PhD in Social Sciences

The studentship funded by the ESRC covers tuition fees and an annual tax-free living stipend in line with UKRI minimum rates (currently £20,780 for 2025/26) and includes a Research Training Support Grant. This pathway is looking for students and applications that are interested in pursuing interdisciplinary projects incorporating elements of computational science methodologies in the context of social science challenges spanning the remits of the UK Research Institute’s ESRC and EPSRC. The pathway is seeking to develop expertise in researching human behaviour, combining advanced quantitative and digital analytical methods, applied to data generated through digital footprints, with qualitative research on interaction in on-line spaces. Projects should include some strategies ranging from the analysis of social media posts to the passive capture of movements via accelerometer data and evaluate how current and emerging socio-technical systems respond to and influence situated particulars in human-algorithm interaction. Furthermore, projects that examine how the desire for new ways of expressing economic and social needs can drive developments in digital technology and their applications are similarly in scope. Substantive areas of focus for projects include: problems of health and social care; constrained communities; business and innovation; cyber security; and crime and safety. Students benefit from co-supervision by multidisciplinary teams within HEIs and between them.