In addition to all studio and technical Current funding opportunities , PhD students have access to a dedicated lab with personal computers, a motion capture facility and a small prototyping workshop.  The PhD lab is the meeting point for students undertaking research in a variety of disciplines and stimulates exchange of ideas.  

Research links with other departments at Queen's such as Anthropology, Film Studies, Psychology  and Electronic Engineering complement the expertise  of SARC's staff.  A regular postgraduate research forum provides the opportunity for students to present and discuss work in progress while the bi-weekly concert and seminar series hosted by the centre brings international artists and speakers to SARC to present their work. 

The large number of international students is an important feature of the doctoral cohort and SARC has established a strong position with funding agencies such as CAPES (Brazil) and FCT (Portugal) through securing multiple studentships. An international student population is extremely valued and serves to establish word-wide graduate networks reaching Asia, Latin America, Europe and North America. In 2013, a third of the 43 students conducting research at SARC was either international or from EU countries.
SARC PhD students have access to a variety of skills and training programmes both within SARC and across the University. For example, “Big Ears: Sonic Art for Public Ears”, funded by the AHRC and HEA has trained over 40 students from across 15 UK institutions in public engagement in partnership with the Belfast Children’s Festival, involving over 100 children.
Student mobility plays an important part in establishing sustainable relationships with international partners. Between 2011 and 2015 five students were in funded residence at the University of São Paulo and Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and UNICAMP, two at CMMAS, Mexico and one at the University of Michigan.

Our PhD students have been successful in securing various international prizes including two awards in the SHUT UP AND LISTEN 2011 international competition (Crawley and Haworth), SondAr-te Composition Competition 2009 (Alessandrini), an award for the Arts Council NI Creative Industries Innovation Fund 2012 (Heinz) and the Atlantic Music Festival Future Music Lab Performance Fellowship 2013 (Monaghan). Graduates have established themselves as independent artists, in industry and in academic institutions such as MIT, McGill, Bournemouth University, University of Tromsø, National University of Ireland Leeds College of Music, University of California Santa Barbara, University of Rio Grande do Sul.

Latest funding opportunties

Prospective Ph.D. students are advised to contact a member of staff working in their area of interest before submitting an application.  For more information on current research at SARC, please visit the research pages of the SARC site.