The Midlands Graduate School Doctoral Training Partnership

The UK Research Councils are funding a network of Doctoral Training Partnerships—consortia of universities that will train the next generation of social scientists through postgraduate studentships. This matters because the UK needs a steady pipeline of skilled researchers who can tackle complex social and economic challenges, from inequality to digital transformation. Without coordinated training infrastructure, individual universities may struggle to provide the breadth of expertise, interdisciplinary collaboration, and professional development that modern social science demands. The partnerships ensure that doctoral students receive high-quality supervision, access to specialist resources, and exposure to real-world research environments. If successful, these partnerships will produce graduates who go on to work in academia, government, think tanks, and industry—shaping policy, improving public services, and informing business decisions. The public rarely sees this training infrastructure, but it quietly underpins the evidence base for decisions that affect housing, education, employment, and healthcare. This is primarily a capacity-building investment: it does not fund a specific research question, but creates the conditions for future discoveries across the social sciences.