PhD Scholarship: Programme Management of Gigaprojects

We are The Bartlett, UCL’s global faculty of the built environment. Individually, our schools and sections lead their fields. In partnership, they develop new responses to pressing world issues. As a whole, they represent a world-leading, multidisciplinary faculty, united by the radical spirit of UCL. Our vision is of a world where everything that’s built aims to add to the well-being of people and the environment. The Bartlett is unrivalled in its breadth and depth of disciplines, programmes and departments. Overall, the Bartlett is number one for Research Power in the built environment field. The appointed PhD candidate will be based at The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction at the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, a world-leading faculty ranked #1 in the world for Built Environment studies and #1 in the UK for its research environment.

About the project

University College London (UCL) is inviting applications for a fully funded PhD scholarship (3 years full time) on “Programme Management of Gigaprojects”. The PhD Scholarship is situated at UCL’s Megaproject Delivery Centre and is part of the AECOM Infrastructure Scholarship Programme, created to advance science in major programme management globally.

Infrastructure provision is a key priority of governments around the world, unlocking societal benefits and enabling economic growth. Given their transformational nature, infrastructure projects are often delivered through megaprojects, which are notoriously difficult to manage and often plagued with cost overruns and delays. Yet, such major programmes are fast increasing in size, requirements, and complexity (Denicol et al., 2020).

UCL’s award winning research identified the ingredients of successful megaproject management in six themes, which reveal 18 causes of poor performance and 54 solutions. The theme on Strategy, Governance, and Procurement highlights the importance of establishing the organisational structures to coordinate a large network of suppliers, partners, and stakeholders.

Considering the scale of investments to build entire new cities and rebuild countries, the term Gigaproject is progressively being used to describe a collection of megaprojects (at city, region, country levels) and convey the size of the challenge faced by governments. It is urgent to rethink the strategies needed to deliver infrastructure projects at pace and scale, charting a path for sustainable transitions.

This PhD Scholarship will investigate how to deal with the scale and complexity associated to deliver Gigaprojects. Programme organisations might be established with the purpose of delivering a single of multiple infrastructure schemes, with clients appointing delivery partners to provide capacity and capability in programme management. Such programme organisations have the overall responsibility for integration of the final asset, with the strategy of programme initiation and set-up playing an important role.

The challenge in Gigaprojects is h ow to balance control and agility, stability and change, creating the structures to maintain overall visibility of best for programme solutions while empowering the supply chain (often organised as joint ventures) to deliver their work packages. The research will investigate coordination and integration of system of systems by exploring topics such as: the initiation of programme delivery organisations, the set-up and evolution of organisational strategies, the decomposability of the Gigaproject into multiple megaprojects, and the inter-(mega)project relationships.

The appointed PhD candidate will be based UCL’s Megaproject Delivery Centre and will have the opportunity to collaborate with AECOM’s Global Programme Management leadership to disseminate cutting-edge scientific findings. UCL and AECOM are on a mission to advance programme management and improve the delivery of the world’s largest infrastructure projects.

About You

Requirements:

Applicants should hold a Master’s degree, or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard, in a relevant subject such as, but not limited to (project management, construction management, engineering management, operations management, organization studies, strategy). The successful candidate will demonstrate:

• Excellent academic record (including a Master level degree in an appropriate subject)
• Good proficiency in English
• Commitment to a 3-year period of research within UCL
• Interest in working closely with world leading infrastructure companies.

How to apply

The closing date for applications is 14 June 2024, 11pm UK time. The PhD Scholarship will commence in October 2024, as soon as possible following the appointment of a suitable candidate.

Applicants are asked to submit the following via the UCL website – ‘Apply now’.

• Full CV
• Master’s transcripts
• Research proposal outlining how you would approach the research (max. 5 pages) – Please submit this in the ‘ Research paper1 section’.
• Personal statement outlining why you are interested and why you would be prepared to commit three years to this research project (1 page)

After all submissions are reviewed, selected candidates will be invited for an interview. All those candidates who were not shortlisted for an interview will be notified at this stage. After the interview, the preferred applicant will be invited to submit a full PhD application to the PhD Programme of The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction. Any inquiries or further information about the scholarship should be emailed to

What we offer

The PhD scholarship will cover:

3 years tuition fees (UK rate).

We welcome the application of International candidates. If successful, the International applicant will have to cover the UK/international fee difference.

3 years maintenance stipend at £20,622 per year. A cost of living increase is expected to be added to this and will be confirmed in due course.