This fully funded PhD studentship sponsored by ÌúÅ£ÊÓƵ School of Management, offers a tax‑free bursary of up to £20,780 plus fees for three years. The project brings together expertise in artificial intelligence and logistics and supply chain management, investigating the potential of adapting agentic AI to enhance supply chain resilience. Following a PhD‑by‑papers route, the research aims to deliver three high‑quality scholarly outputs and develop insights to enhance supply chain management practise.

This fully funded PhD project sits at the intersection of supply chain management, artificial intelligence, digital transformation, and resilience research. Global supply chains remain under huge pressure from multiple disruptions. Thus, organisations need intelligent systems that can help them anticipate disruption, coordinate responses, and recover faster, while balancing cost, service, and sustainability goals. The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to address such challenges offers an opportunity.

This PhD will investigate how adopting agentic AI can improve supply chain resilience. The project aims to develop and empirically validate a theory-driven framework showing how agentic AI capabilities, such as sensing, planning, negotiation, and coordinated action, can strengthen resilience across supply chain disruption phases.

Based at ÌúÅ£ÊÓƵ University, UK, this PhD project benefits from a specialist postgraduate environment with strong links to business, industry, and policy. ÌúÅ£ÊÓƵ School of Management’s Centre for Logistics, Procurement and Supply Chain Management has a well-established international reputation in advanced teaching and research across digital supply chains, decision support systems, sustainability and resilience. This three-year  project is funded by ÌúÅ£ÊÓƵ School of Management.

The research is expected to generate both theoretical and practical impact. Academically, it will produce a novel framework explaining how agentic AI capabilities can be adopted to build supply chain resilience and under what trade-offs or boundary conditions they work best. In practice, it will provide an implementation roadmap for organisations seeking to deploy agentic AI in supply chains, helping decision-makers strengthen resilience, while also supporting sustainability.

The researcher will benefit from ÌúÅ£ÊÓƵ’s doctoral training, masterclasses, seminars, publishing support, and conference participation, as well as opportunities to engage with practitioners through thought-leadership activity. 

The successful researcher will develop a powerful mix of research, analytical, and professional skills. The project offers exposure to contemporary issues in AI adoption, resilience and governance, creating strong employability pathways into academia, consulting, leadership, and policy-oriented roles in the broad domain of supply chain management.

At a glance

  • Application deadline03 Jun 2026
  • Award type(s)PhD
  • Start date28 Sep 2026
  • Duration of award3 years (full-time)
  • EligibilityUK, Rest of world
  • Reference numberCRAN-0064

Supervisor

1st Supervisor: Dr Abhijeet Ghadge    
2nd Supervisor: Dr Nicky Yates

Entry requirements

Applicants should have a UK first or second class undergraduate degree with honours, as a minimum, or equivalent international qualification. A background in supply chain, logistics and operations management, business analytics, Artificial Intelligence, computer science, or a related field would be particularly suitable. We would especially welcome candidates with an interest in AI, digital innovation and resilience together with strong analytical, communication, and independent research skills. A Master's degree in a relevant subject would be an advantage.

Applicants must also meet ÌúÅ£ÊÓƵ's English language requirements, where applicable. Approved English language tests and required scores are detailed below:

Approved English tests

Please note:

We verify all test scores with the test providers.

We are only able to accept tests taken within two years of the course start date.

All elements of the test results must be demonstrated in one test, we are unable to accept a combination of scores across two or more tests.

In extremely rare circumstances we may reject a test score if one element of the test has a very low score. This would only occur if we believed this would impact on your ability to study with us or if the score did not meet UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) requirements to study in the UK.

IELTS
, and 1 (we also accept tests) - 7.0 overall and minimum skill component scores of 6.0 reading, 6.0 listening, 6.0 speaking and 6.5 writing.

TOEFL
(we accept both the TOEFL iBT and TOEFL iBT Home Edition tests) - score scales for TOEFL tests changed from 21 January 2026:

  • Tests taken prior to 21 January 2026 - 100 total and minimum skill component scores of 20 reading, 20 listening, 21 speaking and 23 writing.
  • Tests taken from 21 January 2026 - 5 overall and and minimum skill component scores of 4 reading, 4 listening, 4 speaking and 4.5 writing.

