Collaboration and knowledge exchange for postgraduate students

We are keen to promote partnership and research collaborations between our postgraduate students and public, business and voluntary organisations.

Benefits of collaboration

Collaborative working benefits both postgraduate researchers and the individuals/organisations involved. Through collaboration, partners learn about each other's expertise, share knowledge and gain an appreciation of different professional cultures.

Collaborative activity can lead to a better understanding of the ways in which academic research can add value and offer insights to key issues of concern for policy and practice. To be most effective, knowledge exchange should not be treated as an 'add-on' at the end of a research project. It works best when it is considered before the start of a project and is the built into the project.

For postgraduate researchers, the benefits of knowledge exchange and working collaboratively can include:

  • informing and improving the quality of your research 
  • enhancing your understanding of research users and their needs   
  • applying evidence-based knowledge to important business or policy issues.

For those using research, the benefits can include:

  • accessing experts and cutting edge research
  • accessing innovative ideas that could improve policy or practice
  • enhancing organisational creativity, performance and productivity.

Collaboration and our Doctoral Training Centres

Our new Doctoral Training Centres (DTCs) have been tasked with ensuring that 20 per cent of their studentships are collaborative. We are not being prescriptive about the type of collaboration, but we are asking DTCs to ensure that in all cases the studentships and other opportunities are developed in collaboration with the partner organisation and involve substantial user engagement.   

This can involve any form of collaboration, including previous ESRC models of collaboration and co-funding (such as CASE studentships, Government Collaborative studentships, and internships), or other forms of collaboration more suitable to the institution and partner organisation.

As individual DTCs will be brokering collaborative studentships we are discontinuing our annual collaborative studentship competitions (including the CASE competition). However, we will be continuing our Student Internship Scheme.

Developing collaborations

The following links provide information and guidance on the range of collaborative opportunities which DTCs could set up, funding available through our Internship and Knowledge Exchange Opportunities Schemes and examples of successful collaborations.