UKAEA Offers Partial PhD Funding for Nuclear Industry Doctoral Training

The Fusion Opportunities in Skills, Training, Education and Research (FOSTER) programme is an ambitious new national fusion skills programme delivered by UKAEA on behalf of the UK fusion sector. FOSTER’s mission is to train over 2200 people in the next 5 years, ready to take roles within the fusion industry.

The intention is to work with universities, businesses, and international partners to increase the number of apprentice and graduate, postgraduate and doctoral, and post-doctoral opportunities within the fusion skills ecosystem in the UK.

One mechanism being used to support an increase in PhD numbers is through the FOSTER Programme’s Industry Support Scheme Awards. These Awards will contribute a fixed sum of £40k towards the cost of a fusion related PhD in a UK university that commences by 31st December 2025.

The application form must detail the full cost of the project and show how the remaining balance of funding will be provided. PhD topics should be beneficial to the wider UK fusion sector i.e. not only relevant to one specific fusion device.

The PhD project must be undertaken at a UK university. Applications that are placed within a suitable Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) are encouraged. The university partner needs to provide a letter of support demonstrating that they are committed to the project and stating that they believe the project is suitable for a PhD candidate.

Applications for Award support should be led by a company that is passionate about achieving fusion energy. With this, we recommend that applicants should also be, or apply to be, a member of the Fusion Cluster. The Fusion Cluster brings together a community powered by knowledge, passion and expertise to help achieve fusion faster. It does this by encouraging the cross-sharing of ideas and insight to help deliver the UK Fusion Strategy. Organisations that are not part of the Fusion Cluster can apply to join for no cost at Join Us – The Fusion Cluster.

Consortium applications may be made. In such cases evidence that an appropriate consortium agreement is in place will be required before any payment is made (i.e. the collaboration agreement will not be needed as part of the initial application).

The Award contribution to the project will be paid as a lump sum, to the lead applicant when UKAEA receives confirmation of PhD commencement, this must be before March 2026. UKAEA will have no supervisory role in the project and will not own any IP arising from the project; however, UKAEA will require a way of contacting the student to invite them to any networking events which may be organised, and annual reports which include an update of progress against the research deliverables.

Specific terms relating to the PhD will be for the university and industry partners to determine, UKAEA will not be a party to these terms. If, for any reason, the PhD project does not reach completion UKAEA reserves the right to recover a proportionate level of the value of the Award payment and this will be set at the time of agreement. UKAEA will also require to be informed of and acknowledged in any publications arising from the work, as well as provided with a copy of the PhD thesis.

Application forms and further guidance can be obtained by email from [email protected]

For more information about the application, please visit here.