Nuclear Decommissioning Authority
PhD bursary call 2026
Further detail will be available on how to apply from https://ndaphdbursary.co.uk/ via the NDA’s University Interactions partner, The UK National Nuclear Laboratory.
The submission route named on the official notice.
This is a large award for Research & Development — above three-quarters of comparable contracts. Based on 20,405 valued Research & Development tenders in our corpus.
The NDA is requesting applications to its bursary call, to support the NDA mission to deliver safe, sustainable and publicly acceptable solutions to the challenge of decommissioning and clean-up of the UK’s civil nuclear legacy.
The NDA’s goals from the call are as follows: •Maintain and develop the key skills that will be required to help us carry out the mission over the coming decades •Provide fundamental understanding of technologies and processes across the NDA estate •Develop early-stage technologies (TRL 1 – 3) •Encourage two-way knowledge transfer between the academic and industrial communities working on nuclear decommissioning What is not covered under the call is R&D focused on site-specific challenges such as improving the efficiency of an existing plant or process or on training resource in a specific capability.
Those research areas are the responsibility of the individual subsidiaries and SLCs.
Applicants are advised to seek advice on the structure and content of their proposal prior to submission.
Contact details can be found at the end of this document.
The call is open to UK academic institutions for projects that will lead to the award of a PhD.
This year, up to £750,000 is available from the NDA PhD bursary to support projects that will lead to the award of a PhD.
Universities and Research Institutes are invited to make proposals up to a value of £155,000 per project under the thematic areas outlined below.
NDA recognise that increases in the cost of living have impacted postgraduate researchers.
In line with the recent UKRI announcement, NDA expect students funded through the NDA PhD bursary call to receive a stipend that is at least equivalent to those paid by UKRI as of 1/10/26, i.e.
£21,805 FTE.
NDA will not object to a stipend increase for the purposes of ensuring the stipend is competitive with your departmental guidance.
Further detail will be available on how to apply from https://ndaphdbursary.co.uk/ via the NDA’s University Interactions partner, The UK National Nuclear Laboratory.
What the supplier must deliver
The NDA is requesting applications to its
The NDA is requesting applications to its bursary call, to support the NDA mission to deliver safe, sustainable and publicly acceptable solutions to the challenge of decommissioning and clean-up of the UK’s civil nuclear legacy.
Maintain and develop the key skills
Maintain and develop the key skills that will be required to help us carry out the mission over the coming decades.
Provide fundamental understanding of technologies and processes
Provide fundamental understanding of technologies and processes across the NDA estate.
This year, up to £750,000 is available
This year, up to £750,000 is available from the NDA PhD bursary to support projects that will lead to the award of a PhD.
Derived from the notice text — always confirm against the original documents.
What it takes to bid this
Typical UK bid effort for the £100k–£1m band — an estimate, not a quote.
Qualify & bid/no-bid ~10% · SQ / PQQ ~20% · Written response ~55% · Review & presentation ~15%
Typical for this category — confirm against the ITT pack
- Show at bidComparable references / case studies
- Hold at bidFinancial standing (accounts, often ~2× contract value turnover)
- Hold at bidInsurance cover (PL / EL, often PI)
- Show at bidSocial value commitments
Hold at bid = pass/fail conditions of participation. Show at bid = scored in the quality response. Plan for delivery = contract obligations from day one.
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- OCID
- ocds-h6vhtk-0688ef
- Stage
- planning · Planning
- Source
- Find a Tender
- Buyer ref
- 036766-2026
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source data © Crown copyright.
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