A university is using a flexible funding model to train the next generation of scientists and engineers, with a particular focus on building partnerships with industry and broadening access to research careers. This matters because the UK needs a steady pipeline of skilled researchers to drive innovation in areas like healthcare engineering and complex industrial processes. The traditional PhD model can be rigid, failing to adapt to emerging research priorities or to attract diverse talent. This programme addresses that gap by offering multiple entry points: summer placements for undergraduates, industrial collaborations for early-career researchers, and targeted studentships aligned with national research priorities. If successful, this approach could produce a more diverse and industry-connected research workforce. The industrial CASE partnerships, for example, directly link PhD projects to company R&D needs, potentially accelerating the translation of lab discoveries into real-world products. The vacation bursaries aim to widen participation, bringing fresh perspectives into STEM fields that often struggle with inclusivity. The impact is systemic—strengthening the research ecosystem rather than delivering a single technological breakthrough.
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Postgraduate Research (PGR) underpins the Research Strategy of the University of Nottingham. The EPSRC Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) makes a significant and highly influential contribution to the University of Nottingham PGR strategy. It is used strategically across the institution in a number of ways. Guided by EPSRC recommendations, it provides funds for foundational PhD research, thematic research, industrial CASE partnerships, Doctoral Prizes and undergraduate vacation bursaries. Our DTP is overseen by a DTP executive group. This includes the PVC for Research and Knowledge Exchange (PVC R-KE), Faculty PVCs and Directors of Research alongside a nominated member from the School of Mathematical Sciences and our Associate PVC for Equality and Diversity. This ensures best use of the flexibility of the DTP to meet research users' needs and to align the DTP with RCUK and University priorities. It supports the development of early career researchers, incubates new research areas and sustains our links with research users through a number of key mechanisms. Our Vacation Bursaries support high achieving undergraduates to gain experience of cutting edge research through paid summer placements and encourage them to consider postgraduate research careers. One of the goals of this scheme is therefore to broaden access to and support diversity in our STEM research. Our Industrial CASE scheme promotes user engagement and high impact research by encouraging links with key industrial users. We prioritise the allocation of CASE awards to early career researchers to support the development of long term relationships with industry. Our Doctoral Prizes reward excellence of students and enable their transition to academic and on industrial careers. We emphasise the development of independent research careers and include elements within this scheme that focus on transitioning excellent doctoral research outputs to deliver maximum impact. Our flexible use of DTP PhD studentships responds strategically to a number of key drivers by carefully targeting studentship allocations. Our foundational research studentships emphasise research which is likely to lay the foundation for future critical mass thematic research areas. Our thematic research studentships are aligned with key RCUK priorities (these are currently oriented to healthcare engineering and complex processes) and are supported as a cohort. Finally, our user-led studentships is used in partnership with direct R&D funding from industry to support foundational research of relevance to range of research users. The DTP executive group will confirm the proportion of funding to be allocated to foundational studentships, thematic studentships, case studentships, vacation bursaries and doctoral prizes in December each year and these will be communicated to prospective supervisors and students from January the following year. Our Graduate School delivers bespoke, high quality PGR and development opportunities for doctoral students in line with the EPSRC statement of expectation. Our training is informed by the Vitae Researcher Development Framework, and existing examples of best practice in individual Schools. Further details of research and professional skills training is available at http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/graduateschool For 2016/17 PGR recruitment, all fully funded doctoral studentship opportunities at the University of Nottingham will be promoted from a dedicated webpage to ensure transparency regarding the opportunities available, and consistency in the information provided to potential candidates. This will be live from November 2015 and will be part of the online postgraduate prospectus http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pgstudy/index.aspx.
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