iCASE studentships

The Medical Research Council has awarded Oxford 8 industrial collaborative (iCASE) DPhil studentships starting October 2026. These are available across various departments in the Medical Sciences Division.

Each MRC Enterprise studentships will provide full University fees (period of fees liability, typically three years), a UKRI-level stipend with £2,500 per year enhancement (four years),  a research training support grant (RTSG) of £5,000 per year (four years) and a travel allowance of £300 per year (four years).

There are 31 projects which students can choose to apply for across the Medical Sciences Division, including 6 within NDCN, and only 8 DPhil studentship places. The admission process is highly competitive and will in most cases involve two rounds of interviews for those reaching the second stage of the selection process.

Our department’s iCASE projects are listed below:

Digital tracking of Parkinson’s disease symptoms

Lead supervisor: Professor Michele Hu

Commercial partner: NeuHealth

Can quantitative MRI and quantitative susceptibility mapping be applied to the rare disease, superficial siderosis, to improve patient lives through diagnostics, monitoring and treatments?

Lead supervisor: Professor Charlotte Stagg

Commercial partner: Perspectum

Rapid MRI scanning for population-level neuroimaging

Lead supervisor: Associate Professor Aaron Hess

Commercial partner: Siemens Healthineers

EEG-driven closed-loop xTMS for the modulation of neural oscillations underpinning motor learning and execution

Lead supervisor: Professor Andrew Sharott

Commercial partner: Magstim

Enhancing automated CT-brain analysis tools for quantifying atrophy and white matter disease and development of a novel CT-brain analysis tool to quantify stroke lesions

Lead supervisor: Professor Sarah Pendlebury

Commercial partner: Brainomix

Exploring the clinical promise of transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) to treat neurological conditions

Lead supervisor: Professor Charlotte Stagg

Commercial partner: NeuroHarmonics Ltd

If you are interested in applying for an iCASE DPhil studentship place for one of the above projects, please read the information below.

How to apply for iCASE

You should complete a DPhil application via the central application system, stating the name of the project you would like to be considered for and the supervisors’ names in the relevant application sections. Please seek supervisor support before applying. There is no need to include a project proposal with your application, if you are only applying for an iCase project, as you are applying for a studentship for a specific project. 

How to apply for both iCASE and ALSO standard DPhil admission

You are allowed to submit one application for both an iCASE application and a standard DPhil application together. However, please note that for a standard DPhil application, you must secure the support of a prospective supervisor for your project before applying. For more information about this, please see the section on our prospective students' page about finding a supervisor.

When completing your application form, state both the iCASE project you are applying for AND your own project title. In the supervisors’ names’ section, list your proposed DPhil supervisor(s) for your own standard project, but also include the word iCASE. If you are applying for both, you must include a project proposal for your standard project (but not for the iCase project). Once received, your application will be considered for both iCASE and standard DPhil admission at the same time, providing a project proposal is included for a standard DPhil project.

If no project proposal is included for a standard DPhil project, your application will only be considered for the iCase project.