4-Year PhD programme

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4-Year PhD programme overview
Students spend the first eight months of the programme undertaking three rotation projects in different research groups. This ensures exposure to different disciplines in genomics, and allows the students to gain a better overall picture of the scientific nature of the Institute and the different technologies that are available. In particular, all students are required to carry out at least one informatics rotation and one experimental laboratory rotation. This helps students to develop wide ranging skills both at the bench and in data analysis. Students are required to write a short report or prepare a poster and make a presentation to the group at the end of each project. Selection of the final PhD project laboratory is by mutual consent between the student and supervisor and takes place during the third rotation period.

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute


  • Monitoring of each student's progress is achieved through the submission of a project report or the preparation of a poster for each rotation, their first year report and by thesis committee meetings which take place every 6 months.
  • During their PhD, students are expected to attend training courses in transferable and general research skills, participate in the students' journal club, present their work regularly and attend seminars.
  • Students offered one of our 4-year PhD programme studentships will obtain full financial support, including tuition fees, regardless of nationality. At least ten studentships will be available across all our research areas. Since Sanger Institute studentships are extremely competitive, we also encourage you to seek your own funding. Any students with their own funding should still apply to the 4-year PhD Programme in the usual way.
  • For information on how to make an application to our 4-year PhD Programme please go to How to apply.

How to apply

If you have any questions about the application process, please look at the FAQs. If you need further assistance, contact the Graduate Programme Office. Please note that the Graduate Programme Office is unable to comment on whether you are a suitable candidate for our 4-year PhD programme.

Academic requirements

  • Candidates are expected to hold, or be about to achieve, a 1st or an upper 2nd class degree or an equivalent overseas qualification. If overseas (non-UK, non-EU) applicants, who have not studied in a EU country, have GRE scores, they should include them in their application, as the results from this standardised test enable us to more easily compare applicants from different countries.

Competence in English

  • If your first language is not English you will need to meet the University of Cambridge's English languagerequirements, although you do not have to fulfil this requirement before submitting your on-line application to the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. However, if you are offered a place on our programme, you will need to fulfil this requirement before you can be admitted to the University of Cambridge.

Application procedure

  • You need to complete the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute on-line application.
  • Closing date for applications for the 2016 intake: Tuesday 1st December 2015 (23.59 GMT)

When completing the on-line application form you will need to:

  • Provide details of your academic qualifications
  • Provide details of two academic referees
  • Outline your research interests and indicate how these fit with the research interests of the Sanger Institute (max 200 words)
  • Outline any relevant work experience (max 200 words)
  • Write a personal statement on your research experience, research interests and career goals, explaining why you wish to pursue graduate training at the Sanger Institute (max 400 words)
  • Upload your University transcript(s) (and GRE scores if available) as a PDF file
You should request and receive your transcript(s) from your institution before you begin your application so that you have them ready to upload. If you are currently studying you should upload a transcript with the marks you have obtained so far.
Once you have completed the first page of the application form, a URL with a unique identifier will be generated, which you should bookmark. If you want to continue the application process at a later time you can use this URL to return to your incomplete form.

Once you have submitted your completed application form:

  • You will receive a confirmation email
  • Your chosen referees will receive an email asking them to submit an on-line reference for you
Please ensure that you have provided the correct institutional email address for your referees and that they have agreed to provide a reference for you. Once a referee has submitted their reference:
  • Your referee will receive a confirmation email
  • You will receive a confirmation email
It is your responsibility to ensure your referees have submitted their reference by Tuesday 8th December 2015 (23.59 GMT) at the latest.
The final deadline for the receipt of references is only one week after the application deadline. Therefore, please do not leave your application until the last minute as this does not leave much time for your referees to respond.

Please note that without references your application will not be processed.

  • If you are unable to upload your transcript(s), please contact the Graduate Programme Office and include your URL/unique identifier in the email.
  • Should you have any difficulties in submitting your on-line application, or you do not receive an email confirming that your submission has been successful, please contact the Graduate Programme Office and include your URL/unique identifier in the email.
  • Shortlisted candidates will be invited to attend our PhD Open Day on 25th January 2016 at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, where they will have three interviews with individual Sanger Institute Faculty members and one panel interview with three Sanger Institute Faculty members. If overseas applicants are unable to attend the PhD Open Day, they can be interviewed via a series of Skype or telephone interviews (during the two weeks before the Open Day).
  • If you have not heard from us by 8th January 2016 you should assume that you have not been shortlisted for interview.
  • The studentships will be allocated on a competitive basis after the PhD Open Day. All students who are offered a studentship on our 4-year PhD programme will obtain full financial support, including tuition fees, regardless of nationality.
  • Sanger studentships are extremely competitive, and we encourage you to seek your own funding. Any students with their own funding should still apply to our 4-year PhD Programme via the online application form.
  • Once a student has been selected for the 4-year PhD programme they have to apply for admission to theUniversity of Cambridge using the University's on-line GRADSAF (Graduate Admission and Scholarship Application Form). A student cannot take up our award unless they are also successful in securing admission to the University.
  • Please note that if you wish to be considered for the University of Cambridge's funding competitions you will need to submit a GRADSAF before the relevant deadline, in addition to making an application to our 4-Year PhD Programme.

Read More

http://www.sanger.ac.uk/workstudy/phd/fouryearphd.html

Students spend the first eight months of the programme undertaking three rotation projects in different research groups. This ensures exposure to different disciplines in genomics, and allows the students to gain a better overall picture of the scientific nature of the Institute and the different technologies that are available. In particular, all students are required to carry out at least one informatics rotation and one experimental laboratory rotation.