Admissions into the PhD Program at UPES are held twice a year in January and July. The notifications for the admission season are made public way before the commencement of the admission process. 

Students with a Masters’ degree or equivalent with a minimum of 55% marks or equivalent degree can apply for admission in the UPES PhD program. Admissions are based on the research entrance test (RET) followed by an interview. Candidates who have qualified for national eligibility test (NET) are exempted from the RET. Final-semester postgraduate students are also eligible to apply and appear for the RET. Those who qualify in both the RET and interview may receive an admission offer, subject to completion of their postgraduate program.  

The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) program at UPES is highly regarded for its dynamic approach to knowledge transformation, from broad concepts to specialised expertise. This program promotes a strong research culture, enhancing scholars' professional competencies to achieve sustainable and ethical research excellence across both interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary fields. At UPES, we recognise that well-equipped faculty and students are essential to achieving our goals. To keep them updated on the latest developments and provide the tools and techniques needed for innovative research, UPES has launched the “Anusandhaan” program. Through this program, faculty and students attend domain-specific talks delivered by leading experts from academia and industry. 

All full-time scholars receive a monthly fellowship of INR 25,000 until they clear the mandatory course-work examination, and INR 30,000 henceforth till the closing of their 3-year period or submission of PhD thesis, whichever is earlier. Besides, there is an annual contingency of INR 30,000 which can be used for purchase of consumables, experiments in other universities/user facilities or participation in conferences. Scholars who receive fellowship from external sources through JRF, INSPIRE or other schemes will be entitled to a contingency of INR 2,00,000 which can be used for purchase of consumables, experiments in other universities/user facilities or participation in international conferences.  There is a provision of increase in fellowship upto INR 34,000 for scholars with 2 publications as first author in Q1 and Q2 journals.  

UPES has partnerships with several research and academic institutions across the globe which makes collaborative research easy for the scholars. As of now, UPES has signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with the following universities: