Artificial Empathy PhD at University of Leicester 2025-2026

Empathic healthcare improves patient safety, quality of life, and satisfaction with their care while reducing pain, and mortality. Empathy can also reduce practitioner burnout. In parallel, artificially intelligent (AI) care- and chat-bots are increasingly playing patient-facing roles in healthcare. There are concerns regarding how empathic these AI care- and chat-bots can provide empathic (and therefore, effective and safe) care. To address this, the Stoneygate Centre for Empathic Healthcare are seeking to ensure that AI care- and chat-bots provide empathic healthcare, while simultaneously ensuring that healthcare practitioners retain their human advantages.

Please note: While hosted in a medical school, this is not a medical education project per se. The PhD candidates will focus on the research to underpin an evidence-based curriculum.

Aim: To develop, deliver, and evaluate AI (or AI-informed) empathy interventions for healthcare students and practitioners.

Table of Content

• Summary
• Benefits
• Requirements
• Application Deadline
• How To Apply

Summary

• Application DeadlineAugust 15, 2025
• Study LevelPhD
• SponsorUniversity of Leicester
• City to studyLeicester
• School to studyUniversity of Leicester
• Course to studyHealth & Psychological Sciences , Health and Human Sciences , Health and Medicine , Health science , Health Sciences , Health, Science and Society
• Eligible CountryUnited Kingdom

Benefits

Funding will be provided by the Stoneygate Trust for 3 years. The studentship provides:

• Tuition fees at UK/home rates for 3 years*
• Annual stipend rates at UKRI rates for 3 years. For the 2025/26 academic year, these are £20,780 per year.
• Access to a Research Training Support Grant of up to £1,500 per annum for 3 years, to cover the cost of related training and development opportunities (e.g., conference attendance, relevant training).

Requirements

• The studentships are available to UK applicants only.
• Applicants are required to hold/or expect to obtain a UK Bachelor Degree 2:1 or better in a relevant subject. 
• The University of Leicester English language requirements apply where applicable.
• If you hold EU settled or pre-settled status you may be eligible for UK fees.  Once you have applied for the PhD, please email [email protected] a share code so that the University can verify your status (Share code we need starts with S). Include your application number.

Check also:
Wits-Edinburgh Programme in Sustainable African Futures by Mastercard Foundation 2026-2027
Department of Aeronautics MSc Scholarship at Imperial College London 2026

Application Deadline

August 15, 2025

How To Apply

Are you qualified and interested in this opportunity? Kindly go to University of Leicester on le.ac.uk to apply

With your application, please include:

• CV
• Personal statement explaining your interest in the project, your experience and why we should consider you
• Degree Certificates and Transcripts of study already completed and if possible transcript to date of study currently being undertaken
• Evidence of English language proficiency if applicable
• In the reference section please enter the contact details of your two academic referees in the boxes provided or upload letters of reference if already available.

In the funding section please specify Stoneygate Howick

In the proposal section please provide the name of the supervisors and project title (a proposal is not required)

For more details, visit University of Leicester Scholarship webpage