Postgraduate Research

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Postgraduate Student funding

Welcome to the University of Glasgow guide to ESRC Postgraduate studentship funding. These pages contain information for prospective and current students and staff and details about current scholarship application rounds.

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funds research and training in social and economic issues including issues of importance to business, the public sector and government.  The ESRC is an independent organisation, established by Royal Charter, but it receives most of its funding from the Government.  More information on the ESRC can be obtained from the ESRC website.

The PGR Service provides central administration, monitoring and reporting for ESRC studentships in conjunction with the College Graduate Schools.  The College Graduate Schools provide general administration and day-to-day support to ESRC funded postgraduate students.

Currently the University of Glasgow receives two parallel funding streams for ESRC studentships:

  • ESRC Scotland Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) Studentships
    The DTC replaced the previous ESRC PhD studentship scheme and the first cohort of students started on 1 October 2011.  The Scottish DTC is the biggest in the UK, and maintains Scotland's share of UK studentship funding.  Each year there are multiple opportunities for studentship funding through the DTC.
  • Transition studentships
    These are studentships which started (or in the case of project studentships were awarded) prior to 1 October 2011.  Funding comes directly from the ESRC to the University.  This funding stream is closed to new applications and will cease once all current studentships have expired.

Sources of further information:


ESRC Scotland Doctoral Training Centre

The University of Glasgow is a member institution of the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science (SGS), at the heart of the SGS is the ESRC Doctoral Training Centre (ESRC DTC).  The DTC offers ESRC-accredited training in 24 discipline areas called "pathways".  Each pathway involves collaboration across a number of Scottish universities to make sure the best expertise gets to the right students.  Pathways at the University of Glasgow are listed here.

ESRC Studentships are available through these pathways or in collaboration with the Scottish Goverment and other partner organisations.  Please see our ESRC applications website for further details and deadlines.

For information on the other institutions involved in the DTC, please see the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science website.

If you have any questions after consulting the application procedure, please contact your prospective graduate school office or email pgr@glasgow.ac.uk