Home UK Scholarships Intellectual Property PhD – Herchel Smith Scholarships 2025-2026

Intellectual Property PhD – Herchel Smith Scholarships 2025-2026

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Great news for aspiring legal scholars! Applications are now open for the Herchel Smith Intellectual Property PhD Scholarships at Queen Mary University of London. This article explains the program benefits, eligibility criteria, and application process in detail.

The Herchel Smith PhD Scholarship Programme is fully funded for international students, covering all tuition fees and providing an annual award of approximately £17,000. It supports exceptional full-time PhD students specializing in intellectual property law or working at its intersection with sciences or humanities.

Ranked among the top 10 UK law schools for research quality, Queen Mary’s School of Law has internationally recognized faculty advising industries, governments, and NGOs. Scholarship recipients will also contribute up to six hours per week to research support work at the Queen Mary Intellectual Property Law Research Institute (QMIPRI).

Scholarship Summary

Level of Study: PhD
Institution: Queen Mary University of London
Host Country: UK (London)
Field of Study: Intellectual Property Law
Program Duration: 3 years full-time / 6 years part-time
Application Deadline: March 26

Opportunity Focus Areas

IPRs and public international law/private international law; IPRs and intangible cultural/scientific heritage; IPRs and human rights; Doctrine of functionality; The role of intellectual property law in promoting and regulating art; intersection of international trade and intellectual property law (e.g. Patents and Trade in Stem Cells; Trade Marks and Tobacco Plain Packaging); intellectual property transactions (e.g. Licensing of Broadcasting Rights for Premier League matches); interrelationship of TRIPS with regional and national Law (e.g. TRIPS and the European Patent Convention); philosophy of intellectual property; primary and secondary markets in IP; Art 102 TFEU applied to “double identity” TM cases; property rights in persona; enforcement of IP; exhaustion and licensing.

Scholarship Coverage

Intellectual Property PhD – Herchel Smith Scholarships will cover

All tuition fees,
Award of around £17,000 per year (reviewed annually) will be paid to the recipient on a regular basis throughout the academic year starting from September.

Eligibility Criteria for Intellectual Property PhD – Herchel Smith Scholarship

To be eligible for Intellectual Property PhD – Herchel Smith Scholarships, you must fulfil the following criteria:

Required Language: English. (IELTS and other tests required)
Eligible Countries: All World Countries
The award is for new applicants who will enroll at the start of the coming academic year, in September 2025.
Applicant must be a PhD students in intellectual property law and those working at the intersection of intellectual property law and other areas of sciences and humanities.
(IELTS: 7.0 overall including 7.0 in Writing, and 5.5 in Reading, Listening and Speaking.)TOEFL: 100 overall including 27 in Writing, 18 in Reading, 17 in Listening and 20 in Speaking. Also, other tests can be accepted.

How to Apply for Intellectual Property PhD – Herchel Smith Scholarships?

Please follow the following application instructions to avail this scholarship:

The following documents are required

Any additional documents relating to this qualification (e.g. translations, the reverse of transcript) maximum of 5 uploads.
A copy of your original certificate and/or transcript.
Demonstrate proficiency in the English, language.
If you are a member of any professional organisations (e.g. GMC, Bar) please provide the organisation name and your registration number (where applicable).
A CV (curriculum vitae) or résumé is a summary of your education and any employment to date.
A brief (1,000 words maximum) personal statement that: Explains your interest in this area Describes any relevant research experience – for example, as part of a previous degree Lists any academic work you have published or which is awaiting publication.
Proof of funding or scholarship.
Research Proposal includes; Proposed supervisor; Have you already made contact with the supervisor(s); Proposed project title / Studentship title; Research group; What is your proposed start date?
Two referees and their contacts.

Apply online

Make an online application, to the PhD programme before the funding submission deadline will be considered for funding: for full-time here and part-time here, then register next, log in after that apply as a new applicant.
Follow your application step by step.
Click the submit button once only.
If you have any queries relating to the PhD funding application process, please email the School of Law PhD Admissions Administrator, Mr G Skehan by email at skehan@qmul.ac.uk.

Application instructions

Notifications to be considered as a funding applicant not an applicant to the PhD programme only.
There is a section within the PhD online application form labelled ‘Funding’. (To notify that ‘I will fund my studies by other means’).
Then in the ‘Please give details of any scholarships or grants you are applying for or have already secured’, you should specifically state that (you wish to apply for a School of Law Herchel Smith award).

Important Notes :

Applicants should note the School of Law, unlike other PhD programmes at QMUL, has no formal requirement for applicants to contact an academic staff member to arrange for supervision to be agreed upon before submission of their full application. All applications, in the first instance, are reviewed by the Research Admissions Director.
If you want to apply for Herchel Smith funding and have already submitted your main application (without indicating that you wish to be considered for one of our funding awards) you must contact Mr Gareth Skehan, PhD Admissions Administrator, before the deadline by email at skehan@qmul.ac.uk, and state the award that you want to apply for. Without this specific email notification, you will not be considered for Herchel Smith funding.
The Director has an overview of the supervisory capabilities and availabilities of all academic staff within the School, so applications are always reviewed, if they are considered strong enough by the Director, by academics with research expertise relevant to an applicant’s proposed area of study.
However, the College’s On-line application system requires applicants to confirm the name of a proposed supervisor (in the ‘Research Proposal’ section).
As Law has no requirement here, applicants can simply name their proposed supervisor as a ‘School of Law supervisor’, without having to name a specific member of staff (although they are free to do so if they wish).