How to apply: 2024 PhD programme

Fill in your name in the correct format, capitalising the appropriate letters (e.g. Joe Bloggs instead of joe bloggs), as this will be used in all future correspondence with yourself and your named referees. If possible, please provide a telephone number that you will be contactable on during the interview programme, if you are invited to interview.

Within the personal details section, we ask for your nationality, UK immigration status and country of ordinary residence. The details you provide have no impact on your eligibility for the programme, as the Crick PhD Programme is open to candidates of all nationalities. This information is requested for the purpose of administrating your studentship and your university admission if you are made an offer, as it provides an indication of whether or not you may require a visa and/or be eligible for home tuition fee status.

You will be applying for a position on the Crick PhD Programme and we will ask you to select your preferred group leaders/PhD supervisors on the application form.

You can apply for up to a maximum of three group leaders on your application form. Before completing the application form, therefore, please read about the group leaders recruiting PhD students to start in September 2024 and their PhD positions and view their recorded talks. Note, project outlines are a guide, and not fixed, the details are subject to change. 

Only the group leaders listed on the 2024 PhD positions page are recruiting students to join their labs. It is not necessary to contact group leaders to discuss your application before submission.

When you complete the application form:

• select up to a maximum of six group leaders that you would like to be considered by.
• give each group leader a rank of 1 or 2, 1 being your most preferred choice(s). You can have more than one group leader ranked 1 and 2.

Please pay particular attention to this section. Answer the questions on the form to tell us more about your scientific interests (maximum 200 words), why doing a PhD is important to you (maximum 80 words), the relevance of your broader academic knowledge and research experience (maximum 80 words), and helpful life experiences (maximum 100 words). Please note the maximum word limits for each of the 4 text boxes you will need to complete.

Note: you can re-size the text boxes to make them larger by using the drag handle in the bottom right hand corner of the text box (note that some browsers, e.g. Internet Explorer, have a scrollbar instead).

Please list any relevant research experience that you have, either as part of or outside of a university degree course, starting with the most recent. Include details of host lab(s), supervisor, dates, brief description of project(s) and your work on the project(s). (Maximum 400 words for each experience).

Note: you can re-size the text boxes to make them larger by using the drag handle in the bottom right hand corner of the text box (note that some browsers, e.g. Internet Explorer have a scrollbar instead).
 

Please complete carefully, giving as much information as possible.

In the section on your school please provide information from school/college/high school (education before university). Please tell us the name of your high school leaving qualification/certificate, the subjects that you studied for that qualification/certificate, and the grades for individual subjects (or, if relevant, the overall grade) that you achieved.

If you are studying/have studied at a non-UK university, please give your university's standard name in English.  

If you are studying/have studied for an integrated bachelors and master's degree, please enter this in the undergraduate section. We will know from the qualification that the master's is integrated. 

In the section on your courses/modules taken, please state each course/module with credits and the final marks/grades achieved for the course/module in order to give us as complete information as possible. Please enter each course/module as a new paragraph. If you are studying/have studied at a non-UK university, please detail your grades and provide information about your university’s grading system.

Note: you can re-size the text boxes to make them larger by using the drag handle in the bottom right hand corner of the text box (note that some browsers, e.g. Internet Explorer, have a scrollbar instead).

You will be asked to upload a copy of your CV - this must be a PDF (.pdf) file that is no larger than 2MB. Please ensure your CV file name is formatted as FirstnameSurnameCVyear, for example, FrancisCrickCV2023, and do not include spaces or special characters. 

This section is to provide additional information about yourself and to help us advertise our PhD programme in the future.

We will request references from two or three scientists/academics who are familiar with your academic work and/or research experience and who can judge your potential as a PhD student.

Please select your referees carefully: one must be your current or most recent employer/supervisor, at least one must be able to comment on your university academic record, and at least one must be able to comment on your previous research experience. We do not accept references from personal email accounts.

Please ensure that your referees' contact details, especially their email addresses, are accurate and enter only one email address per referee. We will not normally make any changes to referee details after you have submitted your application.

The deadline for reference receipt is 12:00 noon (BST) Thursday 16 November 2023. It is important that you check - before you submit your application - that your referees are able and willing to provide a reference within this timeframe. Your application may be considered if references are not received by the deadline, but we will not invite any applicants to interview without two references in place.

We will contact your referees by email as soon as you submit your application, asking them to complete an online reference form. When you submit your application please contact your referees to confirm that they have received our reference request email (these emails sometimes get blocked by university security systems or end up in spam folders).

Please help your referees meet this deadline by informing them of your application, checking (before you submit your application) that they are willing and able to provide a reference by the deadline, and by encouraging them to submit their reference soon after receipt of our email. You and your referee will receive an acknowledgement email once each reference has been submitted.

Remember, if you leave your application until the closing date your referees will only have a short time to return your reference.

This section is for equal opportunities monitoring purposes. The information you provide will be anonymised and will not be available to recruiting group leaders. 

We do not permit changes to be made to applications after they have been submitted. Please, therefore, review your application carefully, correct any errors and complete any missing fields before submitting your application. Once all the mandatory fields are completed, you will be able to submit by clicking the submit button at the bottom of the screen.

Once you have submitted your application you will not be able to make further changes, and the Crick will not be able to make any changes to your application for you. You will be sent an email confirming that you have submitted your application. Please note that these emails sometimes get blocked by email/university security systems or end up in spam folders, so please check your spam/junk folder.