How to write a cover letter for a pre-advertised funded PhD position

An advertised post already has its money and its project, so the letter isn't asking for a chance. It's answering a list. Go through the advert and note exactly what it asks for: usually a cover letter or letter of motivation, a CV, transcripts, and sometimes references or a short research summary. Note how it wants them sent (by email, or through a portal), whether it wants one combined PDF, and whether it sets a length. If the advert gives a limit, that limit beats anything in this resource. If you're still learning to read the shorthand in adverts, our resource on decoding a European PhD job advert comes first, and our live board of funded PhD positions is a good place to practise on real ones.

It isn't your CV in sentences. The reader has your CV open next to it, so repeating your degrees line by line wastes the page. It isn't a research proposal either, since an advertised post usually has the project already defined; you're showing that you understand the question, not designing a new one (if a proposal is asked for, that's a different document, covered in our resource on writing a research proposal). And it isn't a full statement of purpose, which has room to tell your whole story; our resource on the Statement of Purpose covers that. The cover letter takes the best two or three things from those and points them at one specific post.

Find the name in the advert: the professor who leads the group, or the contact person it lists. Write "Dear Prof. Weber" (using their real surname and title), not "To whom it may concern". Then state, in the first lines, who you are and which post you're applying to, using the advert's own title or reference number if it gives one. One line of background is enough: your degree and the area you worked in. A professor reading several letters for one post wants to sort them quickly, and this tells them which pile you belong in. Save the interesting part for the next paragraph.

The letters that stay with a reader usually have one specific thing in them: a result that surprised you, an experiment that failed in an interesting way, a question your thesis left open. That's the opening move. "Since childhood I have been fascinated by science" can't be checked and says nothing. "A plot I expected to be empty showed T cells sitting inside a tumour sample and doing nothing" is specific and it's yours. The honest limit: if you don't have a moment like that, leave this part out. Don't invent one. A plain, accurate first paragraph beats a dramatic one that falls apart when someone asks about it at the interview.

Next comes the evidence. Pick the one or two pieces of work closest to this post, and say what you did and what you found, not just which techniques you used. "I used flow cytometry and RT-PCR" is a list. "I followed that question across 30 samples and found that one marker tracked with immune-cell infiltration rather than with tumour stage" is a finding. Be clear about which part was yours and which part was your supervisor's or your team's, because the interview will ask. If your findings are small or negative, say so plainly; a modest result described honestly reads better than a big claim that doesn't hold up. The same sentence-by-sentence discipline is in our resource on the academic CV, so the two documents should agree with each other.

This is the paragraph that makes the letter impossible to reuse, which is exactly why it matters. Read one recent paper or the project description from the group you're applying to, and say what it showed and what question it left you with. Then say how your own work gives you a place to start on that question. Be careful with praise: "your groundbreaking work" is filler, while "your paper showed X, which made me ask Y" is a reader's response. And only cite what you've actually read. If you name a paper, assume you'll be asked about it. Our resource on emailing a professor shows the same three moves (the moment, what you found, their paper and your question) in a short sample, and the letter is simply the longer version.

End with a short, calm close: that your CV and documents are attached, and that you'd be glad to discuss the project. No "I hope to hear from you soon", no promises, no mention of salary, since an advertised post already comes with its own pay. Then check three things. First, length: roughly a page is the usual aim, unless the advert says otherwise. Second, the file: a clean PDF, named with your surname, not "final_v7". Third, a cold read: ask someone outside your field to read it and tell you what the project is and why you fit it. If they can't, simplify. Applying to several posts? Keep the structure, but rewrite the group paragraph from scratch each time. If you'd like a mentor to read yours with you, our PhD mentorship pairs you with someone from our network of active researchers, and our free 7-day PhD challenge walks through the rest of the application step by step. Heading for a Masters instead? Start at our Masters page, and the rest of our free resources cover each document in turn. If you get an interview, our resource on preparing for a PhD interview is the next step.