ESRC Funded Studentships in Politics at University of Liverpool via the North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership

The Department of Politics at the University of Liverpool is pleased to invite applications to the Politics Pathway of the North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (NWSSDTP). Studentships are available as either three-year PhD (+3) or four-year MA+PhD (1+3) studentships to both UK and international applicants, on a full-time or part-time basis.

Any Politics topic is eligible subject to supervisory capacity. The ESRC specifically invite application from Global Majority Candidates, and on the topics of Advanced Quantitative Methods, Data Skills, and Interdisciplinary research which straddles other research council remits.

The NWSSDTP is a partnership between the Universities of Liverpool, Manchester, Lancaster, and Keele funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, to support postgraduate studentships and training in the social sciences. The NWSSDTP is one of the largest DTPs in the ESRC network. All PGRs benefit from a world-class research environment, exceptional supervision, extensive links with non-HEI partners and bespoke training provision through our flagship training scheme Methods North West.

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: £19,237, part-time: £9,618.50 in 2024/25);
• reimbursement of research expenses via the Research Training Support Grant;
• opportunities to apply for additional funding for internships, fieldwork and overseas institutional visits.

Application Process:

This is a 2-step process. You need to have been accepted into the University of Liverpool Politics PhD Programme first (or show you have submitted your full application) BEFORE applying for the ESRC funding through the NWSSDTP. The deadline for the NWSSDTP is 3^rd February 2025 for the October 2025 programme.

We strongly recommend you send your proposal and transcript to the Politics Director of Postgraduate Research first, to ensure potential supervisors are available. Contact: hlc-pgr@liverpool.ac.uk.

Details for the Programme application for Politics can be found via the 'Apply' button above.

Details for the ESRC NWSSDTP funding can be found here:

https://nwssdtp.ac.uk/how-to-apply/

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