iCASE 2026

MRC ENTERPRISE STUDENTSHIP PROGRAMME 2026 (INDUSTRIAL CASE AWARDS)

Eight industrial CASE (iCASE) studentships are available for doctoral study at Oxford, to start in October 2026. 

Designed to nurture the academic entrepreneurs of the future, the Enterprise studentship programme offers a stimulating educational experience as part of the Oxford-MRC DTP cohort, with the additional benefit of working closely with an industrial partner. This will provide entrepreneurial training opportunities and an insight into how commercial science is conducted alongside a superb academic base within the University. Students will work for at least 3 months in the associated company.

ELIGIBILITY

They are open to both UK and non-UK nationals and will follow the UKRI student eligibility requirements. UKRI will normally limit the proportion of international students appointed each year through individual training grants to 30% of the total intake each year.

FUNDING PACKAGE

Each iCASE studentship is fully-funded - it includes four years of stipend at the UKRI stipend level + £2,500 p.a., course fees (including overseas fees if applicable), and a generous research training support grant.

APPLICATIONS DEADLINE

Applications must be received by 12 noon (UK time) Tuesday 2 December 2025. Details on entry requirements and how to apply can be found below.

PROJECTS

1.Clinical feasibility study and refinement of a rapid, point-of-care urinary test for detecting intravascular haemolysis

Lead supervisor: Professor Pawel Swietach

Commercial partner: Camtech Innovations Ltd

2.Developing within-host and population-scale models for optimising vaccination strategies

Lead supervisor: Professor Robin Thompson

Commercial partner: GSK

3.From Instability to Opportunity: Therapeutic Targeting of CIN in Cancer

Lead supervisor: Associate Professor Eileen Parkes

Commercial partner: Dark Blue Therapeutics

4.Development of a novel endometriosis treatment using a targeted viral immunotherapy

Lead supervisor: Dr Jennifer Southcombe

Commercial partner: Accession Therapeutics

5.Unlocking the potential of UTI POCT: what additional value can be added by rapid molecular tests?

Lead supervisor: Professor Gail Hayward

Commercial partner: Llusern Scientific Ltd

6.Thermal imaging of the inner canthi: a potential non-pharmaceutical intervention for pandemic preparedness

Lead supervisor: Dr Susannah Fleming

Commercial partner: National Physical Laboratory (Incorporated name: NPL Management Ltd.)

7.Digital tracking of Parkinson’s disease symptoms

Lead supervisor: Professor Michele Hu

Commercial partner: NeuHealth

8.Developing Accountable AI for Automated Cardiovascular MR Processing towards Precision Diagnostic Reporting

Lead supervisor: Associate Professor Qiang Zhang

Commercial partner: AI4MedImaging

9.Predicting and characterising asthma exacerbations using a contactless respiratory night monitor

Lead supervisor: Professor Nayia Petousi

Commercial partner: BreatheOx Limited (trading as Albus Health)

10.Development of novel hardware and software for functional hyperpolarised Xenon Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Lead supervisor: Professor Fergus Gleeson

Commercial partner: 4E-FUTURES (trading as TEQRF previously PULSETEQ)

11.Unlocking the immune and epigenetic enigma of PANS/PANDAS: Integrating clinical T cell signatures, autoantibody profiles, and microbial dysbiosis with in vitro mechanistic studies using advanced multiplex technology, Raman microscopy and machine learning

Lead supervisor: Professor Karl Morten

Commercial partner: Virax Biolabs

12.Development of robust, single-subject markers of predictive inference for computational psychiatry

Lead supervisor: Professor Laurence Hunt

Commercial partner: P1vital

13.Quantifying Molecular Developability to Guide Decision Making in Small-Molecule Drug Discovery

Lead supervisor: Dr Fergus Imrie

Commercial partner: Dalton Tx

14.Conversational AI for Global Adolescent Mental Health: Evidence and Co-design with Young People

Lead supervisor: Professor Mina Fazel

Commercial partner: Girl Effect

15.Can quantitative MRI and quantitative susceptibility mapping be applied to the rare disease, superficial siderosis, to improve patient lives through diagnostics, monitoring and treatments?

Lead supervisor: Professor Charlotte Stagg

Commercial partner: Perspectum

16.Identifying the characteristics, treatments, and prevention strategies of post-infectious psychiatric conditions using electronic health records

Lead supervisor: Professor Rachel Upthegrove

Commercial partner: Akrivia Health

17.Rapid MRI scanning for population-level neuroimaging

Lead supervisor: Associate Professor Aaron Hess

Commercial partner: Siemens Healthineers

18.Microstructural and dynamic biomarkers of neurodegeneration

Lead supervisor: Professor Vanessa Raymont

Commercial partner: Oxford Brain Diagnostics

19.EEG-driven closed-loop xTMS for the modulation of neural oscillations underpinning motor learning and execution

Lead supervisor: Professor Andrew Sharott

Commercial partner: Magstim

20.Development of next-generation anti-cancer radiopharmaceuticals

Lead supervisor: Professor Katherine Vallis

Commercial partner: Blue Earth Therapeutics Ltd

21.Enhancing automated CT-brain analysis tools for quantifying atrophy and white matter disease and development of a novel CT-brain analysis tool to quantify stroke lesions

Lead supervisor: Professor Sarah Pendlebury

Commercial partner: Brainomix

22.Exploring the clinical promise of transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) to treat neurological conditions

