Welcome to the WRDTP Awards information session for applicants

We will begin the session with a presentation from the WRDTP Director, during which we will mute all participant cameras and microphones. We will also disable the Q&A function until the end of the presentation.

There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation. You will be able to ask questions using the raise your hand function (you will need to enable your microphone and webcam for this) or the Q&A function.

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Pathway, AQM and ADA Awards 2027-2028

White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership

Professor Ryan Powell, WRDTP Director

Charlotte Massarella, WRDTP Manager

Charlotte Littlewood, WRDTP Scholarships and Funding Officer

About the WRDTP

• We are an established partnership of the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield, York, Bradford, Hull, Manchester Metropolitan, Sheffield Hallam who have been working together since 2017.
• A total of 62 departments and schools are eligible to host WRDTP-funded students across the social sciences.
• This year we are offering applicants the opportunity to apply for:
• 38 Pathway Awards, including 2 x Stuart Hall Foundation Awards and 2 x Interdisciplinary Research Awards
• 2 Advanced Quantitative Methods (AQM) Awards
• 2 Advanced Data Analytics (ADA) Awards

What’s on offer

A range of awards

• Our fully-funded PhD studentships will equip the next generation of social science researchers with the skills and knowledge necessary to address the most pressing challenges facing the world today.
• 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.
• 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.
• Our Advanced Data Analytics (ADA) Awards are aimed at applicants who will use cutting edge data analysis techniques (which can be quantitative and/or qualitative), or will deploy large scale or ‘big’ data, to facilitate impactful research that is aligned with our thematic interdisciplinary pathways.

Flexible doctoral programmes

• Applicants without a social science masters degree will normally be funded for a 1 year MA Social Research followed by a 3.5 year PhD.
• Applicants with a social science masters degree but without 60 credits of M-level research training (or equivalent) will normally be funded for a 3.75 year integrated PGCert/PhD.
• Applicants with 60 or more credits of social science M-level research training (or equivalent) will normally be funded for a 3.5 year PhD.
• Supervisors will work with applicants to identify the most appropriate programme based on prior academic experience.

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Opportunities for professional development

• All our awards include a 3-month ‘Research in Practice’ placement. This is an exciting opportunity to apply your research skills in a non-academic setting and acquire important personal and professional skills.
• You do not need to have identified a placement to apply for a studentship.
• Information about placement needs will be captured via a Development Needs Analysis (DNA) once a student has registered.
• RinP will be flexible in terms of timing and format, and can be taken part-time.
• The WRDTP will offer a range of placement opportunities each year with a variety of partners. You can also negotiate your own placement.

Working in our interdisciplinary pathways

• Our pathways focus on pressing challenges facing the world today, and bring together researchers from a range of disciplinary backgrounds who are working on issues of shared concern.
• Civil Society, Development, and Democracy (CDD)
• Digital Technologies, Communication and Artificial Intelligence (DCA)
• Education, Childhood and Youth (ECY)
• Security, Conflict and Justice (SCJ)
• Space, Place, Environment and Liveability (SPEL)
• Sustainable Growth, Business, Work and Economic Productivity (SBE)
• Wellbeing, Health and Communities (WHC)

A package of funding

• Studentships can be awarded on a part-time or full-time basis.
• We welcome applications from home and international students.
• Studentships include tuition fees, plus the standard UKRI stipend to support living costs. This will be paid for the full duration of the award, i.e. the length of the programme.
• Students will also have access to other pots of money to support their research and development, e.g. a research training support grant, overseas fieldwork expenses, difficult language training.
• AQM and ADA awards also include an enhanced research training support grant to enable students to undertake training in advanced quantitative and data methods.
• If you are an international student, speak to your chosen university at the earliest opportunity as UKRI places limits on the number of awards that can be made to international students.

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Stuart Hall Foundation Awards

• The WRDTP is delighted to be able to work with the Stuart Hall Foundation (SHF) to support two studentships for Black British applicants. The WRDTP is keen to start addressing historic structural inequalities in education through its partnership with SHF.
• There are 2 x WRDTP/SHF Awards, which 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).
• SHF scholars benefit from the networks and support of the Stuart Hall Foundation.

Partnership with the Stuart Hall Foundation

• Inspired by the life and work of Professor Stuart Hall, the Stuart Hall Foundation is committed to public education, addressing urgent questions of race and inequality in culture and society through talks and events, and building a network of SHF scholars and artists in residence.

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• It works collaboratively to forge creative partnerships in the spirit of Stuart Hall; thinking together and working towards a racially just and more equal future.

How do the WRDTP/SHF Awards differ from standard Pathway Awards?

• Candidates will have research interests identifying with Professor Stuart Hall’s research legacy and will engage with his intellectual agenda:
• Race, ethnicity, cultural studies, structural inequalities, and securing wider access to education.
• Awardees work with SHF to develop their career and profile.
• Access to SHF resources and networks.
• Annual gathering of Scholars and Fellows.
• Wider WRDTP cohort building training events and activities.

What we’re after

Motivated students with excellent ideas

• We seek to champion cutting-edge research in the social sciences that addresses some of the world’s most pressing problems.
• We are looking for motivated students with excellent ideas and a clear sense of how their proposed programme of social science research will make a difference, and shape how we understand our world and the problems that are faced.
• As a partnership we are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion; interdisciplinarity; academic rigour and excellence; and collaboration.
• Each year, we welcome students from a wide variety of academic backgrounds, and with a diverse range of lived experiences and perspectives, from countries worldwide.

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Interdisciplinary research with societal benefits

• We are organised around seven thematic interdisciplinary pathways, which bring together researchers from a range of disciplinary backgrounds working in areas of common interest. All of our funded students are aligned to at least one of our pathways, each of which offer a range of training and development opportunities.

