Funding opportunities
Scholarship opportunities for 2026-27 entry
HK Stephenson Endowment Funded Scholarship for a PhD in Architecture
The School of Architecture and Landscape are pleased to be able to offer a 3.5 year fully funded scholarship to a Home student with an excellent idea for a PhD in Architectural Humanities. The scholarship covers home student fees and a living allowance stipend paid in line with the UKRI Standard Minimum Stipend amount which for 2026/27 is £21,805 and rising annually in line with inflation, plus expenses to be agreed.
What we are looking for: any architectural humanities project which aligns with the expertise of the Situated Humanities Research cluster at the School of Architecture and Landscape, see our webpages here
Potential approaches may include:
- Postcolonial studies of industrial landscapes or built environments
- Humanities based environmental studies of spatial, landscape or urban cultures (domestic or institutional)
- Histories of industry and their impacts on migration and urban settlements, in the past or present
- Spatial and gendered approaches to history, including of domestic or health spaces, wellbeing, marginal spaces and practices
- Gender studies of spatial practices and environments
- Histories of architecture from a feminist perspective
Methodologies and time periods: Proposed projects can draw on an appropriate range of archival, theoretical, historiographic, ethnographic and creative or practice-based methodologies, and from time periods from eighteenth to twenty-first centuries.
Any initial questions on scope should be sent to Gemma Fearnley-Cooke ala-ops@sheffield.ac.uk and Dr Emma Cheatle e.cheatle@sheffield.ac.uk
Pre-application
A short research pre-proposal of 300 words should initially be sent to suitable potential supervisors in the Situated Humanities research cluster.
Once a supervisor agrees to support your proposal it can be developed in the format of Research Project Proposal and CV and References as per the guidance below.
- Full application guidance
- Research Project Proposal
As above this should be developed through contact made with members of the Situated Humanities research cluster. and must have prior support and feedback from these cluster members before application. .
Include:
Your Name
Name of supervisor
Please state the name of a prospective supervisor(s) for your PhD.
You may apply without a confirmed offer at this stage.
[please include number of character including spaces beneath each section of your application]
Project Title (150 characters including spaces)
The project must have a title.
Project Summary (650 characters including spaces)
Your summary should give an overall idea of the research topic, including key questions and contributions. Keep your project summary short and relevant, descriptive but avoiding acronyms and jargon.
Project Proposal (4500 characters including spaces)
Your proposal should include
a background to the research;
the questions or hypotheses to be addressed;
the sources or data sets to be consulted;
the methods to be used;
how your research relates to existing research within architectural discourse;
and the overall contribution that the research will make (to the discipline, to knowledge, to society).
Engagement with the school (2000 characters including spaces) How well aligned is your proposal to the school, your supervisors and the wider university? What additional training might you need to complete your PhD and how will you access it through the University of Sheffield or more widely? How will your research reach a wider community (for example do you intend to work with community stakeholders)? What prior knowledge and skills will you bring to the PhD cohort at Sheffield?
References/bibliography (500 characters including spaces)
Name the sources/publications you mentioned in the Project Proposal.
Fieldwork
Please tell us about any significant fieldwork you propose to undertake (if any).
Description: What would you be doing (interviews, archival research, building visits)?
Place: Is the fieldwork taking place in the UK / Europe / Outside Europe? How will these be funded?
Time: Is there any primary fieldwork that will be longer than 1 month (28 days)? If so, could this be organised in several shorter trips (you may be limited to 28 days international travel at one time)?
Portfolio If relevant or appropriate, please include a portfolio of up to 5 pages of visual work (please do not include website links).
Timeline Please propose an indicative, detailed timeline for how you will carry out and complete the parts of the PhD over the 3.5 years.
- CV
Include:
Your qualifications at Bachelors/undergraduate level; at Masters/postgraduate level
and other university or professional qualifications (if relevant to your application).
These all should include: Name of Institution; Country of Institution; Subject area; Date of award; GPA or overall % mark and position in class, for example 1/100 (if known);
Work experience (if applicable): Name and address of employer; Job title; Brief description of duties and relevance to your application; dates worked for (From / To).
Publications (if applicable): here you have the opportunity to include any relevant work you may have published or relevant unpublished work such as a Master’s thesis. This can include academic papers, conference proceedings, professional reports, book chapters, books, and theses.
Please include:
Title The title of the article/paper/chapter/report/book, etc
Co-authors Please give the names of co-authors and your authorship status e.g. co-author with MA supervisor; lead author with professional colleagues or supervisor, etc. Please enter ‘sole author’ if you did not have any co-authors.
Publication Name The name of the journal/book/proceedings your paper/article/chapter was published in. (if report or book say so here)
Date The date of publication, or expected date for items accepted but not yet published
Type of publication State whether it is a journal article, conference proceeding, book chapter, professional report, etc; also say whether it a journal of local, national or international standing; Whether it was peer reviewed; Any other details about the type of publication (e.g. your Master’s thesis or other piece of coursework); DOI, web address or publisher
Prizes or awards (if applicable)
Please state awards and dates received.
- Academic References
Please attach 2 written academic references: these should include academic staff from former institutions you have studied at who know you and your work very well. We will not consider applications without academic references.
Further Guidance:
Research Eligibility
Your research must be original and innovative and fall into the remit of arts, design or humanities research in architecture (design, history or humanities).
We are committed to increasing the diversity of our student cohort and therefore encourage applications from minoritised students. We strongly encourage applications from everyone, regardless of age, ethnicity, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic background, and are committed to creating an equitable and inclusive environment for all our postgraduate researchers.
Residential eligibility
We are only able to accept applications from Home students.
To be classed as a home student, applicants must meet the following criteria:
Be a UK National (meeting residency requirements), or
Have settled status, or
Have pre-settled status (meeting residency requirements), or
Have indefinite leave to remain or enter
Evidence of this status will be required before being offered a place.
GDPR
By submitting this application, you confirm that you have read and understood our Privacy Notice. You acknowledge that all personal data provided within this application will be processed and handled strictly in accordance with the terms outlined in that notice and relevant data protection legislation.
Timeline
16 November 2026: Application submission deadline
w/c 7 December 2026: Interviews (online or in person - TBC)
1 February 2027: Targeted start date of the PhD
Please note this is a full-time in-person PhD opportunity. We do not accept online students, but can consider part-time applications.
ESRC White Rose Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership scholarships
These scholarships are awarded to UK and international students wishing to start in October 2027. The competition provides the following awards:
WRDTP Pathway Awards
WRDTP Advanced Quantitative Methods Awards
WRDTP Advanced Data Analytics (ADA) awards
You must have a study offer (a PhD place) in place to be considered for a WRDTP scholarship. You must apply for the PhD with your finalised documents no later than 4 January 2027 if you also intend to apply for a scholarship. This is a strict deadline.
The WRDTP application deadline is 20 January 2027, 17.00. This deadline is for all documents to be finalised and submitted to the application portal.
It is encouraged and expected that applicants will have secured their proposed supervisor and discussed their research proposal well in advance (see the instructions in the How To Apply section). At the school of Architecture and Landscape we recommend that this is done before 9 December 2026.
Further information can be found on the main scholarships pages.