AURAII builds on the exemplary research track record of our previous CDT in Offshore Wind Energy and the Environment (AURA CDT). Drawing on a powerful research partnership between the Universities of Durham, Hull, Loughborough and Sheffield, and over 40 industry partners, we will welcome over 65 high quality doctoral researchers over the next five years (5 cohorts 2024-2028) To find out more and how to apply.

Durham's contact: Will Coombs Louise Gasgoine CDT Admin

ReNU⁺  is a doctoral training programmes funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and delivered by Northumbria, Durham and Newcastle Universities.

ReNU⁺ opened in 2025 and runs alongside ReNU which was formed in 2019. ReNU has five cohorts of doctoral students and our sixth cohort under ReNU⁺ started their PhD in October 2025. 

ReNU⁺ is an ambitious programme designed to train the next generation of doctoral researchers in renewable energy and Net Zero through research excellence and interdisciplinary systemic thinking. The programme aims to develop highly skilled graduates equipped to deliver an equitable energy transition so that Net Zero is inclusive for all. To find out more and how to apply. 

Durham's Contact: Chris Groves Academic Lead – Louise Gasgoine CDT Admin

The Fusion CDT is a collaboration between six of the UK’s top universities. Durham, Liverpool, Manchester, Oxford, Sheffield and York. The EPSRC CDT in Fusion Power empowers our students to become exceptional fusion scientists and engineers through world-class training and a thriving collaborative community. We support PhD students from diverse backgrounds in developing their expertise and research skills. Our goal is to enhance students’ knowledge and skills within the fusion power sector, enabling them to evaluate complex problems, propose innovative solutions, and navigate the demanding nature of the evolving landscape of fusion power. To find out more and how to apply. 

Durham's Contact: Damian Hampshire and Clare Chadwick

BiSCI will train PhD students across three yearly cohorts, helping them develop the skills needed to shape the future of biosciences and the consumer products sector.

The programme brings together our bioscientists with major industrial and academic partners, including Procter & Gamble, Insiligence, Prozomix, Newcastle University, Northumbria University and Imperial College London.

Durham's contact: Martin Cann

The extraordinarily rapid rise of algorithmic technologies is witnessing a seismic shift in how the lives of humans are interwoven with novel machine paradigms of knowledge and action. Across many spheres of life – from decisions on welfare or immigration to judgements about healthcare – the futures of people and societies are becoming intimately connected to the patterns and attributes that algorithms have learned from data. The Leverhulme Centre for Algorithmic Life (LCAL) is transforming how we understand and study the relationship between human life and machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. Algorithmic life involves an emerging cultural, social, and technological way of knowing and engaging with the world, a paradigm whose form and consequences are not yet well understood.

The Centre is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of algorithmic life, pursuing one of the most urgent questions for contemporary society: how do we wish to live with and alongside algorithmic technologies? Our researchers are examining the novel paradigms of knowledge, perception, and action that emerge with contemporary algorithmic technologies. They are exploring how ideas and concepts of what it means to be human transform and adapt in collaboration with the different life-worlds of algorithms.

Leverhulme Centre for Algorithmic Life

The programme is a partnership between Durham University and Kingston University, London. 

It will support a new generation of neurodiversity-affirming scholars to tackle significant global challenges through fresh perspectives.

Working with communities and partner organisations, researchers will explore how different ways of thinking, perceiving and experiencing the world can help address major societal challenges.

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Information will be available soon.