Open Competition

This online workshop is especially dedicated to encouraging applicants with Home fee status from underrepresented backgrounds and applicants from non-research intensive higher education institutions, but is open to all.

If you are excited by research, social issues and ideas but are not sure what a Masters/PhD entails or how to write an application, this workshop is for you.

The event will take place on Thursday 26th November, 12:00-14:00 GMT. You can view this last year’s presentation here.

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📝 Register via our event page here →

If not, most likely you should apply for a 1+3.5 studentship and simultaneously apply for the Master’s programme you wish to undertake at the institution of your choice.

Look at the institutional prospectuses to determine a Master’s programme that best fits your research interests and discuss with your proposed supervisor to ensure the course falls within LISS DTP’s research remit and contains the required amount of core social science methods training.

Please find further information on our Training Requirements page.

Please consult your proposed academic supervisor if you are unsure of this.

If the change in fields of study is significant, you may also need to apply for a 1+3.5 studentship and follow the process mentioned above, choosing and applying for a relevant Master’s programme at the institution of your choice to gain the necessary background knowledge to then undertake your PhD.

If this is the case for your doctoral programme of choice, you should apply for a 1+3.5 studentship to cover the MRes plus PhD components of study. Please note that your MPhil year is generally considered to be the first year of your doctoral degree (before your upgrade process). You should not apply for a 1+3.5 degree to cover a MPhil year.

If you already have a Master’s degree in a relevant research area to your proposed doctoral project and there are no MRes requirements for your doctorate of choice, you should apply for a +3.5 studentship. On the +3.5 Studentship application form, you will be asked to outline your existing research methods training, gained from past academic study, work or professional experience.

Please refer to the Training Requirements page, to better understand the kind of well-rounded social science training expected by the ESRC for its funded students.

If, after reviewing the page that you feel that you cannot demonstrate on your application form a sufficient amount of key social science perspectives and methods at an appropriate level, please discuss your options with your supervisor.

On the application form you will be asked which LISS DTP Research Area your work is most closely affiliated with. This does not have to be a perfect fit, but you can use the descriptions on the page as a guide.

Please simultaneously apply for admission to your chosen programme of study in the institution and department/research centre/institute that best fits your research interests.

For PhD programmes, this should be where your primary supervisor is based. In some cases, it may be appropriate to complete your Master’s programme in another department, institute or even LISS DTP partner institution than your supervisor is based at.

Students who have already applied for admissions and those who have applied in the previous academic year but have deferred entry do not need to re-apply. Current first year doctoral students are not required to submit a new admissions application.

Please follow the steps below to request the application fee waiver:

• Start you application in King’s Apply.

• Before submitting your application fill in the KCL LISS DTP 1+3.5 Application – Fee Waiver Form​ by 18th January 2027. Please do not submit the application fee form if you are applying for the +3.5 PhD route.

• You will be contacted by KCL Admissions to confirm whether you are eligible for the LISS DTP application fee waiver. Emails for application fee waivers will come from: admissions-payments@kcl.ac.uk

• Submit your application (please do this after you have received a response from KCL Admissions). The deadline for applications is 20th January 2027, 17:00 GMT.

• Please note that you must fill in the fee waiver request form latest by 18th January 2027 for the application fee waiver to be actioned, otherwise you will need to pay the application fee yourself.

All applicants must submit an online application via our LISS DTP Application Portal by 20th January 2027, 17:00 GMT.

The applicant must invite their proposed primary supervisor to collaborate on the Application Portal and the supervisors must complete the supervisor supporting statement section on the online application form.

Applicants will not be able to submit their application before the supervisor has completed their section in the application portal.

Please note that it is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure the proposed supervisor completes their part of the application in time for the applicant to submit their application by the deadline of 20th January 2027, 17:00 GMT.

Please discuss this requirement with your proposed supervisor before initiating the collaboration in the application portal so they know to expect the request from the application system. The collaborating supervisor will only see the ‘Degree Programme‘ page of your application.

You should request your official transcript from the relevant university well in advance as it can take time for these documents to be issued.

If you are unable to supply a final transcript you must include an interim transcript to show your progress to date.
If you are applying for a +3.5 (PhD only) studentship, we would expect to see transcripts for both undergraduate and masters degrees.

Degree certificates alone are not sufficient. You must provide official transcripts showing the modules you studied, the credits achieved and the grades awarded. If your transcripts are not in English, you must also provide a certified English translation.

The referee must be able to testify to your potential to undertake doctoral study. Your reference should be either uploaded to your application or you can invite your referee to collaborate through the Application Portal.

If using the collaboration function, applicants will not be able to submit their application before the referee has uploaded the reference to the application portal.

Please note that it is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure the proposed referee completes their part of the application in time for the applicant to submit their application by the deadline of 20th January 2027, 17:00 GMT.

Please discuss this requirement with your referee before initiating the collaboration in the application portal so they know to expect the request from the application system. You can revoke the reference request in the application portal at any point and invite another referee to collaborate if appropriate.

At Imperial, Open Competition candidates together with their proposed supervisors are required to submit a “Confirmation of Departmental Support” form to the LISS DTP Imperial Team at liss-dtp@imperial.ac.uk by 20th January 2027, 17:00 GMT, confirming studentship co-funding arrangements. Please ensure your proposed supervisor is aware of this requirement.

Please note that some departments may have earlier deadlines for form submission. You should always check with your department for details.

Further queries should be directed to liss-dtp@imperial.ac.uk.

You will need to register the first time you use the LISS DTP Application Portal.

Once you start the online form, please save your answers as you go. You can access the application that you are working on, and edit answers at any point before submitting it.

To apply, please go to ‘Application Portal’ and select the programme you are applying for in the ‘Start a New Application’ section.

Due to the increase in number of applications LISS DTP receives, all eligible applications undergo an initial longlisting stage during which the quality of the applications and applicant fit is assessed by academic reviewers according to longlisting criteria. The longlisting is guided by the information provided in ‘Section 5 – Proposed Research’ of the application form.

Applications that pass the initial longlisting assessment will then be circulated to academic reviewers in each Research Area for scoring according to the full review assessment criteria, and for comments.

The scores and comments of the reviewers are then used by panels in each of six Research Areas to assess the applications. The Research Area assessments are then used by a high-level panel to decide on the final award of studentships.

Applicants will receive notification of the outcome of the initial longlisting by the end of March 2027. LISS DTP is regrettably unable to provide individual feedback to unsuccessful applicants.

All applicants whose application is processed for longlisting, will be notified on the outcome of their application by the end of April 2027. The outcomes are:

• Successful – studentship awarded
• Reserve Candidate
• Unsuccessful – application not successful in being considered for funding.

Successful applicants will be asked to accept/decline it by a given deadline (usually within two weeks of the studentship award offer). If a successful candidate fails to respond by the deadline or declines the offer, their award will automatically be transferred to a reserve candidate who is next in line for the award.

We are unable to tell reserve candidates their position on the reserve list. Owing to the large number of applications we receive, we regret that we are unable to give feedback on unsuccessful applications.

Please note that some departments may have earlier deadlines for form submission. You should always check with your department for details.

Further queries should be directed to liss-dtp@imperial.ac.uk.