This is a preannouncement and provides high-level information on our vision for the new investment and some core expectations. These are subject to change and our final requirements and expectations will be provided when we publish the funding opportunity.
Vision
We are funding one doctoral focal award plus to develop a cadre of social scientists across career stages with the creative vision and skills needed to use data-driven research approaches in imaginative and insightful ways, applying their skills to understand the world and address complex societal and economic challenges.
This will be achieved through a combination of doctoral training and targeted training and capacity building (TCB) activities for mid-career and senior researchers. Further information on what a doctoral focal award plus is can be found in the ‘Additional information’ section.
We want social scientists at all career stages to have the skills and capability to maximise the value of large and complex data available for research purposes.
Social scientists should be equipped with both the technical skills and the robust conceptual and methodological understanding necessary to design and undertake innovative data-driven research. The skills that are required span qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods approaches.
We take a broad definition of what ‘data-driven research’ encompasses and more detail can be found under ‘Further information’. We expect a broad range of disciplinary perspectives, within the social sciences and beyond, to be involved in the award.
Innovation in data-driven research will be the core focus of this doctoral focal award plus.
We expect the following outcomes:
- a cadre of doctoral researchers with the knowledge and skills needed to use innovative approaches in data-driven research to transform our understanding of the world and inform policy and practice
- piloting new approaches to postgraduate training (i.e. level 7 and 8) and opening it up to a wider audience who may not want to undertake a traditional PhD, therefore diversifying the doctorate and addressing employer needs in sectors outside of academia
- in addition to the provision above, a tailored training programme that uses innovative pedagogical approaches alongside cutting edge methods to effectively upskill social scientists across career stages and relevant to a range of careers
- a portfolio of research that uses novel data-driven approaches, including applying methods and data in innovative ways, to deliver new insights
- sharing of good pedagogical and methodological practice
To enable a continuing pipeline of researchers, the learning and good practice developed by the doctoral focal award plus will be actively shared across the social science community and beyond, and resources will continue to be made available beyond the end of the funding period.
This is an opportunity to optimise the value of ESRC’s and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)’s data infrastructure through its novel use to address emerging research priorities.
The doctoral focal award plus will complement and add value to our existing portfolio of training and capacity building initiatives and data infrastructures. We expect you to set out how you will build upon, support and integrate with existing research and innovation research centres, infrastructures and facilities, including UKRI’s data infrastructure investments, to realise the potential of data-driven research in the social sciences.
This funding is not intended to duplicate or extend existing provision, supporting instead their novel use and optimising their value.
Approach
The doctoral focal award plus will achieve its aims by delivering a training and capacity building offer through a programme of doctoral training and a suite of training and capacity building activities supporting mid-career and senior researchers.
We are open to novel and imaginative approaches. The doctoral focal award plus will need to be interdisciplinary in order to fulfil its objectives. Individual projects undertaken by students and researchers participating in TCB activities will not need to be interdisciplinary, but it is encouraged. You should not feel constrained by established areas of interdisciplinary working or the use of specific datasets.
Training programmes must ensure learners understand the breadth of social science methods, extending beyond the qualitative/quantitative binary, and that the research question should drive the data and methodological approaches used.
Applications for a doctoral focal award plus that are focused solely on the use of either qualitative or quantitative approaches will not be assessed as a priority. The investment should recognise and build upon broader innovative practice across the sector.
Doctoral training
The doctoral focal award plus will support an innovative doctoral programme that will:
- produce a new generation of doctoral graduates that have strong capabilities across a conceptually broad range of fields relevant to data-driven research and can apply a diverse range of research methods
- develop new qualifications and learning pathways that diversify the doctorate
- create an innovative programme design and pedagogical approach tailored to support the efficient and effective teaching of data-driven research skills
UKRI is committed to developing its support for doctoral training to better meet UK workforce needs. This is an opportunity to explore and pilot more flexible and inclusive approaches which better support the upskilling of the existing workforce and widen the UK talent pipeline. We encourage the proposition of alternative doctoral pathways and doctoral qualifications, including professional doctorates. Approaches should reflect employer needs in other sectors and applicants should consider how their co-funding model could support the delivery of this requirement.
