

Note that more projects may be being proposed over the coming few weeks: please check back often!

International self-funded students should consult these pages and links for tuition fees. For International students with their own funding, including EU student without (pre-)settled status or indefinite leave to remain, we require an annual fee of (currently) £22,000. This annual fee applies to both PhD and MPhil programs. Note that you will also need living expenses of around £15,000 per year. Queries about this can be send to postgrad.admissions@qub.ac.uk.

Please check our International Scholarships page for opportunities.

• Applications for post-graduate studies must be made via the QUB portal.
• All applications received by Friday February 12th 2021 will receive full consideration for astrophysics PhD positions (interviews will commence shortly after that date). However, applications received later will continue to be considered where suitable projects are still available.
• You can apply for any number of the research themes advertised for 2021 within one application. Follow these guidelines:
  • The "Title" of the proposed research area should be "Astrophysics"
  • You have two possibilities to add information on what research project themes you wish to apply for. These are
    • the "Additional Information" box (500 character limit)
    • the one-page "Personal Statement" which can be found either on the portal web-page ¹⁾.
• There are funding options listed on the application procedure:
  • Self Funding: This would mean you are willing to pay everything yourself and is not advisable unless you have very significant personal funds you are willing to use during a 3-year PhD.
  • Apply for funding via the portal: In this case you will be applying for funding from the Northern Ireland DfE, and/or STFC. DfE funded studentships are for UK domiciled students and include the cost of approved fees and maintenance support, which is £15,285 in 2020/21. Eligibility for a full DfE studentship requires you to have been resident in the United Kingdom for a three-year period before the first day of the first academic year of the course. You must hold or expect to gain an upper second-class honours degree. If you have any queries about eligibility, please contact postgrad.admissions@qub.ac.uk

If you need further advice, either email the prospective supervisors or for general queries, email e.demooij@qub.ac.uk.