19 Fully Funded PhD Scholarships at University College Cork Ireland 2026

Applications are now open for 19 fully funded PhD positions at University College Cork as part of the Rinn Artificial Intelligence programme. These scholarships start on 1 October 2026 and represent a total investment of €2.85 million.

The programme focuses on cutting edge research in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science. It welcomes applicants from many academic backgrounds. There is no application fee. Applications are reviewed every two weeks until all positions are filled. You can check out BS, MS, PhD and postdoc positions here.

Key Details:

• Host Country: Ireland
• University: University College Cork
• Start Date: 1 October 2026
• Funding Type: Fully funded
• Application Deadline: Open until all positions are filled.
• Application Fee: None

What This Scholarship Offers:

Successful candidates receive excellent financial and professional support. Each scholarship is worth €150,000 in total.

You will get:

• A tax free stipend of €25,000 per year for four years
• Full coverage of EU tuition fees (non EU students receive a full fee waiver)
• Extra funding for attending conferences, buying equipment, and training activities
• Structured cohort based training in transferable skills such as communication, ethics, and entrepreneurship
• Hands on experience through industry placements and international research visits

Also Check: PhD Scholarships at University of Genoa Italy 2026/2027 (Fully Funded)

Eligibility Criteria:

• Open to graduates from a wide range of disciplines
• Applicants should hold a relevant undergraduate or masters degree
• Strong academic record is expected
• Both EU and non EU students are welcome
• The programme especially encourages applications from under represented groups

Also Check: 100+ PhD Scholarships in Italy 2026 (Fully Funded)

Research Themes, PhD Topics and Supervisors:

AI for Digital Humanities & Heritage (1 Position)

• PhD Topic: An analysis of the impact of AI on Education, specifically in the field of Museums and Heritage
• Supervisor: Dr Orla Murphy ([email protected])
• School: School of English and Digital Humanities

Climate & Sustainability (2 Positions)

• PhD Topic: Data centres and the energy transition: Modelling the energy and climate impacts of AI-driven digital expansion in Ireland
• Supervisor: Dr Hannah E. Daly ([email protected])
• School: School of Engineering & Architecture
• PhD Topic: Towards Sustainable Cities: Leveraging Data- and AI-based Technologies for Understanding Air Pollution & Greenspace in Hyperlocal Resolution in Urban Areas
• Supervisor: Dr Marguerite Nyhan ([email protected])
• School: School of Engineering & Architecture

Cultural & Political Analytics (1 Position)

• PhD Topic: A data-driven analysis of a foundational Irish woman writer, Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849), including research into her correspondence, novels and writing for children
• Supervisor: Professor Claire Connolly ([email protected])
• School: School of English and Digital Humanities

Also Check: The Rhodes Scholarship 2027 at University of Oxford

Digital Healthtech (4 Positions)

• PhD Topic: AI analysis of fetal heart rate during labour for the prediction of moderate to severe brain injury in full term pregnancies
• Supervisor: Professor Geraldine Boylan ([email protected])
• School: School of Medicine
• PhD Topic: The project will develop next-generation artificial intelligence tools integrating advanced imaging, intestinal barrier assessment, and multimodal data to predict disease progression and therapeutic response in inflammatory bowel disease and colon cancer
• Supervisor: Professor Marietta Iacucci ([email protected])
• School: School of Medicine
• PhD Topic: Health / Multi-Omics Modelling for Specialised Healthcare. The project will apply data analytics and AI to multi-omics datasets for biomarker discovery and clinical decision support strategies in Maternal & Child Health. The project is to develop screening tools for adverse pregnancy outcomes and childhood neurodevelopmental conditions
• Supervisor: Dr Jane English ([email protected]) with Dr Eric Wolsztynski
• School: School of Medicine (and School of Mathematical Sciences)
• PhD Topic: AI-Enabled Learning Analytics for Healthcare Professionals Training. The development and application of AI-enabled learning analytics to enhance training and education of healthcare professionals
• Supervisor: Professor Emeritus George Shorten ([email protected])
• School: School of Medicine

Also Check: PhD, Postdoc & Professor Positions at University of Twente Netherlands 2026

Human-AI Collaboration & Cognition (1 Position)

