A £6 million gift by leading algorithmic trading firm XTX Markets will create more than thirty new PhD and Postdoc opportunities, enabling a new cohort of brilliant young mathematicians to join the University of Cambridge.
XTX Markets' generous donation to the University of Cambridge will cover a total of 3 years starting in October 2026, enabling the Mathematics Faculty to recruit eight to ten PhD students per year and one or two postdocs per year. Around four-fifths of the funding will go to the Department of Pure Maths and Mathematical Statistics (DPMMS), and one-fifth to the Department of Applied Maths and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP).
This will have a dramatic impact on our maths ecosystem. Professor Ivan Smith, Head of DPMMS
"This will have a dramatic impact on our maths ecosystem," says Professor Ivan Smith, Head of DPMMS. "We get many brilliant applications from potential students that we have to turn away. Having flexible funding means we can spread the money across the mathematical landscape to support several different fields of research in pure and applied maths. That is why this kind of philanthropic donation is so helpful, and we are tremendously grateful."
The Cambridge departments are renowned for their expertise in maths. "In DPMMS we have world-class research groups in number theory, geometry and topology, combinatorics, probability and more," says Professor Smith. "Progress in the theory underpinning these and other fundamental fields will eventually lead to wider impacts across areas like AI, computing, energy, finance and quantum technology. It's impossible to predict where!"
Transforming the future maths ecosystem
But government funding for early career researchers – a life stage that is particularly fruitful for new discoveries in mathematics – has been declining for many years. As a result, raising funds for postdoctoral researchers, PhD students, and undergraduates doing interdisciplinary placements is the highest priority in the Faculty.
"PhD students are our pipeline for training new academics; they will explore new areas and shape the direction of the fields they research in. Postdocs will always push the research in unexpected directions," Ivan Smith explains. "In pure maths, the postdocs arrive with their own ideas, and the PhD students quickly generate their own ideas, so the research develops in very diverse and quite personal directions."
As Professor Smith points out, "everyone benefits when there is an 'ecosystem' of students and postdocs making up a critical mass in each research group" for sharing ideas, discussing problems and contributing to teaching undergraduates. "The triangle of faculty, postdocs and PhD students working together is crucial", he adds, for the success of the departments. The XTX gift will boost the numbers of PhD students in his department by 30%, bringing in a substantial wave of new talent and innovation.
A proportion of the gift will go to the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences to fund 100 short-term visiting fellowships, bringing mathematicians together from around the world for a deep dive into specialist topics.
Groups of students working in the CMS Central Core
Widening pathways for talent
While the Mathematics Faculty receives some steady funding for PhD students from the Cambridge Trust and has some European Research Council funding for postdocs, Professor Smith hopes that in the longer term the UK government will look to provide more support in pure maths, given that there is so much talent out there. "We have an annual postdoctoral position funded by the Herchel Smith benefaction, which attracts around 200 applications! This particular fellowship launched the careers of several prominent mathematicians who now hold Professorships at leading institutions around the country", he adds.
XTX's transformative gift is part of its new Early-Career Funding programme, committing more than £26m to boost the number of PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in pure mathematics at seven top UK universities. This is the latest example of the firm's long-term commitment to supporting mathematics education and research across the UK, including at the University of Cambridge.
This news story is republished from this University of Cambridge article.