The Social Science Faculty at the University of Sheffield is renowned for high quality research, with some of the UK’s leading researchers across the full range of discipline areas.

In the RAE 2008, over 60% of the faculty’s research activity was graded as world leading or internationally excellent, with the majority of the faculty’s submissions ranked in the top 10 in the UK, of which five were in the top 5.

One of the ways we support academic research is via a major research centre which hosts large-scale research programmes that cut across the broad range of disciplines within the faculty, and more broadly across the University. This facility – the Interdisciplinary Centre of the Social Sciences (ICoSS) – is a major £4 million investment, which provides small conference, seminar and meeting facilities in addition to work stations for close to 80 researchers.

Several major, multi million pound grants of national and international scope are led from the Faculty, including the UK’s New Dynamics of Ageing programme, and the EU-wide ‘FUTURAGE’ programme, both in the department of Sociological Studies.

The Faculty also hosts major recent awards in Health Economics (Medical Research Council, led from the Department of Economics, with the School of Health and Related Research [ScHAAR]), Work Psychology (European Framework 7, led from the Management School) and several awards at the interface of environmental and social sciences in the departments of Geography, Landscape and Architecture (NERC, EPSRC, and European Framework 7) totaling over £2.6 million.

The Faculty is also home to a prestigious European Research Council Advanced Investigator Grant addressing consumer anxieties, led from the department of Geography. Much of the Faculty’s work is extremely policy relevant, which is represented by recent grants from the ESRC to the School of Education focused on early years literacy, several Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and a major project in the Department of Politics addressing transport policy, which is conducted in collaboration with the University of Leeds.

With over 350 academic staff in the 13 departments, and with one of the largest postgraduate research populations in the UK (with over 600 postgraduate students registered within the faculty’s departments at any one time), the faculty provides a rich a vibrant research environment. Furthermore, our social sciences research extends beyond one faculty. We collaborate across a range of disciplines including Human Communication Sciences, History, Psychology and ScHAAR.

This rich and exciting disciplinary mix, encompassing both world-leading academic research and education and also a strong practitioner focus in particular areas, uniquely positions the faculty among Sheffield’s peer institutions. For more information on Social Science at Sheffield please see https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/smi/postgraduate/research-degrees