Join over 500 researchers working with industry and government to address some of the problems facing the world today.
Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) is the leading university department of its kind in the UK. We were on of the first universities to be named an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Education (ACE-CSE) by the UK government.
Our research is organised around research groups and centres. You'll join one of these groups. This means that specialist academics will always be on hand to hear your ideas and offer help and encouragement. With around 250 staff, ECS has unrivalled depth and breadth of expertise.
You'll have the freedom to run your own project and you'll be supported by a team of supervisors. Direct and regular contact with your supervisors will help you develop your scientific insight, and steer you towards creative and original thinking.
Our graduate school provides training on transferable skills, courses on research methodology, and a working framework to help you settle into a disciplined working routine. You'll also have opportunities to travel to international conferences and events to present your work.
ECS holds an annual careers fair that attracts major companies. The majority of our graduates take up roles in the technology industry or develop their research interests further. If you have a great idea our Future Worlds startup accelerator is there to nurture aspiring entrepreneurs through one-to-one support and its network of investors.
This is our standard 3-year research degree. When you apply, you'll choose one of the following:
SustAI is a multidisciplinary and inclusive doctoral training programme. The CDT will provide 70 fully funded PhD studentships over 5 cohorts. SustAI will equip students with state-of-the-art AI technical skills and a deep understanding of how these skills can be applied to address pressing environmental challenges. Register your interest with SustAI.
A key feature of ECS is that we are truly interdisciplinary. Many of our research groups sit at the interface between electronics and computer science, including cyber security and cyber physical systems. Areas include:
The University of Southampton is pleased to announce that PGR students from EU and Horizon associated countries joining us in 2026-27 will pay the same as UK PGRs for their PhD.
You can either apply for a structured studentship or propose your own PhD idea.
Structured studentships are advertised PhD projects with a title, supervisor, remit and funding already in place. These projects have been set up through collaborations with industry, external partners or they may have been provided through one of several centres for doctoral raining which we take part in.
Taking one of our structured studentships will give you access to additional training, conferences and secondments.
This project will explore transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) semiconductors to build transistors and memristive devices enabling energy-efficient neuromorphic systems. The project forms part of the EPSRC EXPRESS Programme Grant and combines nanofabrication, device physics and advanced materials characterisation.
This project aims to develop an AI-based practical solution for 3D environments understanding from multi-modal input data, such as image, video, audio and text. It will reproduce them in a virtual or augmented reality space allowing real-time 3D interaction with spatial audio adapted to the environment and user locations.
Hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) affects babies' brains during the childbirth due to shortages of oxygen. Using Artificial Intelligence techniques, HIE disease is diagnosed much earlier than two years which is the current normal practice in hospitals. As a result of HIE early detection, then early interventions can be applied to improve the babies health.
Machine learning as well as deep learning techniques are employed in this project to design novel biometric recognition systems. Biometrics included in this type of study are: Face, Face profile, Ear, Iris, Gait, Palmprint, Fingerprint and body shape.
The objective of this project is to integrate quantum communication into emerging wireless networks, paving the way for a global quantum network in time for 6G.
This PhD project aims to advance iterative learning control (ILC) by eliminating the dependency on analytical models, which are often costly or impractical to obtain. By leveraging data-driven control and optimization methods, this research will develop novel ILC algorithms that achieve high convergence performance directly from data.
You'll explore how principles of quantum information flow and probabilistic entanglement can enhance coordination, adaptability, and resilience in multi-robot systems. The project bridges quantum technologies and embodied swarm intelligence, aiming to create a new class of collective robotic systems that think and act beyond classical limits.
This PhD project will develop metasurface-enabled intelligent optical sensing for rapid, accurate identification of miniature features in endoscopy. Building on recent funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Leverhulme Trust, this PhD combines advanced nanofabrication, machine-learning-driven optical design, and close collaboration with University Hospital Southampton, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Flexible electronics are transforming modern technology, enabling lightweight, bendable, and wearable devices that integrate seamlessly into everyday life. From healthcare to smart packaging, flexible electronics provide novel functionalities that rigid counterparts cannot achieve. This project aims to develop highly reliable, durable, and high-speed non-volatile memory on flexible substrates.
