Oxford will use EPSRC funding to train roughly 15 doctoral students per year across engineering, physical and mathematical sciences, plus offer 15 paid summer research internships for promising undergraduates and eight post-PhD prize awards for early-career researchers. This matters because the UK needs a steady pipeline of skilled researchers who can move into both academic and industrial roles. The abstract identifies a specific gap: many of the most significant scientific advances will occur at the boundaries between traditional disciplines, yet standard PhD training often keeps students siloed within a single department. Oxford’s Graduate School addresses this by providing cross-departmental training in research integrity, communication, career management, enterprise, and innovation—skills that a single supervisor may not cover. If the programme succeeds, it will produce a cohort of researchers who can collaborate across fields, communicate their work to peers and the public, and understand how to translate discoveries into real-world applications. This matters for sectors that depend on physical sciences and engineering talent—from energy and manufacturing to computing and healthcare. The vacation internships also give undergraduates early exposure to research, potentially widening the pool of future PhD applicants.
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Oxford is one of the largest top ranked science universities in the world in terms of faculty, undergraduates and graduate students. A major attraction for individuals wanting to study or work at Oxford is the breadth of academic footprint that accompanies this size and strength, as well as the quality of the students and faculty. Graduate research students are not only the driving force underpinning much of the theoretical and experimental research that is undertaken in Oxford today they are also tomorrow's research leaders of academia and industry. The EPSRC Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) scheme enables the University to offer studentships across the broad range of the engineering, physical and mathematical sciences. Oxford focuses these studentships in research groups that align strategically with the research themes and challenges of both EPSRC and the University, complementing those already on offer through our Centres for Doctoral Training (www.cdt.ox.ac.uk). Doctoral students are members of both a research group and a department, as well as being a part of our broader researcher community embodied in our Graduate School. DTP students will often be supervised in research groups that work across more than one discipline and department. Information on how to apply and information on departments and research areas can be found through the University's admissions webpages: www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate. Interested applicants are advised to contact a potential supervisor before applying. Applicants for all funded places at Oxford, including places funded through the EPSRC DTP, must apply by the relevant January deadline, which is published annually on the admissions webpages. Departments will shortlist candidates for interview in February and award studentships to the best candidates by late February or early March. All our doctoral students are trained and supervised in research groups, which produce world-leading research in outstanding research environments. Each student is allocated a supervisor and a co-supervisor who will support them through their course and guide their journey from research proposal to submitted thesis. Collaboratively the supervisor and student work out the most appropriate training programme for the research skills that the student will need. As many of the most dramatic scientific advances in the coming years will be made at the interface between traditional disciplines, our Graduate School (www.mpls.ox.ac.uk/graduate-school) enables students to access not only specialist training in their research field or department, but also a wealth of training offered across Oxford science departments. Through the Graduate School, we also provide training to enable students to develop the knowledge and skills to manage themselves and their research with integrity, collaborate with others, communicate their research to their peers and to the public, and manage their career progression. We have also developed a suite of training programmes in enterprise and innovation to ensure our doctoral students are enterprise literate and have an understanding of the process of innovation. For more information see www.mpls.ox.ac.uk/training/pgr/PGR. We are able to provide opportunities for the most able and promising undergraduates to use their summer vacation productively by experiencing a real research environment. Funding is available for 15 vacation internships per year, paid at the living wage with an average duration of ten weeks. For more information see www.mpls.ox.ac.uk/study/applicants/epsrc-vacation-bursaries. To support promising early career researchers who have just completed their thesis, Oxford also makes approximately eight doctoral prize awards each year to enable them to realise fully the impact of their doctoral research. For more information see www.mpls.ox.ac.uk/graduate-school/funding-for-graduate-students/epsrc-doctoral-prize-scheme.
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