Getting funding
Fees and Maintenance Costs
Funding Overview
In order to be considered for funding, you must apply for a Michaelmas Term start.
Every year the University of Cambridge awards over £100m in scholarships to new postgraduate students. This money comes from many generous University and College endowments, as well as government Research Council (UKRI) funds. A lot of our students also fund their studies from external sources such as charities or government schemes. Further information is available.
Funding Opportunities
In your application, when asked ‘Do you wish to apply for funding?’ please tick the box ‘Yes - I wish to apply for funding’.
Your application will first be assessed by the Department. If you are successful in securing an offer, you will then be eligible for entry into University funding competitions.
There are many funding opportunities at Cambridge from a wide variety of sources including the Cambridge Trust Scholarships, Gates Cambridge Scholarships, Colleges and Research Councils. Full details can be found on the Postgraduate Admissions website. You can also use the Cambridge Funding page to find out which type of funding migyouht be eligible for and how and when to apply.
Funding opportunities enabling widening participation can be found on the Widening Participation page. UK-domiciled students of Black or Black-mixed ethnicity are eligible for Alexander Crummel Scholarships. Please visit the Cambridge Funding page for the latest information. We invite students from Africa who wish to study for an MPhil (advanced study or thesis) with us to consider their eligibility for the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Programme.
The deadline for University Funds applications (including Cambridge Trust and Gates Cambridge) for academic year 2027-2028 is 8 December 2026. For US citizens resident in the USA, who want to be considered for Gates funding, the deadline is 14 October 2026. For full details see the page on how to apply for funding.
*For more information please review the University Postgraduate Funding Search page and the Postgraduate School of Life Sciences Funding page.
Applicants are also encouraged to access external sources of scholarship funding from their home countries. In recent years we have had students with such funding from China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, among others.
There are also some specialised University funds which need a special application. We cannot cover all possible funding sources here, but the University of Cambridge Graduate Prospectus web pages cover the subjects of funding and costs in detail.
Doctoral Training Partnerships
The Department of Genetics is a member of three of the UK Research Council Doctoral Training Partnerships in the University. Along with world class research training, the DTPs provide training programmes for professional and personal development and offer a cohort-based environment for your research degree embedded in the wider Cambridge research community. Entry to these programs is normally decided by the programs themselves, rather than by the Department. You may wish to discuss with your prospective supervisor whether to apply to any of these as well as applying directly to the Department. Details of the programs can be found at the links provided below.
Three of the Research Councils provide funding to support research in the Life Sciences at the University of Cambridge:
- Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
- Medical Research Council (MRC)
- Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
For further information specific to the Department of Genetics please email our Postgraduate Administrator at pgadm@gen.cam.ac.uk