CPUs with hundreds of cores are expected to take over the computing industry from embedded AI devices to servers. While hardware prediction algorithms like data prefetchers greatly improve instruction-level parallelism, they often focus on single-thread performance. This project will explore novel prediction algorithms for manycores and their theoretical limits.
The Web Science Institute (WSI) at the University of Southampton is offering PhD studentships for multidisciplinary doctoral research with a particular focus on Human-Centred Artificial Intelligence (AI).
This project will develop metasurface-engineered optical systems for next-generation automotive and biometric sensing. It combines advanced nanofabrication, machine learning-driven optical design, and international collaboration with NTU Singapore and MIT to push metasurface technologies toward real-world commercialisation.
This project will reimagine gel electrophoresis into an innovative engineered microfluidic system, tailored to match the latest long-read sequencing methods for genomic medicine and health data science. By shrinking a decades-old method, that remains essential to DNA analysis, we will enable faster, higher quality genomic analysis.
This project explores the development of a Multimodal Large Language Model that empowers robots to understand and respond to humans through vision, language, and other sensory data. By enabling natural, adaptive, and context-aware communication, the research advances the next generation of intelligent, human-centered robotic systems.
Artificial intelligence is transforming society but comes with a growing energy and carbon cost. This project will explore new nanostructured materials and device architectures that can deliver brain-inspired computing with radically improved energy efficiency.
Large Language Models (LLMs) like GPT-4 are transforming how we use information but also exposing new privacy and security risks. This project explores how sensitive data can leak from deployed LLMs and their applications, developing auditing and mitigation methods to make LLMs-based systems safer, more transparent, and accountable across domains.
The main goal is to improve the state-of-the-art mechanisms for the allocation of scare resources from different, and not always compatible, perspectives of efficiency, fairness and resilience. Muti-agent systems and machine learning techniques will be used to develop better and more sustainable mechanisms.
The aim of this project is to develop formal models of accountability and liability using logic, game theory, and agent-based simulation. You will explore responsibility under uncertainty, delegation, and trust, with applications in autonomous systems, digital governance, and ethical AI.
This project develops AI-enhanced threat-modelling techniques to improve the cybersecurity and resilience of autonomous vehicles. It analyses vulnerabilities in AI-driven sensing and decision systems, models complex adversarial interactions, and designs adaptive detection and mitigation strategies, with applicability to other safety-critical domains.
This project tackles cybersecurity challenges in AI-powered autonomous vehicles, particularly smart cars. It analyses vulnerabilities in AI models, develops a classification system for cyber threats, and creates a mitigation framework. The research aims to improve resilience, enable safe real-time operation, and set best practices for embedding cybersecurity into AI.
This project studies a new hardware paradigm for quantum computing, will theoretically design and experimentally realise a space-time quantum metasurface, a network of dynamically coupled, time-varying qubits. This architecture aims to enable real-time error mitigation and unlock scalable, fault-tolerant quantum processing through emergent collective phenomena.
The aim of this project is to design and pioneer groundbreaking space-time-modulated superconducting metasurfaces to overcome critical quantum computing limitations. This experimental-theoretical PhD will develop dynamic metasurfaces that enable all-to-all qubit connectivity, significantly enhance coherence, and suppress decoherence in next-generation quantum processors, working at the frontier of quantum technologies, quantum computing and electromagnetic engineering.
Future space systems face unprecedented threats from radiation-induced faults and malicious tampering. This project will develop and validate adaptive, radiation-tolerant hardware architectures that secure both functional integrity and cryptographic trust in spaceborne electronics.
Recognising patterns in data to simulate their distributions is a machine learning task that can be enhanced by generating measurement samples from quantum states that are suitably prepared by parameterised quantum circuits. By exploiting symmetry properties, the project will build efficient quantum generative models that have a wide range of applications.
We offer a wide range of fully funded studentships. We run several of our PhD studentships in partnership with doctoral training centres, meaning you'll benefit from enhanced training and guaranteed funding.
These studentships:
Doctoral training centres offer fully funded studentships which include:
Find out more about doctoral training centres.