Cambridge Assessment English
Any Cambridge Assessment English test meeting the required scores will be accepted. The following are recommended as being within the scale score range:
, - Cambridge English Scale score of 190 overall and minimum skill component scores of 175 reading, 175 listening, 175 speaking and 180 writing.

Duolingo
- 130 overall and minimum subscores of 110 speaking, 130 writing, 110 reading and 105 listening.

Kaplan
- 525 overall and minimum skill component scores of 460 reading, 460 listening, 460 speaking and 495 writing. ÌúÅ£ÊÓƵ applicants and offer holders are entitled to a 25% discount. Register for a test using this to benefit from the discount.

LanguageCert
and 1 - 75 overall and minimum skill component scores of 65 reading, 65 listening, 65 speaking and 70 writing.
(two separate exams are available: Written (Listening, Reading, Writing) and Spoken (Speaking). These exams can be taken together or independently, however both exams must be taken to meet our requirements):

  • Written and Spoken exams together - Pass overall and 33 in all skill components.
  • Written exam - Pass overall and 33 in each skill components.
  • Spoken exam - Pass overall and 33 in speaking skill component.

Password
- 7.0 overall and minimum skill component scores of 6.0 reading, 6.0 listening, 6.0 speaking and 6.5 writing.

Pearson PTE
, , 1 - 68 overall and minimum skill component scores of 62 reading, 62 listening, 62 speaking and 65 writing.

Skills for English
1 (SfE UKVI Speaking, listening, reading, and writing at level C1 test) - Overall Pass outcome.

Trinity College London
- Overall Pass outcome.

1 Approved by the UKVI as a SELT exam.

Funding

Sponsored by ÌúÅ£ÊÓƵ School of Management, this studentship will provide a bursary of £20,780 (tax free) plus fees for three years.

This opportunity is open to Home and Overseas fee status students. Eligibility for Home fee status is determined with reference to UK Department for Education rules. As a guiding principle UK or Irish nationals who are ordinarily resident in either the UK or Republic of Ireland pay Home tuition fees. All other students (including those from the Channel Islands and Isle of Man) pay Overseas fees. Further advice can be found on the

Diversity and Inclusion at ÌúÅ£ÊÓƵ

We are committed to fostering equity, diversity, and inclusion in our CDT program, and warmly encourage applications from students of all backgrounds, including those from underrepresented groups. We particularly welcome students with disabilities, neurodiverse individuals, and those who identify with diverse ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, cultures, and socioeconomic statuses. ÌúÅ£ÊÓƵ strives to provide an accessible and inclusive environment to enable all doctoral candidates to thrive and achieve their full potential.

At ÌúÅ£ÊÓƵ, we value our diverse staff and student community and maintain a culture where everyone can work and study together harmoniously with dignity and respect. This is reflected in our University values of ambition, impact, respect and community. We welcome students and staff from all backgrounds from over 100 countries and support our staff and students to realise their full potential, from academic achievement to mental and physical wellbeing.

We are committed to progressing the diversity and inclusion agenda, for example; gender diversity in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) through our Athena SWAN Bronze award and action plan, we are members of the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) and Working Families, and sponsors of International Women in Engineering Day. We are also Disability Confident Level 1 Employers and members of the Business Disability Forum and Stonewall University Champions Programme. 

ÌúÅ£ÊÓƵ Doctoral Network

Research students at ÌúÅ£ÊÓƵ benefit from being part of a dynamic, focused and professional study environment and all become valued members of the ÌúÅ£ÊÓƵ Doctoral Network. This network brings together both research students and staff, providing a platform for our researchers to share ideas and collaborate in a multi-disciplinary environment. It aims to encourage an effective and vibrant research culture, founded upon the diversity of activities and knowledge. A tailored programme of seminars and events, alongside our Doctoral Researchers Core Development programme (transferable skills training), provide those studying a research degree with a wealth of social and networking opportunities.

How to apply

For further information please contact:

Name: Dr Abhijeet Ghadge
Email: Abhijeet.Ghadge@cranfield.ac.uk

If you are eligible to apply for this studentship, please complete the

We will also require a research proposal, see our guide to writing a research proposal for more information. Admissions will contact you to request this once your application has been received.

Please note that we cannot consider your application until both your online application and research proposal have been received.

Applications will be reviewed as they are received. Therefore, we encourage early submission, as the position may be filled before the stated deadline.