Applying to LISS DTP
LISS DTP awards ESRC-funded postgraduate research studentships in the social sciences at our three partner institutions – King’s College London, Queen Mary University of London and Imperial College.
All LISS DTP studentships, Open and CASE Competition awards, are available either full or part-time (50%) in either 1+3.5 (1 year Masters degree followed by a 3.5-year PhD) or +3.5 (3.5-year PhD) format.
Our goal is to recruit outstanding and diverse candidates from across the UK and internationally, including the EU. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is central to our mission.
We offer nine ringfenced studentships for Home students who face structural barriers to postgraduate study and are currently underrepresented within the LISS DTP. Through this initiative, we aim to support talented applicants from a wide range of backgrounds and circumstances and to promote greater diversity within doctoral research.
Our studentships are informed by three interwoven core principles:
Interdisciplinarity
Students should engage with challenge-led doctoral research across topics and disciplinary boundaries, both within and beyond the social sciences.
Awarded projects must fall substantially (>50%) within the broad social and behavioural science remit of the ESRC.
Data-Driven Research
Students are encouraged to engage with enhanced data analytics and digital competences to exploit increasingly large-scale and complex data for research purposes whether their foundation is quantitative or qualitative.
Impact
Students are encouraged to engage with non-academic collaborators, and co-design research and training with users, practitioners, and potential future employers.
We offer steered studentships in the following priority areas:
● Data skills
● Advanced quantitative methods
● Interdisciplinary research which straddles other research council remits
Please refer to our Training Requirements page to better understand the kind of well-rounded social science training expected by the ESRC for its funded students.
Studentship Competitions
Open Competition →
Where the research proposal is originated by the student. The Open Competition enables students to propose their own research project for funding.
CASE Competition →
Where research projects must have a non-academic partner, and the research proposal is submitted by the academic supervisor.
For both competitions we offer funding for either a 1+3.5 studentship (1-year Masters degree followed by a 3.5-year PhD) or a +3.5 studentship (3-year PhD). All studentships are available full-time or part-time (50%). Full-time students receive a stipend of £23,805 (2026/27 rate) per annum, and their fees are paid. Fees for International students may not be paid in full.
Additional funding for research costs of around £940 per annum, placement costs, overseas fieldwork and institutional visits and difficult language training is also available. Please note that LISS DTP awards do not cover student visa and travel costs to UK.