South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP)

The South West Doctoral Training Partnership funds postgraduate students across multiple universities rather than conducting a single research project. This grant supports the training of social science researchers through PhD studentships, addressing the need for a skilled workforce capable of tackling complex societal challenges. The partnership coordinates supervision, training resources, and collaborative opportunities across institutions, filling a gap in how the UK develops its next generation of social scientists. If successful, this programme will produce dozens of PhD graduates equipped to work in academia, government, and industry. These researchers might later shape policies on housing, education, or public health, or improve how organisations understand human behaviour. The impact is indirect but cumulative—each trained researcher becomes part of the infrastructure that generates evidence for decisions affecting millions of people. This is primarily a training investment rather than a discovery-driven project. There are no immediate practical applications because the grant does not fund specific experiments or fieldwork. Instead, it builds the human capital that makes future social science breakthroughs possible, much as earlier doctoral training programmes produced the researchers who developed randomised controlled trials and behavioural insights now used across public services.