DTP 2016-2017 University of Sheffield

Sheffield has a tradition of strength in research across Engineering and the Physical Sciences, evidenced by the outcomes of successive Research Assessment and Research Excellence Framework exercises. We have identified areas of focus, some of which are interdisciplinary, bringing our strengths together to ensure they can make a broader, contribution and impact to the major scientific, social, environmental and technological challenges of our age.
Opportunities funded from the EPSRC Doctoral Training Partnership include:
traditional supervisor-led research student projects;
research student networks in our strategically important and interdisciplinary areas, such as robotics or healthcare imaging;
CASE partnership awards, which enable research students to work closely with a company or other partner, on a problem which the company has helped to define and spending some time gaining experience of a company setting;
undergraduate research experience awards;
University of Sheffield - EPSRC doctoral prize fellowships, designed to provide a year's funding for recent EPSRC-funded PhD graduates to identify and undertake an independent research project.
Research students at Sheffield benefit from excellent Professional Development opportunities. In 2014 our Think Ahead programme won the Times Higher Education award for outstanding support for Early Career Researchers. Research student needs are identified and met through the Doctoral Development Programme. We take a twin-track approach, recognising that some research students aspire to an academic career whilst others aspire to either research or non-research careers outside of the university sector. It is critical that research students gain higher level skills such as leadership, collaboration, critical and strategic thinking and that they develop a sense of self-confidence and professional integrity, as these skills will be required whatever career path they ultimately pursue. All of our professional development opportunities are mapped to the national Researcher Development Framework.
Think Ahead Programme: http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/ris/ecr/training
Doctoral Development Programme (DDP): http://www.shef.ac.uk/ris/pgr/ddpportal/home
Compulsory DDP module on Research Ethics and Integrity: http://www.shef.ac.uk/ris/pgr/ddpportal/reit
Researcher Development Framework: https://rdf.ris.shef.ac.uk/
Our doctoral research opportunities are advertised on our prospective doctoral research student webpages: http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/postgraduate/research/scholarships/projects
We advertise our scholarship funding between November and the end of January each year, with decisions made on funding in February and March. The University encourages collaboration with non-academic partners via CASE awards and considers these a priority. Funding is distributed between CASE awards, post-doctoral prize fellowships, funding for academic departments to support priority projects and larger scale (usually interdisciplinary) networks or projects. Funding allocated by academic departments usually accounts for around more than 50% of the total. The distribution is across Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. Recent interdisciplinary funding has been in areas such as advanced manufacturing, robotics and healthcare imaging.