Funding
This programme is jointly funded by BBSRC and NERC. In addition further places are being supported by our academic and industrial partners, by employers, and by internal university sources meaning that we are able to offer up to 60 fully-funded places per year to applicants to this programme across the three admitting institutions.
We thank our partners and the Department of Biology, the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, The Ineos Oxford Institute for antimicrobial research, The Kavli Institute and the Kennedy Institute for offering scholarship support to the programme. Partner/Department/Institute-linked scholarships may be offered to applicants who have a strong interest in joining specific partners, institutes and departments.
Some candidates will receive offers without funding from the programme. These candidates may be supported by other sources of funding, including external scholarships or funding from their current employer.
In line with UKRI policy, we are able to offer a limited number of studentships to international students.
A full scholarship comprises
- course fee at the appropriate rate
- a tax-free stipend at the UKRI minimum rate (£19,237 in 2024-25) + £2000
- a Research and Training Support Grant (RTSG) to support project costs, training and travel
Supervision
All students will have a supervisory team with two or more supervisors. You will be required to undertake at least one rotation with a supervisor from the university you are admitted to as your primary or co-supervisor and to select a supervisor from this university for your substantive doctoral project. In some cases your primary supervisor will be in a non-university partner organisation such as The Pirbright Institute, Diamond Light Source or ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, depending on the topic of your research.
Entry Routes
As the programme involves three university partners there are multiple entry routes to the programme. Applications to all three universities are reviewed as a gathered field. This means that if you are shortlisted for interview you will normally only be interviewed once for entry into the programme. You will benefit from the same programme structure and training programme irrespective of which organisation(s) you apply to.
You can apply online for entry to the programme via the following routes. Where you are considering working with supervisors at different institutions, you will need to apply to those institutions separately.
if applying to the University of Oxford, please visit the Graduate Admissions Course Page
Oxford Brookes University https://www.brookes.ac.uk/courses/research/ilesla
For applications via the Open University, please click here BBSRC research if you are interested in BBSRC research and here NERC research if you are interested in the NERC remit.
Deadline
The application deadline for September 2025 entry is Wednesday 29th January 2025 at 12:00 midday UK time. We encourage candidates to submit their application well in advance of this deadline, as applications received after the deadline will not be considered for scholarship funding.
Supporting documents and information
Regardless of which institution you apply to, you will need to provide the same supporting information: Full details of this, and the instructions for the statement of purpose, can be found on the Oxford Graduate Admissions Course Page
Colleges
If applying to the University of Oxford, as part of your application you will be asked to select a college. All University of Oxford students must be affiliated with a college. Alternatively you can select "Open" on your application and we will select a college for you. A full list of colleges that accept students for our programme can be found on the course page of the main university website but the colleges below have a special "partner" status within the programme as they provide additional support to the programme in the form of partial scholarships or access to facilities. All students registered at Oxford Brookes University or The Open University will be offered an affiliation with Linacre College, which will provide the opportunity to participate in college social activities and to access college dining and sports facilities.
Brasenose
Linacre
Magdalen
Queen's
Reuben
St Cross
St Hugh's
St John's
University
Further information on the application process at the University of Oxford:
- All applicants are required to follow the University guidelines on the admissions process.
- Further information can be found on the University's Graduate Admissions and Funding webpages.
- Full details on admissions to the ILESLA programme, including admissions criteria, will shortly be provided on the ILESLA graduate admissions course webpages.
- Information on required documents can be found on the Supporting documents webpages.
- Guidance on what is required to demonstrate your English Proficiency
- Information regarding fee waivers.
How to apply to the University of Oxford:
- Submit your application through the secure online graduate application form.
- The Programme Code (or course code ) is "R33_1" for the full-time option or "R33_9P1" for the part-time option. You will need this for the online application form. This is not the same as the studentship code.