Lead supervisor: Professor Charlotte Stagg

Commercial partner: NeuroHarmonics Ltd

23.Mind the Gap: Improving Transitions from Child to Adult Mental Health Services to Prevent Severe Mental Illness

Lead supervisor: Associate Professor Amedeo Minichino

Commercial partner: Akrivia Health

24.Exploring the neural geometry of flexible learning in mice and humans

Lead supervisor: Professor Abhishek Banerjee

Commercial partner: IBM

25.Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived 3D cortical organoid models to study dementia in Parkinson’s

Lead supervisor: Professor Richard Wade-Martins

Commercial partner: GSK

26.Optimization and expansion of novel multiplexing qPCR technology (PCRchitectur) for disease diagnosis and prognosis

Lead supervisor: Professor Dame Molly M. Stevens

Commercial partner: Signatur Biosciences

27.AI-enabled nanoparticle surface engineering for cancer therapy: balancing targeting efficiency and blood circulation

Lead supervisor: Professor Dame Molly M. Stevens

Commercial partner: Nanograb

28.Unravelling the effects of mitochondrial replacement therapy on mtDNA transmission

Lead supervisor: Professor Dagan Wells

Commercial partner: Juno Genetics

29.Development of Cardiac Diffusion Tensor Imaging for Clinical Evaluation of Cardiomyopathies

Lead supervisor: Professor Betty Raman 

Commercial partner: GE Healthcare 

30. High throughput human systems for target discovery and validation in tissue fibrosis

Lead supervisor: Dr Andrew Lewis

Commercial partner: GSK

31. The DRAGON Project - Developing Novel Molecular Methodologies in Liquid Biopsy for Early Liver Cancer detection

Lead supervisor: Professor Eleanor Barnes

Commercial partner: Shard-dx

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

Within equal opportunities principles and legislation, applications will be assessed in the light of an applicant’s ability to meet the following entry requirements:

1. Academic ability

Proven and potential academic achievements

Applicants are normally expected to be predicted or have achieved a first-class or strong upper second-class undergraduate degree with honours (or equivalent international qualifications), as a minimum, in a relevant discipline such as biology, biochemistry, or medicine (other disciplines might also be relevant for projects hosted by MPLS departments). However, entrance is very competitive and most successful applicants have a first-class degree or the equivalent.

A previous master's degree is not required.

No Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or GMAT scores are sought.

Other appropriate indicators will include:

Supporting documents

You will be required to supply supporting documents with your application, including references and an official transcript. See 'How to apply' for instructions on the documents you will need.

Performance at interview

Interviews are normally held as part of the admissions/funding allocation process.

Candidates who are shortlisted are interviewed as part of the admissions process. Shortlisting will be based on the criteria given above. There will be a minimum of three academics on the interview panel. Interviews will be conducted virtually this year. Normally, the interviews will run for 25 minutes in a question and answer format.

Publications

Prior publications are not required, but research experience and a demonstrable interest in the commercialisation of research may be an advantage.

Other qualifications, evidence of excellence and relevant experience

Evidence of a prior interest in the area of research proposed is likely to advantage your application.

2. English language requirement

Applicants whose first language is not English are usually required to provide evidence of proficiency in English at the standard level required by the University.

3. Disability, health conditions and specific learning difficulties

Students are selected for admission without regard to gender, marital or civil partnership status, disability, race, nationality, ethnic origin, religion or belief, sexual orientation, age or social background.

Decisions on admission are based solely on the individual academic merits of each candidate and the application of the entry requirements appropriate to the course.

Further information on how these matters are supported during the admissions process is available in our guidance for applicants with disabilities.

4. Assessors

All recommendations to admit a student involve the judgment of at least two members of academic staff with relevant experience and expertise, and additionally must be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies or Admissions Committee (or equivalent departmental persons or bodies).

Admissions panels or committees will always include at least one member of academic staff who has undertaken appropriate training.

It would be expected that graduate applicants would be familiar with the recent published work of their proposed supervisor.

HOW TO APPLY

Before applying for these positions we recommend you contact the lead supervisors for informal discussions.

To make a formal application, please complete the University’s online application form for the DPhil course specific to the department hosting the iCASE project you are interested in. Please indicate the iCASE project clearly by inserting ‘iCASE’ before the project title and by using the reference code iCASE. You will need to provide a personal statement (500 words max if applying for a project hosted by one of Medical Sciences departments - please note that this limit might be different if a project is hosted by one of MPLS departments in which case follow their requirement) detailing your interest and fit for the studentship. Note that no project proposal is required for the iCASE studentship applications.

If you wish to apply for a combination of iCASE and other projects within the hosting department, this can be done on the same application form (max number of projects you can apply for on one application depends on the department you wish to apply to). If you wish to apply for iCASE projects within different departments, you will have to make separate applications directly through those departments.

If you have any specific queries about the iCASE application process, please email mrc@medsci.ox.ac.uk. General advice on how to pick a graduate advisor (supervisor) and how to choose a scientific problem can be found in these two articles:

• Ben Barres, 2013, How to pick a graduate advisor, Neuron.
• Uri Alon, 2009, How to choose a good scientific problem, Mol Cell.

All applications must be received by the deadline of 12 noon (UK time) Tuesday 2 December 2025.

We expect to interview shortlisted applicants in January/February and to make funding offers by the end of February.