you could do that in 2 ways:
Either using a trigger or do that when retrieving the record from the database:
trigger: after insert
CREATE TRIGGER `yourtable_after_insert` AFTER INSERT ON `yourtable` FOR EACH ROW BEGIN
UPDATE yourtable
SET projectnumber = CONCAT('project', NEW.id)
WHERE id = NEW.id;
END;
or
just do that CONCAT thing in your select query or even better in the logic of php. Consider the possibility you want to translate your application. You would store duplicate information as well...
as pointed out below: NEW.id will not work.
So use LAST_INSERT_ID() instead:
CREATE TRIGGER `yourtable_after_insert` AFTER INSERT ON `yourtable`
FOR EACH ROW BEGIN
UPDATE yourtable
SET projectnumber = CONCAT('project', LAST_INSERT_ID())
WHERE id = LAST_INSERT_ID();
END;
but still: it would be duplicating content