How to Apply

The North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (NWSSDTP) holds an annual competition for postgraduate studentship funding. Candidates may apply for funding towards master’s and doctoral study combined, or doctoral study only. The NWSSDTP does not fund standalone master’s programmes. The NWSSDTP welcomes applications for part-time study across all competitions, institutions and subject pathways. 

Applications must be submitted via one of our subject pathways, for one of the pathway’s eligible programmes. Details of eligible subject areas and programmes can be found on our pathway pages.

The NWSSDTP’s fully-funded ESRC studentships cover:
  • payment of tuition fees for the duration of the studentship at the Home tuition fee rate;
  • an annual maintenance stipend (full-time: £18,622, part-time: £9,311 in 2023/24);
  • reimbursement of research expenses via the Research Training Support Grant;
  • opportunities to apply for additional funding for internships, fieldwork and overseas institutional visits.
The deadline for to apply for studentships commencing in October 2024 has now passed (26th February 2024). The competition for October 2025 entry will launch in August 2024. 

Please find below guidance on how to apply and the application form for completion:

All applicants must also submit an Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form with their application:

Global Majority Directed Studentships

In order to reflect and promote the ethos and values of the consortium, we actively encourage applications from students from backgrounds that are currently under-represented within our consortium and in postgraduate research within Higher Education in the UK more broadly. Accordingly, the NWSSDTP awards three studentships annually to students from Global Majority communities. For further information, please visit: https://nwssdtp.ac.uk/how-to-apply/global-majority-directed-studentships/

Priority Areas

The ESRC have awarded the NWSSDTP 9 steered awards each year in the following Priority Areas:

  • Advanced Quantitative Methods (3 awards)
  • Data Skills (3 awards)
  • Interdisciplinary research which straddles other research council remits (3 awards)

We encourage applicants to identify if their proposed project fits into a Priority Area, as this may strengthen their application and will be considered positively in terms of fit with a priority area. For further information, please visit: https://nwssdtp.ac.uk/how-to-apply/priority-areas/

Applicant Workshop

A series of applicant workshops took place in November 2023, and a composite recording of these sessions can be found on our YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/M8C5wNg961k

The PowerPoint presentation used in these workshop can be found below:

NWSSDTP Applicant Workshop Presentation November 2023Download