Biomedical Sciences (NIH OxCam) (Research)

The information provided on this page was correct at the time of publication (November 2025). For complete and up-to-date information about this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas.

The DPhil in Biomedical Sciences (NIH OxCam) is a research-based course involving a collaborative project between Oxford and the NIH, covering areas like neuroscience, immunology, and computational biology, with dual supervision and lab rotations.

Please note that it is a requirement of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), that all applicants to this course should be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident in the U.S.

The NIH OxCam doctoral course was first established in 2001 and is primarily aimed at graduate students from the USA. You must first apply to the NIH by early December, following which interviews for admission in the following Michaelmas term (October) are held in February in Bethesda, MD by NIH, Oxford and Cambridge University staff. The course is highly competitive and the approximate number of places available this year is shown in the Key Facts section on this page. You can also apply to the NIH MD/PhD course.

The selected students are supported financially by the NIH but are full students of the University of Oxford or Cambridge and normally spend half their time in the UK. At the time of selection to the course, you will not necessarily have decided on your supervisor or even which UK University you will attend. The information below is applicable to accepted students whose primary UK supervisor is a member of the University of Oxford.

The Director of Graduate Studies for the Oxford-based course is Professor Michael Dustin, and for administrative purposes all NIH-Oxford students are admitted to the Medical Sciences Doctoral Training Centre of the Division of Medical Sciences. However, NIH OxCam students are not limited to supervisors in the Division of Medical Sciences. For example, many students have supervisions in the Division of Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences.

Students may work with any Oxford/NIH supervisor in any research area and department, as long as the supervisor is willing to host the student in their laboratory.