Midlands4Cities (M4C) PhD funding

Be part of a thriving community of doctoral students producing world-class research.

Studentship funding and enhanced support for professional training
Expert supervision within and across our dynamic mix of university partners
Networking and collaboration across the Midlands, nationally and internationally
Links to leading cultural organisations and creative economy partners
Midlands Arts Programme (MAP), an extensive range of training opportunities

Find out more about M4C funding and support

M4C eligibility

Home and international
Full and part-time

Applications deadline

Noon, Wednesday 12 January

Become an M4C student at the University of Nottingham

There are three steps to applying.

Step 1: Find your supervisors

Open Doctoral Awards (ODA)

University of Nottingham academics are leading specialists in their fields. They have years of experience in successfully supervising PhD candidates.

You're encouraged to get in touch with potential supervisors as early as possible. They can use their experience to advise on suitability for M4C applications, co-supervisors and writing applications.

You can find out about their specialisations and how well they fit your research interests on our department websites:

Collaborative Doctoral Awards (CDA)

Midlands4Cities also offers a number of diverse and unique project opportunities in partnership with national, regional, and local partners. Your supervision team is already set. As well as producing your thesis you also gain first-hand experience of working with an organisation outside the university environment.

There are 16 in total with the University of Nottingham as the lead institution for the following:

All the World’s a Stage
Empowering compositional creativity, amplifying underrepresented voices, and breaking down barriers to audience engagement with new approaches to online and hybrid musical theatre.
In partnership with Nottingham Playhouse.
Download project description.
Sound as Cultural Artefact
The project explores issues in the curation of sound, and how sound contains, opens, hides and reveals histories, practices and politics of both present and past. It expands on how sound can communicate not merely content or form, but the material presence of other moments captured in sonic structures.
In partnership with Nottingham Contemporary.
Download project description.

Find out more about the other CDAs on the Midlands4 Cities website.

Step 2: Apply to research at the University of Nottingham

You must do this before you apply for M4C funding as you need your University Applicant ID to submit your M4C form.

Our postgraduate study pages give full details on the application process including key dates, eligibility criteria and help to write your research proposal.

How to apply to research at Nottingham

PhD students in the Graduate School15924

Step 3: Apply for funding

You do this using the M4C online application portal. Their website provides detailed guidance notes on how to apply for funding, a referees reference form and access to the online application form.

The M4C application process and form