Scholarships & funding

Urban Retrofit PhD Scholarship

The successful candidate will join the URBAN RETROFIT UK research project, a new £1.7m multi-university investment by the ESRC, based at the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence in the Division of Urban Studies and Social Policy at the University of Glasgow. URBAN RETROFIT UK will investigate how cities can be planned, developed and ‘retrofitted’ for net-zero living and work with partners across all four nations of the UK and internationally to investigate place adaptation successes and challenges, including barriers to scaling up. This exciting new research project is part of a £9.5million investment by ERSC into five projects that will research place-based approaches for an environmentally sustainable future, providing evidence to support local and national decision making. In addition to their studies at the University of Glasgow, the successful doctoral candidate will have opportunities to develop their research internationally through the project’s research partnership with Dalhousie University in Canada, as well as with project partners at UK universities and in practice with planning, development and community stakeholders.

Project details

For centuries urban planners and policymakers have looked beyond national boundaries to identify innovative ‘best practices’ that might help address local policy challenges and create new policy networks with stakeholders in other cities and countries. The search for translatable urban policy solutions has been accelerated by the urgency of the climate emergency as local policy actors look globally for ‘fixes’ that can be readily adopted at the local level to support more sustainable development. The aim of this supervisor-led doctoral scholarship is to produce a new critical evidence base on the transferability of policies and practices geared towards place adaptation and urban retrofit by examining how and why place adaptation concepts and urban retrofit practices move between places and whether policies that work in one place can be successfully transferred to another. Using and developing critical theories on ‘urban policy mobility’, which conceptualise policy innovations as being ‘in motion’ and moving across and between national and cultural boundaries through dynamic human networks, the studentship will be an integral part of the wider URBAN RETROFIT UK research project which ultimately seeks to create a series of global evidence exchange hubs where planning and development stakeholders can come together to share emerging practices. Further refinement of the research questions, methodological approach and geographical focus of the studentship will be determined by the doctoral student in collaboration with the project supervisors as the project evolves. The successful candidate will be strongly encouraged to take ownership of the project and develop it to suit their skills and interests.

Applicants must meet the following eligibility criteria:

• Applicants will have a good Masters degree (or overseas equivalent) in urban plannning, geography or a related discipline
• Applicants will have a demonstratable interest in urban planning and the topic under investigation.
• Applicants should be able to study full-time

Please note that all applicants must also meet the entry requirements for the Urban Studies, PhD. 

Number of Scholarships

1

Value

The scholarship is available as a full-time +3 (3 year) PhD programme only. The programme will commence in October 2024. The funding includes:

• An annual stipend at the UKRI rate
• Fees at the standard home rate or International rate
• Students can also draw on a Research Training Support Grant, usually up to a maximum of £940 per year

How to apply

Applicants must apply via the Scholarships Application Portal (please see Scholarships Application Portal - Applicant Guide for more information), uploading the following documentation:

• URBAN RETROFIT PhD Scholarship application form (in Word format)
• Academic transcripts (All relevant Undergraduate and Master’s level degree transcripts (and translations, if not originally in English) – provisional transcripts are sufficient if you are yet to complete your degree).
• Contact details for two referees (where possible your referees should include an academic familiar with your work (within the last 5 years). Both referees can be academics but you may include a work referee, especially if you have been out of academia for more than 5 years). Please note, a CoSS PGR Funding Reference template will be sent to your referees for completion)*.
• Curriculum Vitae (CV) (academic where applicable)

*Please note that when you enter your referees contact details on the Scholarships Application Portal and send the reference request, your referees are expected to provide their references by the closing date of the Scholarship (below). It is strongly recommended you complete this as soon as possible, as late or incomplete applications will not be considered.

Selection Process

Applications will be assessed by the project team. Shortlisted applicants may be requested to attend an Interview.

All scholarship awards are subject to candidates successfully securing admission to a PhD programme in the School of Social and Political Sciences. Successful applicants will be invited to apply for admission to the relevant PhD programme after they are selected for funding.

For more information contact: JamesT.White@glasgow.ac.uk