Information for Applicants

  • IDCORE Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
  • Pre-application Mentoring Scheme - for 2025 Entry
  • How to apply 
  • Funding
  • The IDCORE Interview
  • Closing Date
  • Academic Tehnology Approval Scheme (ATAS)

IDCORE Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

IDCORE is very attractive to students with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) backgrounds and we receive around 100 applicants each year for the 10 places offered.

The infographic shows the gender, basic ethnicity detail and the first degrees of the 40 students we have recruited between 2019 and 2022. We have achieved this by using:

  • clear selection guidelines
  • an open and transparent process
  • interviews with a mixed panel and standard questions
  • having a broad selection of projects and supervisors available so that students can choose research topics after they have joined the programme.

We are proud of our EDI achievements but aim to go further - for 2025 recruitment, we have introduced a Pre-application Mentoring Scheme (see below) and we now publish our interview questions (please see the image on the right).

Our ambition is to have gender balanced cohorts and a diverse ethnic community representative of the UK population.

Pre-application Mentoring Scheme

**IDCORE's Pre-application mentoring scheme is now closed for 2025 entry - we will retart the scheme for 2026 entry, in late summer 2025**

IDCORE is offering a pre-application mentoring scheme, for anybody who feels they may be a non-traditional applicant to Postgraduate Research.  Being a non-traditional applicant could be as a result of a vast range of things, for example:

  • personal characteristics like gender, disability, ethnicity, neurodivergence.
  • individual backgrounds, such as religion, caregiving responsibilities, young family responsibilities, returning to study after working in the energy sector, other industries, teaching, etc, or studying non-engineering STEM subjects such as marine biology, chemistry, physics, geology, mathematics.
  • particular histories, including being a low-income individual or coming from a low-income family.

Mentors will be students currently on the IDCORE programme, or recently graduated.  Mentors will be able to describe what it is like to be on the programme and how they have personally fitted into the diverse IDCORE family. 

To engage with our pre-application mentoring scheme, there will be a very simply online form to submit and the IDCORE Administrator, Katrina, will be in touch.  Please note that we only wish to know why you see yourself as a non-traditional applicant, and any detail provided will not be assessed as a part of any future application to IDCORE.  Please also note that the information provided in this form will be shared with one or more of our student mentors, in order to optimise the mentor/mentee match.  Information will be treated confidentially otherwise.  Please see the University's privacy notice here.

Mentoring resources may be limited depending on the demand, and as such, we cannot guarantee to fulfil all requests - early engagement is encouraged so that resources can be allocated.

 If you have any trouble with the request form, please email Katrina on idcore.admin@ed.ac.uk. 

How to Apply

** We are now closed for new applicatons to start September 2025.  Apply links will open again in October 2025, for September 2026 start**

Applications are made online using the University of Edinburgh Degree Finder. Please select September 2025 as the entry point and click on the Apply button.

Documents required for upload - please read before starting your application:

  • Degree certificates and transcripts for any Undergraduate and Postgraduate degrees (inlcuding English translations, if applicable)
  • Cover Letter: to any field, please upload a single A4 page explaining why you think IDCORE should offer you a place.  Please make sure you name your file 'Cover Letter'.
  • Your CV (with an appropriate filename) to any of the upload fields. 
  • Two references (or contact details for two referees) are required: Ideally one should be an academic reference and the other a recent employer reference. References must be dated within the last 12 months, signed and on letter-headed paper.

Application notes - please read before starting your application:

  • You can leave the Personal Statement window blank if all information is included in your Cover Letter. 
  • You can leave the Relevant Knowledge/Training window blank if all information is included in your CV. 
  • Please leave the Research Proposal window blank and do not nominate a supervisor.  
  • You should be able to upload more than one document to each field (this may be browser dependant). If your documents are all appropriately named, you can upload your documents to any field and they will be discoverable.
  • If you are an overseas student applying with your own funding, please provide details when prompted. Otherwise, please leave all funding questions blank. 
  • Some web browsers may not allow you to leave a field blank - if this is the case please enter 'n/a'.