• PhD Topic: AI-Powered Collaboration in Flexible Teams. A qualitative investigation of evolving cooperation patterns in flexible work, the role of AI-powered tools and systems in how teams plan and enact coordination practices across time and locations
• Supervisor: Professor Luigina Ciolfi ([email protected])
• School: School of Applied Psychology

Human-Centred AI Design (2 Positions)

• PhD Topic: Involving People with Intellectual Disabilities in Support Technologies Incorporating AI. This project is expected to align with the values in the social model of disability. As such, it will consider diversity-affirming ways of involving people with intellectual disabilities in the design of technologies that continue to permeate their lives
• Supervisor: Dr Laura Maye ([email protected])
• School: School of Computer Science & IT
• PhD Topic: Human-Centred AI for Underwater Acoustic Data. This project will develop AI and Visualization support to handle large-scale underwater recordings to investigate various environmental and preservation policy questions
• Supervisor: Dr Rosane Minghim ([email protected])
• School: School of Computer Science & IT

Optimisation & Reasoning (4 Positions)

• PhD Topic: Human-centric reasoning and decision support, providing explanations and guidance for solving complex problems
• Supervisor: Professor Ken Brown ([email protected])
• School: School of Computer Science & IT
• PhD Topic: Professional Identity, Values-Based Clinical Reasoning, and Human–AI Collaboration. This project will investigate how healthcare professionals negotiate tensions between algorithmic advice and professional autonomy, how values influence the acceptance, modification, or rejection of AI recommendations, and whether gendered patterns of reasoning contribute to differences in decision quality
• Supervisor: Professor Ciara Heavin ([email protected])
• School: Cork University Business School
• PhD Topic: Hybrids of Optimisation and Machine Learning. This project will involve Bayesian or combinatorial methods for hyperparameter tuning or simulation optimisation, machine learning methods for acquiring optimisation models, or applications of multi-objective multi-agent reinforcement learning to problems from diplomacy or game theory
• Supervisor: Dr Steven Prestwich ([email protected])
• School: School of Computer Science & IT
• PhD Topic: Trustworthy Foundational Models for Medical Diagnosis. This project will investigate the development of foundational models for biomedical diagnosis based on spectroscopy signals
• Supervisor: Dr Andrea Visentin ([email protected])
• School: School of Computer Science & IT

Also Check: EPFL Fully Funded PhD & Postdoc Positions 2026 in Switzerland

Population & Public Health (1 Position)

• PhD Topic: This project will investigate how to integrate different sources of health data to inform policy and practice in chronic disease
• Supervisor: Professor Patricia Kearney ([email protected])
• School: School of Public Health

Trustworthy AI & Data Science (3 Positions)

• PhD Topic: The concept of ‘safety’ in regulation of AI. This project will investigate how individual and community safety is conceptualised and weighted in the regulation of artificial intelligence, with an emphasis on the law enforcement and security contexts
• Supervisor: Professor Nessa Lynch ([email protected])
• School: School of Law
• PhD Topic: Reliable Agentic AI for Science. This project will investigate the next-generation of Agentic AI with the nexus of multi-agent coordination and harness engineering towards reliable and trustworthy science
• Supervisor: Dr Harry Nguyen ([email protected])
• School: School of Computer Science & IT
• PhD Topic: AI Generated Speech Detection. This project will investigate and develop novel approaches for speech deepfake detection and audio authenticity verification. By combining advances in machine learning, signal processing, and speech analysis, the research aims to improve the reliability, robustness, and trustworthiness of technologies that can differentiate between genuine and artificially generated speech
• Supervisor: Professor Utz Roedig ([email protected])
• School: School of Computer Science & IT

Research Themes

• AI for Digital Humanities and Heritage
• Climate and Sustainability
• Cultural and Political Analytics
• Digital Healthtech
• Human AI Collaboration and Cognition
• Human Centred AI Design
• Optimisation and Reasoning
• Population and Public Health
• Trustworthy AI and Data Science

Also Check: PhD, Postdoctoral, and Professor Roles at University of Cambridge 2026

How to Apply:

1. Go to the official application form (Find the link Below)
2. Fill in the required details
3. Clearly mention the Research Theme and Supervisor Name in the form
4. Submit your application

Also Check: KOICA Fully Funded Scholarship Program Master’s and Doctoral 2027