We are no longer accepting applications for the 2022 PhD student programme. If you submitted an application by the deadline, check our applicant information pages.
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We have 200 PhD students at various stages of their four‐year PhDs at the Crick at any one time. The students contribute to the international community of the Crick; 60% are from the EU and further afield.
The energy and enthusiasm of the student population are a vital part of Crick's research community, and the comprehensive Crick PhD programme ensures that our students have strong career prospects in science.
Students accepted onto the Crick PhD programme register with one of our partner universities. You will attend an induction week and follow a structured four-year programme, agreed with our partner universities.
Your progress will be monitored through a series of annual progression points, and you will be required to present your research each year.
Every day I get to learn something new in my PhD and that’s really exciting to me. The training I’ve received here makes me feel like I’m ready to take on anything in the future – I’ve matured from being a naïve student to a confident scientist.
Throughout the PhD programme, you will receive tailored training on presenting and writing about your research, including specialised IT software training and workshops on talking about science to both scientific and non-specialist audiences.
We will also encourage you to make the most of the wide range of training courses available at the Crick, and to access the skills training programme within your university.
Attending scientific conferences provides valuable exposure to the wider scientific community, and is an exciting and important learning experience. You will have access to funding to allow you to present your work at national and international conferences and we encourage you to do so, particularly in the second half of your PhD.
The programme has been hugely inspiring – you’re surrounded by some of the smartest people and best science in the world, and the PhD programme pushes you to get the most out of yourself and your science. Thanks to the sheer number of PhD students in the building, you build up a great network of friends who can support you both socially and scientifically.
Carrying out a PhD is challenging. To ensure you have all the support and guidance you need, our PhD students have access to a comprehensive support network involving your supervisor and research group, a dedicated thesis committee, our Academic Training team and the PhD student community itself, represented by the PhD Student Committee.
The real highlight of my PhD has been the people who work here. If you run into an issue, or even just need a few microliters of an essential chemical that’s run out, you’ll always find someone who can get you going again. It’s great to have such a nice culture and community at work.
We are committed to supporting our students in their professional development, and will encourage you to plan ahead in thinking about your future career.
To help with this we offer the following career development activities:
Students also have full access to the careers services within their registered partner university.
After completing their PhD, most of our students (55%) continue working in scientific research, in industry and academia, taking up postdoctoral research positions at institutions all over the world. A number of students eventually go on to lead their own research labs. Our clinical research fellows and MB-PhD students return to their clinical career track after their PhD, often carrying out research in parallel with their clinical commitments.
Not all of our students choose an academic career, and many of our alumni (24%) have gone on to work for prominent organisations in pharma, biotech or technology transfer, science communication, policy and administration.
The extensive skill-set gained during a PhD is not purely scientific and can be applied to many other career paths. 16% of our students have moved into careers in areas such as management, consultancy, finance, and teaching.
The Crick definitely set me up for my next steps. It really helped to be exposed to so many different types of research techniques and tools when thinking about future projects and trying to understand research done by other labs around the world.