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• We are also committed to funding research that has the potential to benefit society and the economy, and which is relevant to non-academic audiences locally and more widely. All applications should have a clear sense of the potential benefits and likely non-academic audiences, as well as a plan for how these benefits will be realised.

1. Project excellence (double-weighted)

• An excellent application will demonstrate all of the following, i.e. all of the areas are ‘excellent’:
• Excellent explanation of the significance of the project and the contribution it will make to academic and empirical knowledge.
• Excellent research design, which draws on an appropriate range of methods and data sources, and which is feasible within the funded period.
• Excellent consideration of the likely ethical issues and awareness of own positionality, as appropriate to the nature of the research.
• Excellent consideration of the likely contingency plans required in the event that the research cannot proceed as planned, and to and to ensure submission within the funded period.
• For AQM and ADA applicants only: Excellent use of appropriate advanced quantitative methods (AQM awards) or advanced data analytics (ADA awards) to address the research problem.

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1. Project excellence (double-weighted)

• This section is broken down into a series of short fields to help you address the assessment criteria.

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• When thinking through your research ideas, it is important that you are realistic about the scope and scale of your project to ensure that your research can be completed on time (i.e. your thesis needs to be submitted within the funding period). We want ambitious, high-quality research projects, but we also want to ensure that they are feasible and manageable, so that PGRs are not overburdened.

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2. Fit with WRDTP core priorities

• An excellent application will demonstrate all of the following, i.e. all of the areas are ‘excellent’:
• Excellent explanation of how the project fits with the WRDTP’s thematic interdisciplinary pathways.
• Excellent account of the likely societal benefits of the project, and the steps that will be taken to realise these benefits.

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• Please note that there is no expectation that an applicant will have arrangements or pre-existing relationships in place to facilitate impact. The core purpose of this section is for applicants to demonstrate their understanding of the research’s potential benefits and their ideas for realising them.

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3. Motivation and potential

• An excellent application will demonstrate all of the following, i.e. all of the areas are ‘excellent’:
• Excellent explanation of the applicant’s motivation to undertake the specific programme of research outlined in the application.
• Excellent explanation and evidence of the applicant’s potential to undertake doctoral level research.

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3. Motivation and potential

• This section should focus specifically on the programme of research itself. You should explain why you believe this programme of research is necessary and why the research problem that you have identified needs addressing.

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• Applicants have a diverse range of experiences and skills, and evidence of potential can take many forms. This may include academic achievements, but can also include a much wider range of professional, voluntary or personal achievements. We also recognises the vital importance of transferable skills, such as resilience, adaptability, project management and the ability to deliver to deadlines.

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Explain why you have applied for the WRDTP/SHF Pathway Award (300 words max).

You should focus on how your proposed research engages with the work of Stuart Hall, fits with the SHF mission and values, and the potential wider benefits to society.

You may also want to reflect on how your own personal experiences align with the SHF mission and values.

An excellent application will offer ‘a cogent, compelling, imaginative, well-structured, and clearly argued statement that shows excellent potential. It engages with, and advances, the SHF mission and values clearly, and identifies and demonstrates sustainable links between the PhD project and the proposed WRDTP pathway. It outlines the clear added value that the award will offer to the candidate, and to wider debates and society.’

You can read the assessment criteria here.

How to apply

The application process

• Pathway, AQM and ADA awards are student-led. We encourage you to discuss your application with your supervisor and to allow enough time to develop a robust programme of research.
• To be eligible for a WRDTP award, you must hold an offer for a PhD place in an eligible school or department, and must be intending to undertake a social sciences research project that is within the ESRC’s remit.
• You do not apply directly to the WRDTP for an award, but are instead nominated by your university. You should therefore allow sufficient time to liaise with potential supervisors. You should also ensure that you observe any processes or deadlines that the individual department, school or university has in place for assessing applications.
• As part of the nomination process, you will be required to complete a WRDTP Studentship Application Form. Please note that this is a separate process, and is in addition to any form that you may have completed when applying for a place to study a PhD at your chosen university.

The application process

• The final deadline for you to apply to your chosen university for a place on the PhD programme is 17:00 on 20 January 2027.
• Please note that some departments/schools may set earlier internal deadlines by which they need to have received your application. It is your responsibility to consult with the department/school you are applying to for your PhD to confirm the process.
• Please be aware that all deadlines are fixed, and that extensions will not be granted. Late nominations will not be accepted.
• All applications are assessed against the WRDTP’s Studentship Assessment Criteria by two independent assessors drawn from our seven WRDTP universities. WRDTP/SHF Awards are also assessed by a sub-panel of the WRDTP Academic Quality Committee, using the WRDTP/SHF assessment criteria, and awards are made subject to final agreement by the SHF’s Academic Committee.
• The WRDTP AQC moderation assessment panel meets on 1 April 2027 and decisions will be communicated to your university w/c 12 April 2027. Panel decisions are final and we regret that we are unable to offer individual feedback on unsuccessful applications.

Please note…

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• In assessing applications we employ a strict word count policy with no leeway. Where any sections exceed the word limit then applications will be excluded - make sure you adhere to word limits, check and re-check before submission!

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• It is important for your application to highlight your project’s contribution to the discipline, and make reference to existing knowledge and debates you are seeking to contribute to. The application form includes a space to provide a list of key references.

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• Applications must be solely the original work of the applicant, and any work produced using AI tools should not be passed off as your own. Any use of AI must be disclosed and explained in your application, as per the WRDTP statement on the use of AI.

Any questions?

• Raise your hand to ask a question. We will take questions in order. Please unmute your microphone and video when we get to your turn.

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• You can also use the Q&A function.

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