Funding

If accepted to the programme you will automatically be awarded full funding (enhanced stipend and tuition fees), there is no separate application for funding.

The (online) IDCORE Interview Process

If you have submitted an application which meets IDCORE’s quality threshold you will be invited to attend online sessions over Teams. We normally hold interviews on a monthly basis, starting in, or before, December.

The IDCORE Interview process is designed to assess if a candidate is suitable for IDCORE, but, just as importantly, it is designed to help candidates decide if IDCORE is right for them.

The interview day starts with an introductory 45-minute presentation by Prof David Ingram including all candidates.  This is a chance for candidates to have a deep understanding of IDCORE, including the aims, structure, academic requirements etc.  This session is not assessed in any way and candidates may ask questions throughout.

The day will also include a 45-minute session with existing IDCORE students and all the candidates - this gives candidates a chance to ask questions of existing students so they can learn more about what it is like to be on the programme.  Existing students always give honest and insightful answers to candidates' questions - it is a very valuable part of the day.  This session does not include any interview panel members and is not assessed in any way.

Individual (one candidate at a time) interviews are conducted by a panel of partner academics and an industrial panel member, and will last no longer than 45 minutes. Each candidate will be asked to present a pre-prepared, 8-minute oral talk entitled “State of the art in offshore renewable energy” (PowerPoint slides/screensharing are not permitted) and will then be asked about their experience through a series of standardised questions (please see the questions in the image above). The oral presentation can be on any relevant topic, either focusing on a niche area or taking a broad view.  Interview questions are not technical and are not designed to 'catch the interviewee out' in any way.  Excellent candidates will be able to show passion and enthusiasm during the interview and provide compelling evidence of why they want to join IDCORE.

Places are offered to candidates who the panel feel would make excellent IDCORE students. Decisions are made on the day and normally communicated to candidates within one week of the interview.

Closing date

We are now closed for new applicatons to start September 2025.  Apply links will open again in October 2025, for September 2026 start.

Academic Tehnology Approval Scheme (ATAS)

The Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) applies to certain overseas students who want to study or conduct research in specific sensitive technology-related fields in the UK. The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), essentially the UK Government, administers the scheme and issues ATAS certificates.

More info here, including the nationalities that are exempt from requiring ATAS:

GOV.UK Guidance

ATAS is not required to start the IDCORE programme.  However, some areas of research that might come up in an IDCORE research project, could be ATAS-sensitive, (eg electrical network engineering) and these areas are subject to change over time.  As such, when we go through the Project Allocation process for each cohort, in February of the first year, the IDCORE Directorate will assess the projects on offer for their ATAS requirements and make our relevant overseas students aware of projects that would require an ATAS certificate. 

If an overseas student, not exempt from requiring an ATAS certificate, is subsequently matched with an ATAS-sensitive project, then the student will need to apply and obtain an ATAS certificate. This application would be made as a result of a “change of field of study”.   The project cannot start without the ATAS certificate. 

Any student requiring an ATAS certificate will be guided through the application process by the IDCORE Director, supported by their academic supervisors.

Each year, projects are allocated in mid-February and start in June, providing a suitable window of 3.5 months for the ATAS certificate to be issued (ATAS certificates are normally issued within 3 months).  

It is not a certainty that an ATAS certificate will be issued.  Issuance, or otherwise, is based on various factors that IDCORE and the University are not familiar with, and have no influence over.   If an ATAS certificate is denied, then either the project would be re-designed (to remove the need for ATAS) or an alternative project found.  Both scenarios are within the capabilities of IDCORE.

If you'd like to discuss any ATAS implications for IDCORE, please be in touch.

IDCORE EDI infographic showing the gender, basic ethnicity detail and the first degrees of the 40 students we have recruited since 2019
IDCORE EDI infographic - click to enlarge
IDCORE Interview Questions
IDCORE Interview Questions - click to enlarge