In association with the UK joining the EU Horizon Programme, the University of Southampton will be introducing and applying an EU fee waiver for students joining us from EU and Horizon associated countries. This means that PGR students joining us from 2025-26 will pay the same fees as UK PGR students.
See here for full information terms and conditions
We offer scholarships and teaching bursaries ourselves. Your potential supervisor can guide you on what is available.
If you’re an international student you may be able to apply for a scholarship from your country.
Find out more about scholarships
Once you've found a supervisor, they can help you with potential funding sources. We offer match funding in some cases.
You'll need to state how you intend to pay for your tuition fees when you submit your application.
Find out more about funding your PhD
You may be able to fund your postgraduate research with funding from your current employer or from industry.
You can borrow up to £30,301 for a PhD starting on or after 1 August 2025. Doctoral loans are not means tested and you can decide how much you want to borrow.
Find out about PhD loans on GOV.UK
You may be able to win funding from one or more charities to help fund your PhD.
We charge tuition fees for every year of study. If you’re applying for a fully funded project, your fees will be paid for you.
EU Fee Waiver: If your country is part of the Horizon Europe Programme, you will pay the same fees as UK students.
Find out if your country is part of the Horizon Europe programme
| Subject | UK and Horizon programme applicants | International fees |
|---|---|---|
| AI for Sustainability (SustAI CDT) iPhD full time | £5,238 | £27,300 |
| AI for Sustainability (SustAI CDT) iPhD part time | £2,619 | £13,650 |
| Computer science full time | £5,238 | £27,300 |
| Computer science part time | £2,619 | £13,650 |
| Electronics and electrical engineering full time | £5,238 | £27,300 |
| Electronics and electrical engineering part time | £2,619 | £13,650 |
| Subject | UK and Horizon programme applicants | International fees |
|---|---|---|
| AI for Sustainability (SustAI CDT) iPhD full time | £5,006 | £26,700 |
| AI for Sustainability (SustAI CDT) iPhD part time | £2,503 | £13,350 |
| Computer science full time | £5,006 | £26,700 |
| Computer science part time | £2,503 | £13,350 |
| Electronics and electrical engineering full time | £5,006 | £26,700 |
| Electronics and electrical engineering part time | £2,503 | £13,350 |
Access full fee information from previous years.
You're eligible for a 10% alumni discount on a self-funded PhD if you're a current student or graduate from the University of Southampton. This will not apply for programmes that are externally funded. Please check the fees and funding section.
Our research takes place in a multidisciplinary, collaborative environment, organised across globally important research groups and national research centres.
We offer 3 doctoral routes:
If you choose our standard research PhD, decide whether to apply to an advertised research project or create your own proposal.
Whichever programme you choose, you'll need to identify a potential supervisor. Therefore it's a good idea to email supervisors working within your field of interest to discuss PhD projects. It's best to do this well ahead of the application deadline.
You’ll find supervisors’ contact details listed with the advertised project, or you can search for supervisors in the staff directory.
As part of your online application, you’ll need to send us:
The application process is the same whether you're applying for a funded project, or have created a research proposal.
You need at least a 2:1 degree in a relevant subject, or its international equivalent.
If English is not your first language, you'll need an IELTS minimum level of 6.5 with a 6.0 in writing, reading, speaking and listening.
If you are applying for the SustAI iPhD. you'll need an IELTS minimum level of 6.5 with a 6.0 in writing, reading, speaking and listening.
Your awarded certificate needs to be dated within the last 2 years.
If you need further English language tuition before starting your degree, you can apply for one of our pre-sessional English language courses.
Check the specific entry requirements listed on the project you’re interested in before you apply.
For general admissions questions, please contact the Doctoral College - feps-pgr-apply@soton.ac.uk.
Research degrees have a minimum and maximum duration, known as the candidature. Your candidature ends when you submit your thesis.
Most candidatures are longer than the minimum period.
| Degree type | Full time | Part time |
|---|---|---|
| Computer science PhD | 2 to 4 years | 3 to 7 years |
| Electronics and electrical engineering PhD | 2 to 4 years | 3 to 7 years |
| AI for Sustainability Centre for Doctoral Training iPhD | 5 years | 8 years |
| Quantum Technology Engineering Centre for Doctoral Training PhD | 4 years | 7 years |
