Welcome to SGSSS
Home of Scotland’s ESRC DTP
The Scottish Graduate School of Social Science is the UK's largest facilitator of funding, training and support for doctoral students in social science. By combining the expertise of sixteen universities across Scotland, the school facilitates world-class PhD research. The school is funded jointly by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Scottish Funding Council.
OUR FUNDERS
SGSSS is funded jointly by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Scottish Funding Council.
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Our Governance
SGSSS is governed and managed via inter-institutional partnerships, which fosters collaboration and co-operation across its partner institutions. The formal governance structure is comprised of the Directorate, Supervisory Board, and Student Representatives.
Training
The SGSSS is committed to providing high quality advanced training in research methods and transferable skills to postgraduate students.
Studentships
SGSSS awards ESRC-funded PhD studentships through a number of annual competitions. There are opportunities for both students and supervisors to apply for funding.
Internships
The Scottish Graduate School of Social Science runs a professional internship scheme for PhD students at Scotland’s universities in their second and third years of study
Knowledge Exchange
Supporting our PhD students and early career researchers to engage with non-academic partners to create impactful research.
Events
Keep up to date with all of the events that SGSSS have planned for the future
News
Blog: Overseas Institutional Visits: I went, I saw, I conquered (my own fears) by Hazel Booth
Hazel Booth is an ERSC-funded student about to enter her final year of PhD studies with the Faculty of Social Science at Stirling University. Interested in the ways that madness has been constructed in society, her topic considers how issues of power and understanding shape the policy and practice of self-management. To the topic, she brings her training as a registered mental health nurse and her lived experience of mental difference. In Summer 2019 she was awarded funding which enabled a very exciting month-long stay in Canada where she was able to connect with some of the Canadian scholars that are conducting vital work in her field. Hazel has been keeping a blog which gives an open and personal account of this, and her continuing voyage on the choppy seas of PGR study.
Blog: Listening, learning and sharing: The impact of group facilitation in oral history by Lorna Barton, Scottish Oral History Centre (SOHC)
In May this year, Professor Arthur McIvor of the University of Strathclyde was successful in securing funding to deliver training through our Spring into Methods programme,jointly funded wit the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities. The proposal was to deliver Advanced Oral History Theory and Practice training to PhD students from both Social Science and Arts and Humanities disciplines. Here, Lorna Barton, a PGR Training Assistant and facilitator of the workshop gives a detailed account of the training.
Case Study: The PhD intern making an impact on banks’ response to financial abuse
Jenn Glinski, an ESRC-funded student researching economic abuse partnered with the Royal Bank of Scotland through the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science’s Innovation Internships Scheme to look at how banks can better respond to financial abuse.
Case Study: PhD internship delivers first UK-wide study of demand for old-age care
Target Fund Managers collaborated with SGSSS through its Innovation Internships Scheme to recruit a PhD researcher to help the company understand what the ageing population will mean for the residential care sector.
Case study: Cristina Denk-Florea
This case study was originally published by UKRI. Please click here to view it on their website. Cristina is a second year PhD student at
Blog: PhD ‘Must-knows’ from attending the Big Data Centre for Environment and Health (BERTHA) Summer School – By Katie Riddoch
In August, SGSSS funded two ESRC Researchers to participate in the first annual summer school of the Aarhus University Big Data Centre for Environment and Health (BERTHA). This five day course on the theme of Personalised Sensors introduced a small group of PhDs and Post Docs to the application of state-of-the-art research using personalised sensors to measure environmental exposures, fitness, health, and wellbeing. The course also provided an excellent opportunity to understand the responsibility and ethical considerations in research involving protection of personal data and the involvement of participants in campaigns or fieldwork.
Here, Katie Riddoch, a 2nd Year Doctoral Student at the University of Glasgow (Social Brain in Action Lab, Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology) funded by an ESRC Industrial Strategy Studentship, shares her reflections on the experience.
