PhD/MPhil Evolutionary Biology

Visit our Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health postgraduate research events page to find out about upcoming open days and events.

• Browse our project listings and funded programmes to discover a project you’re passionate about and check you meet eligibility criteria.
• Understand how your project is funded and, if it’s listed as self-funded, consider our funding opportunities for self-funded projects or other funding opportunities .
• Speak to the listed supervisor about your suitability for their project or programme before you apply.
• Visit our ‘How to apply’ page to find out more and ensure you include all required supporting documents at the time of submission.

Visit our Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health postgraduate research page to find out more.

Before you start your application, you should:

• Discover more about the research area you’re interested in.
• Identify the programme or find the specific research project you'd like to apply for.
• Contact the listed project supervisor and speak to them about your suitability for the project.
• Understand how your project is funded and, if you are applying for a self-funded project, consider how you plan on funding your project and discuss this with the listed supervisor.

If you already have your own funding:

• Find a specific self-funded project and contact the project supervisor to talk to them about your suitability for the project; OR
• Determine your own research project and title, find a potential supervisor in this research area and contact them to discuss potentially supervising your research.

Supporting documents

You'll also need to make sure you have the following documents before you start your application:

• Personal statement
• Certificates and transcripts
• CV
• Confirmation of funding (if you are self-funded)
• English language ability
• Names and details of two referees to support your application

Visit our ‘How to apply’ page to find out more about the information required for each of these supporting documents.

Any missing information may delay the processing of your application.

Application deadlines

The deadline for applying for postgraduate research in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health depends on when you intend to start your research and how your project is funded.

If you are applying for one of our funded programmes, please refer to the deadlines detailed on the relevant page .

If you’re applying for a project that isn’t part of one of these programmes, our final application deadlines are:

• January 2026 entry: Wednesday, 15 October 2025
• April 2026 entry: Thursday, 15 January 2026
• September 2026 entry: Tuesday, 15 June 2026

Our PhD/MPhil Evolutionary Biology programme enables you to undertake a research project at the cutting-edge of the field using different experimental, field, molecular, genomics, epigenomics and bioinformatics technologies that will improve understanding of Evolutionary Biology.

Evolution is the key to understanding manyfundamental questions in the life sciences. To comprehend the diversity of life on earth, it is essential to know the evolutionary link between organisms and the processes by which new traits originate and are maintained.

In the biomedical sciences, comparisons of model organisms to humans, emergence of antibiotic resistance, or the identification of pathogen strains from molecular information all involve evolutionary processes. Therefore, evolution is of central importance to most areas of the life sciences.

Research in evolutionary biology covers a wide range of questions about evolutionary patterns and processes in microbes, plants and animals. Particular faculty strengths are evolutionary genetics and genomics, epigenomics, phyologenetics, behavioural ecology and evolutionary developmental biology.

The breadth of research topics is reflected in a diversity of state of the art techniques used, such as genome sequencing, epigenomics and CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, but also field, bioinformatics and transcriptomics research, mathematical modelling.

Examples of areas of investigation include:

• evolution of shapes and morphometrics
• molecular and genome evolution
• evolution of networks
• organismal and behavioural evolution
• phenotypic plasticity and epigenetics
• theoretical biology and evolution of mating strategies
• Antimicrobial resistance and its evolution

Training and development

All of our postgraduate researchers attend the Doctoral Academy Training Programme delivered by the Researcher Development team . The programme provides key transferable skills and equips our postgraduate researchers with the tools to progress beyond their research degree into influential positions within academia, industry and consultancy. The emphasis is on enhancing skills critical to developing early-stage researchers and professionals, whether they relate to effective communication, disseminating research findings and project management skills.

Visit our PhD life page to discover life as a postgraduate researcher at Manchester or read our postgraduate research student blog .

Your postgraduate research degree will open up a range of career opportunities after you graduate. Find out more on the  Careers  page.