trustLAB at the DCU Institute for Business and Society is delighted to announce a corporate sponsored scholarship to support two full time PhD scholars conducting groundbreaking research on trust.

Trust is the foundation of our connection, collaboration and communication with people and organisations both within the workplace and across society. With over 30 researchers, including 15 DCU faculty, research students and international members, trustLAB is focused on developing a multidisciplinary understanding of trust processes that supports positive work relationships across a variety of contexts.

Our current research programme focuses predominantly on:

Active trust management | Strategies for developing and protecting trust in interpersonal relationships and relationships between organisations and their employees.
Trust and technology | Development of trust between people and disruptive technologies, the emergence of trust between technologies themselves, and the influence of technology on workplace relationships.
Drivers of trust and distrust | Identity, motivational, emotional, and contextual factors influencing dynamic (dis)trust processes over time.

This PhD scholarship will support the successful applicant to develop further research on the concept and understanding of trust within the trustLAB community. This document provides applicants with a broad understanding of the types of areas relevant to the study of trust.

Find Out More – Guidelines for Applicants

Applicants must have the support of a DCU Business School academic supervisor. Identifying that supervisor should be your first step in preparing your application. Potential supervisors can be DCU Business School faculty affiliated with any of the disciplines or research centres identified in our overview above.

• Successful applicants are required to meet the MPhil/PhD eligibility criteria of DCU (www.dcu.ie/registry/making-postgraduate-research-application). For PhD, they will normally hold an honours master’s degree (taught or by research). Students in the final year of a master’s programme may also apply.

• This scholarship is exclusively for full-time PhD study based at DCU for the duration of the award.

• Applicants must disclose any additional stipend or external sources of funding. DCU Business School scholars receiving the annual stipend of €25,000 are generally not permitted to concurrently hold scholarships or educational grants exceeding €4,000 per annum.

• The successful candidate will begin their registration at the start of the 2026/2027 academic year (October).

• International applicants intending to travel to Ireland must meet visa requirements prior to the commencement of the scholarship. Payments cannot be processed until the applicant has arrived in Ireland, set up a bank account, and applied for a PPS number.

Find Out More – Guidelines for Applicants 

*Please note students cannot be awarded more than one DCU Business School scholarship at a time.

Scholarship Application Guidelines and Process

Applicants must submit a completed PhD Scholarship Application Form.

○ The Form must include a research proposal. The application must be typed.
○ Submit the application as a single PDF file via email to DCU Business School Research Officer, Ruth Finnegan, at dcubsresearch@dcu.ie.
○ The file should be named in the format: surname_firstname_TRUST_2026.pdf.

Incomplete or late applications will not be considered.
Receipt of applications will be acknowledged by email.

Applicants are invited to contact trustLAB supervisors directly (see website here) or to email trustLAB lead Prof Lisa van der Werff (lisa.vanderwerff@dcu.ie) for guidance on potential supervisory fit.

If you have queries on the PhD application process, please contact DCU Business School Research Officer, Ruth Finnegan, at dcubsresearch@dcu.ie.

Applicants wishing to withdraw their application after submission should notify the Research Officer at their earliest convenience.
Shortlisted applicants will be required to attend an interview, either in person or via Zoom at the end of August 2026.
The scholarship award is conditional on acceptance of a place in the PhD programme.

Important Dates

Call Opens: Monday 29th June 2026.

Deadline: Applications must be received by 12:00 PM noon GMT, Thursday 20th August, 2026.

Interviews will be conducted shortly thereafter.

*Please note students cannot be awarded more than one DCU Business School scholarship at a time.