The University of Southampton trains over 3,000 doctoral research students, the majority within the EPSRC remit, and currently holds £200 million in EPSRC-funded research income—4.3% of the total EPSRC budget. This funding supports the Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP), which addresses the national need for a skilled pipeline of researchers and future leaders in engineering and physical sciences. The university systematically converts 10–15% of its studentships into CASE awards, linking academic research directly with industrial partners. It also runs a transparent admissions process with diversity training for all selectors, aiming to attract the best candidates regardless of background. If successful, this DTP will sustain a flow of highly trained doctoral graduates who go on to work in UK industry, academia, and public-sector research. The university hosts over 100 companies on its Science Park and works with more than 1,000 external organisations; 40% of its research projects involve business partners. Its SETsquared partnership has raised over £1 billion in investment and contributed £3.8 billion to the UK economy. The impact is not a single breakthrough but a steady, systemic contribution to the UK’s research capacity and economic competitiveness.
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The University of Southampton consistently ranks within the top 7 UK Universities for EPSRC-funded peer reviewed research income. It is currently in receipt of over £200m, 4.3% of the total EPSRC budget and is one of EPSRC's Strategic Framework Partners. In REF2014, 97% of our research was judged as world leading or internationally excellent. 90% of our research impact was rated world leading. We are training a cohort of over 3,000 doctoral research students, the majority of whom fall within the EPSRC remit. We host or are major partners in 17 CDTs, DTPs or similar training partnerships. The training and supporting of PGRs to develop future leaders is vital to our mission. They form an integral part of our research community making important joint contributions and adding intellectual vitality. To embed this philosophy at all levels, in 2016 the University established a Doctoral College. Its mission is to provide an inspiring research environment & support the development of independent research leaders; a vibrant environment to help PGRs to connect & collaborate with researchers from other disciplines & exploit the potential impact of their research; to oversee & enhance the support, training & monitoring of PGRs at both research group, faculty & University level; to provide policy, training & advice to supervisors to guide PGRs to achieve their full potential. DTP is overseen by an EPSRC DTP Executive Group which ensures the strategic use of funding for the development of researchers from UG to ECR through Vacation Bursaries, through to Doctoral College prizes. We typically provide over 100 EPSRC DTP studentships each year, 10-12 Doctoral Prize Fellowships, and 15 Vacation Bursaries. We systematically convert between 10-15% of our studentships to CASE awards. We make full use of the IDS system to attract the very best international candidates to Southampton and the UK. To attract the very best students regardless of background, we run a transparent admissions process with a common application form, selection against a person specification and all selectors receiving diversity training. Doctoral Researchers within the EPSRC DTP have access to a suite of state-of-the-art research facilities and internationally competitive infrastructure in which the University has made exceptional investments, with considerable help from Government and EPSRC funding. Supervision is taken seriously and all supervisors are trained and mentored. In 2017, Jelena Gribc (Maths) has been nominated for the Times Higher Outstanding Research Supervisor of the Year. In addition to undertaking fundamental research in individual disciplines, we actively encourage interdisciplinary collaboration amongst our strategic research groups, and with our research institutes these provide PGR opportunities for cross-cutting, leading-edge research environments. We host over 100 companies on our Science Park, one of the largest centres for innovation in the UK. At any one time we are working with over 1,000 external organisations, have over 150 international businesses as key partners and 40% of our research projects involve one or more business partners, giving We are a founding partner of SETsquared, which over the last decade has raised over £1 billion in investment and contributed £3.8 billion to the UK economy. We rank well within the top 100 European Universities for Innovation.
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