Standard Project Call
(formerly Core)
This page is designed to guide investigators across the Health Faculties through the process of submitting a Project Proposal Form to the annual MRC Standard Project Call.
The MRC DLA offers two PhD pathways: an Integrated PhD pathway with Year 1 laboratory rotations followed by a PhD in Years 2-4, and a Direct PhD pathway consisting of a four-year PhD programme. We recognise that applicants with the potential to become outstanding PhD students come from diverse backgrounds and have a range of interests and training needs. Importantly, both pathways provide adequate time for training in both experimental and broader research skills, with a particular focus on quantitative skills and research methodologies.
We have guaranteed funding for 22 Standard Studentships in the Health Faculties for 2027 entry and are now issuing a call to investigators across the Health Faculties for potential rotation and thesis projects for students joining the MRC DLA in September/October 2027. All eligible projects will be advertised to prospective applicants and offered to our next incoming class.
Quick Links
Values and Expectations
By submitting a project to the DLA, you are committing to promoting and upholding the values and ethos of the programme set out in our programme Values and Expectations.
Fundamental to these values is the understanding that PhD supervision is a privilege, and the supervisor’s responsibility is to prioritise the best experience for scientific training and development of the student. In return students will thrive and enhance the quality of your research and the environment of the group.
Diversity Monitoring of Supervisor Pool 2027 Entry
As part of the project call submission, we ask all supervisors to complete a Diversity Monitoring Form for completion. Filling in this form is mandatory alongside your Project Proposal Form, but you can choose to select “prefer not to say” for all questions if you wish.
Why are we collecting this data? As a DLA, we are expected to ensure that equality, diversity, and inclusion is considered and supported at all stages throughout the performance of the Training Grant, in alignment with UKRI and MRC policies and principles for equality, diversity and inclusion.
What will we do with this data? Driven by these policies and KCL EDI initiatives this form is designed to collect data on the diversity of our supervisor pool. We will then collect data from our current supervisors and compare our findings. Our aim is to ensure a diverse supervisor pool and if we find that we do not, we will take positive action to try and change it.
How will we store this data? The DLA Operations & Management Team will coordinate the process of collecting data. All data submitted is completely anonymous; no name, no email, no way of knowing who submitted. Data will be stored on a SharePoint only accessible by the Operations Team.
Project Call Guidance
Projects must align to one of the three MRC DLA themes and must be suitable for either the Integrated PhD (1+3) or Direct PhD (0+4) pathway:
- Mechanisms of Health and Disease and Experimental Medicine (MHD-EM)
- Neuroscience and Mental Health Innovation (NSMH-I)
- Biomedical Engineering, Imaging and AI for Precision Health (BEI-AI)
Project descriptions should be written so that third year undergraduate students can understand them and should outline the contribution of each supervisor.
Projects can emphasise discovery/basic or translational/applied research. Projects which are translational should involve supervisory input from a clinician/clinician scientist (EITHER the two supervisors can be a combination of a basic scientist and a clinician/clinician scientist OR two basic scientists with an associated clinician/clinician scientist).
College regulations do not normally permit post-doctoral researchers to act as first or second supervisors for research degree students. Eligible senior post-doctoral researchers may be approved to act as a second supervisor, and post-doctoral researchers may be appointed as a third supervisor.
A co-supervisor can only submit one project proposal per project call. Co-supervisors can submit project proposals to both the MRC DLA Standard and MRC DLA Collaborative project calls provided the projects are different.
To encourage breadth within the DLA, a maximum of two MRC DLA students can undertake their PhD thesis project at any one time with any single supervisor.
The complete portfolio of all eligible project options will be made available to applicants at the time of application, and applicants will be asked to identify three projects of interest. Applicants to the Direct PhD pathway will decide which project they wish to undertake at offer stage. Applicants to the Integrated PhD pathway are not committed to a specific PhD project at offer stage. Students on the Integrated PhD pathway will select their first rotation project after arriving in September and meeting potential supervisors. Decisions regarding subsequent rotation projects will be made during the rotation year. Following completion of the rotation programme, students will select their PhD thesis project. Students must receive approval from their Personal Tutor before commencing each project.
There will be opportunities for supervisors to meet applicants on or before the interviews.
Project Eligibility
The MRC DLA operates a co-supervision model. Both supervisors must be eligible to act as a first supervisor and are expected to make an equal contribution to supervision of the project. As per KCL PGR Regulations, at least one co-supervisor must have supervised a PGR student to completion and supervisors must have obtained a PhD or equivalent degree as relevant to the student in question, e.g. MD(Res), DClinPsy.
Both supervisors must have undergone supervisory development or be enrolled onto this course. This will be verified when the project submission is reviewed.
Both supervisors must be primarily appointed at KCL/KHP (50% or higher) to be eligible to be a co-supervisor.
The supervisory team must be able to demonstrate that sufficient resources are available to undertake the project. For laboratory-based projects, this will typically require at least one co-supervisor to be a primary grant holder. Relevant grant funding should be detailed in the proposal form. Only one project submission is permitted per co-supervisor in each project call.
To encourage breadth within the DLA, a maximum of two MRC DLA students may undertake their PhD thesis project with any single supervisor at any one time.
It is the responsibility of the supervisory team (Co-Supervisors 1A and 1B) to ensure that, collectively, they meet all KCL requirements regarding supervisor eligibility.
Key Dates
Deadline for project proposal submission
30 October 2026, 13:00 (GMT)
Project review period
November 2026
Supervisors notified of outcome
By 4 December 2026
Studentships advertised for 2027 Entry
Mid-December 2026 (prior to College closure)
Stage One applications open
11 January 2027
Stage One applications close
27 January 2027
Application processing and shortlisting
February 2027
Stage Two Applications and Reference Collection
March 2027
Candidate Interviews
April 2027
Submit a Project
All the sections of the project proposal form must be complete, and all listed supervisors must have completed the Diversity Monitoring Form at the time of submission. Incomplete or late proposals will not be accepted.
We understand that PIs will want to collabrate on the form before submission. Therefore, if you would like to prepare your answers prior to filling in the online form, you can download a Word version here.
Please do not submit the Microsoft Word document. Project proposals will only be accepted via the online form.
Click here to begin your Standard Studentship Project Proposal
Deadline: 30 October 2026, 13:00 (GMT)
Any enquiries should be directed to mrc-dtp@kcl.ac.uk.