The programme design and pedagogical approach should:
- include a curriculum that unifies skills training and conceptual knowledge, while embedding advanced and specialised training within the core programme
- embed the teaching of digital skills to ensure researchers are confident in digital data collection from digital sources (including ownership, curation and storage), and analysis
- support research projects focused on the novel use of data-driven approaches
ESRC’s postgraduate training and development guidelines 2022 details our minimum expectations for core conceptual, general and specialist research training, including ‘Research in Practice’. The guidelines also set out our expectations with respect to:
- collaborative studentships
- development needs analysis
- supervisory practice
- placements
- equality, diversity and inclusion
Funding for a cohort of up to eight studentships will be provided per year for three years with students expected to start in October 2027. The minimum number of studentships the doctoral focal award plus will be expected to support will be identified in the funding opportunity.
As this area is of considerable interest to business, public and VCSE sectors, at least two students per cohort must be supported by a non-academic partners or partners.
The allocation of studentships will be devolved to the doctoral focal award plus. Studentships must be allocated through a fair and transparent open competition and not based on internal quotas. Applicants will need to detail the process that will be used in their applications.
Supporting mid-career and senior researchers
Our scoping work (see ‘additional information’ for more detail) identified a strong need to support the upskilling of the social science community at all career stages. The doctoral focal award plus will deliver targeted training and capacity building activities for the wider social science community.
Collectively, the proposed programme of activities will:
- buy out researcher time to develop and apply new skills
- enable skill development in a different disciplinary and sector settings
- open up core and advanced training through the availability of online resources
- support trainers and supervisors working with students utilising data-driven research approaches
- develop sustainable peer networks
Activity should draw upon and open up the training developed for the doctoral programme to a wider audience.
Sustainability
The doctoral focal award plus is expected to work with the ESRC Research Capability Hub to ensure training and capacity building materials and activities developed by the investment, such as online resources; networks; and communities of practice, are sustainable beyond the end of the funding period.
Sharing good practice
This investment will play an important strategic role in developing our understanding of both how to effectively open up doctoral training to wider audiences; and how changes to pedagogical practice can improve the teaching and learning of data-driven approaches in the social sciences across all career stages.
You are encouraged to consider how the doctoral focal award plus can benefit the wider UK social science community. The successful team will be expected to have in place mechanisms to share this learning. Additionally, the investment should seek to showcase broader innovative practice from across the sector.
Delivery, management and governance
The doctoral focal award plus must be led by a strong interdisciplinary team with:
- the relevant scientific and professional expertise to deliver the proposed programme of activity
- good awareness of relevant innovations taking place across the social sciences, both in the UK and internationally, and at the interface with other research council domains for example, the digital humanities; computational and biosocial research
Funding available
ESRC will contribute a maximum of £5.75 million.
What we will fund
Full details will be provided in the funding opportunity. The budget provided in this preannouncement is our maximum contribution.
To assist with early planning, it is anticipated that studentship costs will be approximately half the overall value of the doctoral focal award plus with the remainder of funding allocated to supporting activities targeted at other career stages.
Studentship costs
The funding for the studentship element will be provided on the basis of the ESRC notional cost of a studentship. We cannot be precise about the total value at this point as this will depend on the stipend and fee rates relevant to each academic year, and whether the research organisations within the doctoral focal award plus are eligible for London weighting or not.
Funding will be provided on the basis of each studentship being four years in duration but the actual funding allocated to individual students should reflect any prior training as identified through a development needs analysis.
Further information on the terms and conditions of this funding, including how training grants are administered, can be found in our postgraduate funding guide.
Non-studentship costs
Non-studentship costs will support the upskilling of mid-career and senior researchers. The breakdown and justification of these costs must be provided in applications.
Costs can be requested to support the delivery, coordination, and management of non-studentship activities to allow the successful doctoral focal award plus to establish structures and processes to develop and deliver opportunities.
What we will not fund
Costs associated with the management and administration of the studentships cannot be claimed.
