This fully funded PhD studentship sponsored by Cranfield 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 Cranfield University, UK, this PhD project benefits from a specialist postgraduate environment with strong links to business, industry, and policy. Cranfield 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 Cranfield 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 Cranfield’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 first- or second-class UK degree or equivalent in a related discipline. 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 Cranfield's English language requirements, where applicable.

Funding

Sponsored by Cranfield 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 UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) website.

Diversity and Inclusion at Cranfield

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. Cranfield strives to provide an accessible and inclusive environment to enable all doctoral candidates to thrive and achieve their full potential.

At Cranfield, 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. 

Cranfield Doctoral Network

Research students at Cranfield benefit from being part of a dynamic, focused and professional study environment and all become valued members of the Cranfield 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
Phone: +44 1234 754886

If you are eligible to apply for this studentship, please complete the online application form.

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