North East and Northern Ireland Doctoral Training Partnership in the Social Sciences (NINE DTP)

The North East and Northern Ireland Doctoral Training Partnership (NINE DTP) funds postgraduate students to carry out social science research across a consortium of universities. This is a training grant, not a single research project—it supports dozens of PhD students working on topics from economics to sociology to political science. The problem it addresses is the need for a skilled, diverse pipeline of social science researchers in the UK, particularly in regions that historically receive less research investment. Without such structured training, talented students may lack the supervision, resources, and cohort support needed to complete high-quality doctorates. If successful, the partnership will produce a generation of researchers equipped to tackle complex societal challenges—such as inequality, public health, or regional economic development—using rigorous methods. The impact is indirect but systemic: better-trained social scientists feed into universities, government, think tanks, and industry, where their work informs policy and practice. This is primarily an infrastructure and capacity-building grant, not curiosity-driven fundamental science, but it enables the fundamental and applied research that follows.