Overview

About the programme

Food security and a healthy diet within the context of a growing global population and climate change has become major challenges of our time, particularly if this is coupled with the need to find more sustainable and renewable sources of biofuels and chemicals.

Plant Science research at The University of Manchester addresses both these issues, firstly by engineering plant development to generate plants that have a higher yield, improved nutrition and are also more resistant to external stress and, secondly, by exploiting plants and microalgae to generate renewable and sustainable biofuels, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

Well-characterised model plants such as Arabidopsis, as well as crops and natural species, are used in interdisciplinary approaches that entail interactions between groups across the University.

A range of funding agencies, as well as industrial sponsors, support our research projects. After graduation, our students go on to have successful careers in plant sciences, industry or academia.

Programme Structure

Three major themes run through our plant sciences research:

manipulating plant development to increase yield and stress resilience;
biochemistry and genetics of plastids and their use as cell factories;
optimising plant defence at the cellular level.

Key information

Duration

Full-time
- 36 months

Start dates & application deadlines

Starting 2026-09-28 00:00:00
- Apply before 2026-06-15 00:00:00
Starting 2027-01-01 00:00:00
- Apply before 2026-10-15 00:00:00
Starting 2027-04-01 00:00:00
- Apply before 2027-01-15 00:00:00

Language

English

TOEFL^® IBT

90

Schedule TOEFL®

Delivered

On Campus

Campus Location

Manchester, United Kingdom

Disciplines

Botany View 5 other PhDs in Botany in United Kingdom

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Academic requirements

GPA

Upper Second Class

English requirements

TOEFL^® IBT

90

Schedule TOEFL®

Other requirements

General requirements

We require applicants to hold, or be about to obtain, an Upper Second class Honours degree, or the equivalent qualification gained outside the UK, in a related subject area for entry to a PhD programme.
A Lower Second class Honours degree may be considered if applicants also hold a Master's degree with a Merit classification.

Tuition Fees

Tuition fees are shown in and the most likely applicable fee is shown based on your nationality.

International Applies to you

Applies to you

Non-residents

27000 GBP / year

≈ 27000 GBP / year

Living costs

Manchester

United Kingdom

645 - 1197 GBP / month

The living costs include the total expenses per month, covering accommodation, public transportation, utilities (electricity, internet), books and groceries.

Funding

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Scholarships Information

Below you will find PhD's scholarship opportunities for Plant Science.

Available Scholarships

You are eligible to apply for these scholarships but a selection process will still be applied by the provider.

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