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Commonwealth Fellowship Programme PhDs 2025
The King’s Commonwealth Fellowship Programme (KCFP) offers a unique and prestigious opportunity for academic staff and professionals from Commonwealth Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to pursue a PhD while continuing their professional work. This initiative, inspired by His Majesty King Charles III, aims to strengthen research capabilities and enhance the expertise of individuals in critical sectors essential to the resilience, economic stability, and long-term prosperity of SIDS.
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Recognizing the pressing need to upskill future generations within both the public and private sectors, the programme focuses on professionals committed to engineering, education, health, and climate resilience. The fellowships enable candidates to undertake a PhD in their home country while benefiting from joint supervision with an international partner university—primarily from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, or the UK. This approach provides access to high-quality mentorship, world-class research facilities, and specialized training, ensuring that fellows acquire advanced knowledge and expertise while remaining rooted in their local context.
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A distinctive feature of the KCFP PhD Fellowship is that fellows will have the opportunity to spend designated periods at their partner university abroad for research methods training or specialized study sessions. This blended learning structure equips them with global best practices while ensuring their research remains aligned with local needs and priorities.
To be eligible, applicants must possess a Master’s degree or equivalent professional experience and demonstrate a strong commitment to driving positive change in their respective fields.
The programme supports PhD research in four key areas:
- Climate change & environment
- Education
- Engineering
- Health
By fostering international collaboration and knowledge exchange, the King’s Commonwealth Fellowship Programme plays a vital role in building sustainable research capacity, empowering professionals to lead innovation and resilience in their home countries.
Benefits
Benefits of this fellowships:
- The fellowship will support each successful recipient with the following: GBP 30,000 over 6 years (GBP 5,000 per year) to support research and research visits to a dedicated partner university (in Australia, Canada, New Zealand or United Kingdom). Waiver of international tuition fees if they would be charged for the visiting period(s).
- Where available and applicable, access to resources such as the library of the partner university or databases on a case-by-case basis.
- GBP 12,000 research support grant (GBP 2,000 per year).
- 20% salary contribution to the employer of the PhD candidate over the 6 years.
- Dedicated joint PhD supervisors from the partner university and SIDS home university for the whole duration of the 6-year long Fellowship.
- Access as a member of the ‘King’s Fellows cohort’ to training to support continued professional development and learn relevant skills, such as communication, engaging with policy makers, entrepreneurship, public speaking and applying for research funding.
Eligibilities
All of the below items must apply to be eligible:
- Applicants with a Master’s degree or equivalent experience.
- Due to commence or already enrolled in a PhD research degree programme at a ACU SIDS member university in the 2025/26 academic year with an aim to complete the PhD degree (please see list of universities below).
- PhD subject area falls within one of the 4 KCFP research areas (Climate change/environment, Education, Engineering and Health).
- Applicants with citizenship or refugee status in a Commonwealth SIDS. The following countries are eligible:
Application Process
- Applications for a PhD Fellowship can be completed and submitted online using the link below.
- Applicants should read all of the application guidance
Application Deadline: April 25, 2025 (32 Days Remaining)
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