What is the LSE ESRC DTP?

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK’s largest funder of research on economic, social, behavioural and human data science. The LSE ESRC DTP is one of ESRC’s 15 doctoral training partnerships.

What is the LSE ESRC DTP for?

The core function of a Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) is to award and administer postgraduate research studentships, to support multi-disciplinarily activities, and to provide advanced professional support to ESRC funded students.

The LSE ESRC DTP has been doing this since 2011, when LSE first received ESRC doctoral training grant funding. Our first grant supported our first six cohorts, who were admitted between October 2011 and October 2016. Our second grant funded six cohorts, who were admitted between 2017 and October 2022. This was later extended for a further one cohort in response to the pandemic, covering the entry cohorts for October 2023. LSE has recently received renewed funding for a further five entry cohorts. Our first new cohort will enrol in October 2024.

What funding does the LSE ESRC DTP offer?

Our doctoral training grant allows us to offer a minimum of 20 studentships per year in a wide variety of programmes, spread across most LSE departments. Six of these are reserved, each year, for ESRC strategic steer topics in advanced quantitative methods and data skills. Across the period of our current grant, many of our studentships will also be delivered jointly and collaboratively with non-academic organisations. Where these are available, they will be advertised on this page, and via the hosting department.

What types of studentship awards do you offer? How does the LSE ESRC DTP allocate studentships?

We offer studentships of varying types and durations, and can also provide support for pre-requisite postgraduate taught programmes, and allocate all of our studentships according our prospective researchers’ development needs, based on their submitted admissions applications. You can find information about our award types here.

How can I apply?

You can find information about graduate study at LSE, including available programmes, through LSE Graduate Admissions. Their webpages include programme overviews, videos and details of student services.

Programmes which are eligible for our funding will note this on specifically on their prospectus page. You can also find a full list of programmes eligible for our funding here. To apply, you need only submit an application for admission via LSE Graduate Admissions. You can find specific information about how to apply here. There is no separate admissions process. Initial enquiries about application mechanisms should be directed to Graduate Admissions.

What else should I know?

LSE ESRC DTP studentships are not the same as LSE PhD studentships and London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP) studentships. For example, all LSE PhD departments are eligible for LSE PhD studentships, and many are eligible for ESRC DTP studentships, but only a few are eligible for LAHP studentships. You can find out about the specific benefits of DTP studentships here.

If you have questions about the differences between these studentships, please check the relevant information pages. If you have questions about studentship entitlements, please contact the LSE Financial Support Office, who administer the DTP’s studentships on our behalf.

Information for registered students

Registered DTP students can find information about our activities here. Current students can contact us here, and book a meeting to see us here. If you have questions about your ESRC funding please contact the LSE Financial Support Office.