We are pleased to announce the call for nominations for WRDTP studentship funding, available for doctoral research students commencing their studies in October 2027.
(Please note: all ESRC DTPs are undergoing a mid-term review in 2026. The studentship numbers listed in the WRDTP call for nominations are provisional, and could be adjusted following the mid-term review.)
We offer a range of social sciences PhD studentships starting in October each year at our partner universities:
The Pathway, Advanced Quantitative Methods and Advanced Data Analytics Awards fund student-led research projects.
WRDTP Collaborative Award projects are designed by academic colleagues at our partner universities, and fund collaborative research with partners in the private, public or third sectors. Students can then apply for a studentship linked to their preferred project in early Spring each year.
Applicants should choose a programme based on their prior academic and research experience, and in consultation with their proposed supervisor. Further information is provided in the Guidance for Applicants and the Guidance for Supervisors and Nominating Universities.
All awards are available for study on either a full-time or part-time basis.
Our Pathway awards offer applicants the opportunity to develop proposals for impactful social science research that engages with the key themes and challenges identified in our thematic interdisciplinary pathways. Pathway Awards fund candidates who have submitted their own research project, and successful students will be supervisors by a team of academic colleagues who share their subject expertise.
The WRDTP is delighted to be able to work with the Stuart Hall Foundation (SHF), supporting two studentships for Black British students. In partnership with the Stuart Hall Foundation, the WRDTP/Stuart Hall Foundation Pathway Awards will support the next generation of Black British social science researchers conducting research aligned to the Foundation’s mission. Awards are available to students applying for a PhD within the WRDTP and can be held in any of our seven partner institutions. The award process will be administered in conjunction with the Stuart Hall Foundation.
These awards are open to Black British students (Black or Black British African, Black or Black British Caribbean, Black or Black British other or Mixed Black or Black British). Applicants will self-identify and sign a disclaimer to the effect that the information they provide is correct.
Please note that international students are not eligible to apply for the WRDTP/Stuart Hall Foundation Awards.
All other standard eligibility criteria for WRDTP awards will apply.
A separate sub-committee will consider the nominations received for the WRDTP/Stuart Hall Foundation Awards and make recommendations to the WRDTP Academic Quality Committee. Representatives from the Stuart Hall Foundation will be consulted on the award decisions made.
Nominations for the Pathway Awards are assessed by senior academic colleagues from our partner institutions. Staff involved in the WRDTP Studentships competition (both professional service and academic) will undertake or be able to evidence that they have already undertaken appropriate high-quality equality, diversity and inclusion training.
In addition to working within one of the WRDTP’s interdisciplinary pathways, successful candidates will have research interests identifying with Professor Stuart Hall’s research legacy in the areas of securing wider access to education, race, ethnicity, cultural studies and structural inequalities.
Successful awardees will benefit from working with SHF to develop their career and profile. Post holders will be able to tap into the resources and networks of the Stuart Hall Foundation, including an annual gathering of Stuart Hall Foundation Scholars and Fellows, and privileged access to the work of the Foundation.
Meet the current Stuart Hall Foundation fellows and scholars.
Our Advanced Quantitative Methods (AQM) awards are aimed at applicants who will use cutting edge quantitative research methods to facilitate impactful research that is aligned with our thematic interdisciplinary pathways. These projects will use either primary or secondary quantitative data to answer research questions about society.
AQM studentships are the result of a specific ESRC strategic steer and will use either primary or secondary quantitative data to answer research questions about society. Usually the methods used will go beyond the basic quantitative methods that are often learned in “Introductory Quantitative Methods” modules in social science bachelors and masters programmes for the disciplines they are embedded in. So projects will usually do something more than bivariate analysis/regression, depending on the research question and data being used. For instance, the methods used might deal with complex data structures, consider how to identify causal effects (as opposed to associations), or consider spatial or temporal variability.
However please note that all the typical studentship eligibility criteria apply, the competition timelines and deadlines are the same as the Pathway competition, and applicants are still expected to align with one of the WRDTP’s seven interdisciplinary training pathways in addition to focusing on AQM during their research project. AQM awards will only be made to projects that answer social science questions. Students are also welcome to apply to more than one award – for instance both AQM and a pathway award.
The focus of the two awards is slightly different, with AQM awards focusing on the use of advanced statistical methods to study commonly used datasets (such as survey data). The focus of ADA is more on the use of innovative qualitative or quantitative data (“Big data”, administrative data, location tracking data, etc) and associated methods (machine learning, advanced data visualisations, etc). However, we recognise that some projects will fit in both, and both should answer questions about society. Students are welcome to apply to both if they wish.
An enhanced Research Training Support Grant (RTSG) is offered alongside these awards (available during the +3.5 stage of the programme).
ADA studentships are the result of a specific ESRC strategic steer to encourage the use of advanced data skills. Projects are likely to use forms of secondary data that are not commonly used in social science research, and that require particular techniques to understand and interpret those data. These datasets may include administrative data, unstructured commercial data (such as loyalty card databases), data created through digital interactions between people and/or organisations (e.g. social media data), and interactions with urban environments (such as transport footfall data or phone tracking data). These data are often underutilised in the social sciences, whilst being information rich. They are often large (often described as “Big Data”) and sometimes are not representative of broader populations. This means that they are often suitable for answering different research questions, and require different techniques from more traditional datasets that are used more regularly in the social sciences (such as representative surveys).
However please note that all the typical studentship eligibility criteria apply, the competition timelines and deadlines are the same as the Pathway competition, and applicants are still expected to align with one of the WRDTP’s seven interdisciplinary training pathways in addition to focusing on ADA during their research project. ADA awards will only be made to projects that answer social science questions. Students are also welcome to apply to more than one award – for instance both ADA and a pathway award.
The focus of the two awards is slightly different, with AQM awards focusing on the use of advanced statistical methods to study commonly used datasets (such as survey data). The focus of ADA is more on the use of innovative qualitative or quantitative data (“Big data”, administrative data, location tracking data, etc) and associated methods (machine learning, advanced data visualisations, etc). However, we recognise that some projects will fit in both, and both should answer questions about society. Students are welcome to apply to both if they wish.
An enhanced Research Training Support Grant (RTSG) is offered alongside these awards (available during the +3.5 stage of the programme).
Your local university’s WRDTP link administrator is responsible for liaising with you on WRDTP studentship matters. Contacts at each university can be found below:
| University of Bradford | Neil Turner | Admissions Office | N.Turner2@bradford.ac.uk |
| University of Hull | David Griffiths | Doctoral College | whiterosedtp@hull.ac.uk |
| University of Leeds | Shirley Yeadon | Leeds Doctoral College | pg_scholarships@leeds.ac.uk |
| Manchester Metropolitan University | Tingyuan Yang | Doctoral College | doctoralservices@mmu.ac.uk |
| University of Sheffield | Kirsty Tolmay/Steph Harley | Research, Partnerships and Innovation/FoSS Graduate School | pgr-scholarships@sheffield.ac.uk/fcs-pgr@sheffield.ac.uk |
| Sheffield Hallam University | Dr Sarah Smith | Doctoral School | DoctoralSchool-Operations-PGR-Enquiries@shu.ac.uk |
| University of York | Zaynab Seedat | Institutional Funding and Programmes Team | esrc-whiterose-dtp@york.ac.uk |
