Cranfield is a specialist postgraduate university that is a global leader for education and transformational research in technology and management, including social science aspects. Cranfield’s specialist profile offers opportunities for social scientists who want to engage in an interdisciplinary environment, working with science and engineering to solve real societal problems. The most recent Research Excellence Framework results demonstrate Cranfield University’s excellence with 88% of research rated as world-leading or internationally excellent. Our courses and research programmes are informed and directed by the needs of business and industry and in response to the challenges they face in transition to net zero.

We house many world-class, large-scale facilities which enhance our teaching and research. We are one of the few universities in the world to have its own airport – our global research airport offers a unique environment for transformational research. Our living laboratory is a testbed for transformative technologies and new approaches to deliver enhanced social, economic and environmental outcomes in urban, transport and infrastructure systems. Cranfield is a six-time winner of the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Higher and Further Education, the only national honour given to educational institutions for work carried out in the public interest.

Cranfield University is organised around themes, rather than traditional departments. This creates an interdisciplinary research environment that is ideal to place social science research within engineering and natural science disciplines. Social science researchers in the following themes support SENSS studentships:

• Aerospace

• Energy and Sustainability

• Environment & Agrifood

• Manufacturing

• Transport Systems

• Water

Energy transitions: Research in this area focuses on understanding how the adoption of low carbon technologies like electric vehicles or heat pumps are mutually shaped and influenced by socio-spatial processes. Our research investigates the complex trade-offs and unintended consequences that can be triggered by the energy transition and how we can maximise the benefits for people and planet, including the most vulnerable.

Water and Environment: Research in this area delves into issues like sustainable resource management, water and sanitation for disadvantaged communities, and circular economy principles in business.

Cranfield encourages PhD research proposals that:

• Formulate clear, interesting, and relevant research questions within existing academic knowledge, highlighting originality and significance.

• Show awareness of relevant literature and propose sound methodology, including data sources and analysis techniques.

• Articulate expected discoveries and potential new areas of research.

• Potentially align with existing research strengths or emerging interests, such as those related to:

  • Energy transitions

  • Energy justice

  • Economic growth and energy systems

  • Circular Economy

  • Risk and Resilience

  • Water-energy-food nexus