Two Ad Astra Doctoral Scholarships

University College Dublin - School of Politics and International Relations

Two UCD Ad Astra Doctoral Scholarships for September 2026:

• Environmental and Climate-Related Risk
• Authoritarian Politics

Application Deadline: 6th February 2026 at 5pm Dublin time

The School of Politics and International Relations (SPIRe) at University College Dublin is pleased to offer two new fully-funded Ad Astra doctoral scholarships.

Each scholarship will provide:

• Tuition fees at up to the non-EU rate;
• A yearly stipend of €25,000; and
• An annual research budget of €4,000 for research-related expenses such as data collection, attending conferences, etc.

The scholarships are tenable for a maximum of four years, renewable each year subject to satisfactory progress. The scholarships are available on a full-time basis only.

SPIRe is the oldest and largest school of its kind in the Republic of Ireland. According to the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023, UCD School of Politics and International Relations is ranked in the top 100 in the world. It is a dynamic, growing, multi-faceted and highly-international school offering an exciting and professionally-valuable environment for academic development. Our staff are engaged in cutting-edge research across the whole spectrum of political science.

Application process:

For further details on the scholarship and on the application requirements and process, follow the link below

https://www.ucd.ie/spire/study/prospectivephdstudents/adastradoctoralscholarships/

UCD Ad Astra Doctoral Scholarship 2026: Environmental and Climate-Related Risk

The School of Politics and International Relations (SPIRe) at University College Dublin is pleased to offer a new fully-funded Ad Astra doctoral scholarship on a project that broadly engages with themes related to environmental and climate-related risk, response, or resilience.

Applications are invited for projects that assess vulnerability; evaluate the effectiveness of adaptation and resilience-building interventions; analyse the political dynamics of environmental governance; or map the role of various actors (e.g., states, international organizations, civil society, private sector entities, etc.) in addressing climate and environmental insecurity. Proposals related to the climate-conflict nexus, climate-related displacement, early warning systems, or data-driven evaluations of climate policy and program effectiveness are also welcome.

Proposed projects should be empirically grounded and methodologically rigorous. Quantitative, computational, or mixed-method approaches are particularly encouraged, including but not limited to geospatial analysis, machine learning, predictive modelling, and causal inference techniques relevant to environmental or climate vulnerabilities.

Applicants may pursue the PhD in Quantitative and Computational Social Science (QCSS) or the PhD in Politics and International Relations. The intended track must be clearly specified in the application materials.

The successful candidate will undertake a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Elisa D’Amico, starting in September 2026.

UCD Ad Astra Doctoral Scholarship 2026: Authoritarian Politics

The School of Politics and International Relations (SPIRe) at University College Dublin is pleased to offer a new fully-funded Ad Astra doctoral scholarship on a subject broadly related to authoritarian politics.

Potential study areas could include, but are not limited to: authoritarian legitimation and propaganda; disinformation; media and censorship; elite behaviour; public opinion; authoritarian diffusion and learning; democratization and autocratization; and personalist rule.

Proposed projects should be empirically grounded and theoretically and methodologically rigorous. Quantitative, computational, or mixed-method approaches are particularly encouraged, including but not limited to natural language processing, machine learning, survey experiments, and network analysis. Projects using other appropriate and innovative methodologies will also be considered.

The successful candidate will undertake a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Nikita Khokhlov, starting in September 2026.