Recruitment for 2025
Applications are now closed for the first cohort of YES•DTN to start in October 2025.
Please read the information carefully, as not supplying the correct information will impact your application. The application deadline for our October 2025 cohort is 17:00 GMT on Wednesday 8 January 2025, with interviews in early March 2025. Independent of whether the project is located in Leeds or York, all applications will need to be submitted through the University of Leeds online portal.
Please note: there is not an option for you to provide your own project. You will need to select a pre-designed project supplied by our supervisors.
If you have any questions about applications please contact us at yes-dtn@leeds.ac.uk.
Studentships
We will offer 25 – 26 fully funded studentships per year, to be based at either the University of York or the University of Leeds.
The studentships cover:
- a personal stipend (tax-free allowance that you don’t have to pay back) at Research Council UK (RCUK) rates for 3.5 years
- university fees
- generous support for research costs, fieldwork, training and conference travel.
We can offer 7 funded studentships each year to international applicants
- we cover all your university fees as well (regardless of home-international fee difference), and you will receive the standard UKRI rate stipend.
- however, we cannot cover costs associated with relocation to the UK which you may incur, e.g. accommodation, travel, student visa, health surcharge.
- See the UK Govt. website for more information on student visas (including costs) and the health surcharge. You can also get in touch with the Student Visa Advice service at the University of Leeds.
Application process
The application process is summarised below. This is the required process for all applications, we are unable to accept applications via email.
What information will I need to provide?
You must first complete the University of Leeds online application form and then the YES•DTN application form.
The YES•DTN application form is a combined CV and structured personal statement.
The structured personal statement asks you to respond to 5 questions, within a word limit of about 250 words per question.
- What motivates you to do a PhD?
- What excites you about your chosen project? Why is it important to work on this topic?
- How does your professional and academic background prepare you to do a PhD?
- How do your existing skills match with the required skills and which skills do you hope to acquire during the PhD?
- Why is a YES•DTN studentship the right way for you to get a PhD?
More information on the required information for the CV component can be found here.
Please do not email your personal CV and personal statement to us as we cannot accept them.
Before you apply
We suggest you contact supervisors by email, with the project description listed as the subject, to arrange an online or in-person meeting to discuss the project. If you are interested in more than one project it might be a good idea to contact all the relevant supervisors to find out which project is of most interest to you.
This discussion is a two-way opportunity: you want to learn more about the project and the skills/interests required and the supervisor can get a feeling for your motivation and interests.
You can only apply to one project as part of this competition.
We do not use references as part of our application process. Your application will be reviewed by the academic supervisor of the project and the YES•DTN directorship as part of our shortlisting process. Shortlisted candidates will be invited for interview, and you have opportunity to visit our campuses before the interviews, if possible.
Application webinars to support you with your application will be run before the closing date. More information on the webinars will be available soon.
Our process aims to reduce bias at all stages and we recruit candidates from all backgrounds and with a diversity of experiences.
Manage Your Application Online
You can check the status of your University of Leeds online application (UoL OLA), upload documents and make changes via the University of Leeds online portal: https://applyonline.leeds.ac.uk. When you submitted your UoL OLA, you will have been sent an email which provided you with the following information: –
Login ID: Your login ID
Web Login PIN: Your login PIN
Student ID: 123456789 example SID
Applicant Name: Your name
Degree: NERC YES DTN Yorkshire Environmental Sciences (PHP-EYES-FT)
Term: 202526
This is an automatically generated email and will be sent from the following email address: rp_web@leeds.ac.uk within 24 hours of you submitting your application. If you do not think you have received this email, please check your email’s spam or junk folders