PhD opportunities in Science and Technology Policy and Innovation Management studies

We invite you to take a look at project-specific PhD positions available as listed below. These PhD positions are available on topics with specific SPRU supervisors, into which you will have independent intellectual input.

These PhD positions are available on topics with specific SPRU supervisors, where you'll have independent intellectual input.

We also welcome research proposals from prospective students but encourage you to link this to individual faculty interests and get in touch with members of faculty prior to submitting your research application.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    Dr Joshua Moon

    Open to proposals concerning Artificial Intelligence Risks, Pandemic Preparedness, Global Health Security/Biosecurity, Research Evaluation, & Translational Medicine. Methods experience across participatory methods, surveys, interviews, foresight, bibliometrics, networks, and data science. Current/Prior PhD supervision projects relate to Organisational Change in Chemical Weapons Nonproliferation, and Neocoloniality in Pandemic Preparedness & Science Diplomacy. 

    Prof Andrew Stirling

    My research aims to help understandings of how and why power and uncertainties of various kinds entangle within and around science, technology and innovation.
    The scope of this work spans food production, climate protection, energy services, security provision, health care, machine learning and nature conservation.
    Key questions at the core of this, are about why science and innovation unfolds over time in some specific directions rather than others? How could it be different?
    Particular concepts, frameworks, methodologies and resources that might be useful are summarised in the paper . I’m keen to collaborate on these issues.

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  • Creative and Digital Economy

    Dr Roberto Camerani and Prof Daniele Rotolo

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    Dr Josh Siepel

    Open to proposals on topics relating to entrepreneurial finance, creative industries, innovation, and STEM and creative skills, as well as policy topics relating to any of the above.

    Topics of particular interest include:

    1. Economics of awards and prizes
    2. Measurement systems and their role in innovation and the economy
    3. Access to finance in the creative industries.

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    Prof Andrew Stirling

    My research aims to help understandings of how and why power and uncertainties of various kinds entangle within and around science, technology and innovation.
    The scope of this work spans food production, climate protection, energy services, security provision, health care, machine learning and nature conservation.
    Key questions at the core of this, are about why science and innovation unfolds over time in some specific directions rather than others? How could it be different?
    Particular concepts, frameworks, methodologies and resources that might be useful are summarised in the paper . I’m keen to collaborate on these issues..

  • Economics of Innovation and Industrial Policy

    Prof Maria Savona

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    Prof Maria Savona and Dr Tommaso Ciarli

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    Dr Carolin Ioramashvili

    Open to proposals in the economics of innovation and industrial policy fields. Proposals should be in the area of:
    1. Innovation, technological change and how they relate to employment, earnings and inequality
    2. Innovation and regional development, regeneration and place-based policy
    3. Innovation and industrial policy evaluation

  • Energy and Climate

    Dr Marie Claire Brisbois

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    Prof Tom Foxon

    Project: Modelling long-term techno-economic change, combining evolutionary economics and ecological economics perspectives and analysing implications for a sustainable low carbon transition.

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    Prof Karoline Rogge

    Open to proposals on accelerating sustainability transitions (particularly net-zero transitions in energy, mobility, heat, possibly with intersections to ICT/digitalisation) – with a focus on the interplay of policy and innovation. As for policy, both climate and industrial policy welcome, as well as broader policy mix considerations for governing sustainability transition processes; special interest in role of phase out policies, the (dual) politics of transitions around decline and expansion, contested policy making and implementation processes for transitions (incl. the role of (social) media), and transformative capacity,  policy integration and policy coordination. As for innovation, open to innovative technological and social solutions from multiple actors (e.g. net-zero innovation and transition strategies of companies, policy and institutional innovation of state actors, novel science-policy interface practises by researchers, or new initiatives by civil society actors). As for methods, open to qualitative, quantitative and mixed-method approaches with a preference for analysing present and future transitions. As for geography, a preference for research of unfolding transitions in Europe, the US and China. As for the level of analysis, open to organisational level, technology or sector-level and system-level analysis.

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    Prof Steven Sorrell

    I am open to a range of project proposals within the area of energy and climate policy, but particularly those that draw upon economic theory, focus upon energy demand, and utilise econometric techniques.

    Dr Matthew Lockwood

    Politics and political economy of low-carbon energy policy; politics of climate policy.

  • Innovation and Project Management

    Dr Gary Bell

    1. Innovation, Sustainability, Management of Projects and System Dynamics
    2. Design Thinking and Agile Project Management
    3. Value Proposition and the Business Case
    4. Multimethodology, Soft Operational Research, Intervention Studies and Action Research

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    Prof Andrew Davies

    Open to proposals on:

    1. Managing innovation in complex products and systems
    2. Managing complex and uncertain projects (e.g. infrastructure, new product development and Big Science)
    3. History and development of innovation and project management
    4. Innovation in infrastructure and cities (including transitioning to low-carbon developments)

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    Dr Katherine Lovell

    Open to proposals for research on innovation in/through infrastructure sectors. Projects could respond to:

    1. The prevalence and importance of infrastructure in technology and economic policy
    2. Infrastructure sectors as fruitful sites for studying various aspects of innovation and governance - for example these sectors can provide extreme cases of path depenency, network effects and requirements for inclusivity; they are also key settings for project based organisation of change
    3. The central role of technology in these sectors.
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    Prof Jeremy Hall

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    Prof Michael Hopkins

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    Dr Carlos Sato

    Projects:

    1. The use of projects and programmes to deliver business transformation
    2. The improvement of performance of major projects managed by government
    3. The use of projects and programmes to build innovation systems.

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    Dr Xiangming Tao

    Open to research proposals on:
    1. Learning from innovation failure
    2. New product development process
    3. Responsible and inclusive innovation
    4. Crowdfunding and social entrepreneurship
    Potential PhD students are encouraged to propose their research topics for further discussion.

  • Science, Politics and Decision-making

    Dr Matias Ramirez

    Projects:

    1. Transformative innovation policy dynamics, particularly in relation to global south countries including policy design, policy evaluation and policy transfer
    2. Inclusive innovation
    3. Transformations in food and agriculture and application of transformative innovation to biodiversity
    4. Regional innovation and development

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    Dr Joshua Moon

    Open to proposals concerning Artificial Intelligence Risks, Pandemic Preparedness, Global Health Security/Biosecurity, Research Evaluation, & Translational Medicine. Methods experience across participatory methods, surveys, interviews, foresight, bibliometrics, networks, and data science. Current/Prior PhD supervision projects relate to Organisational Change in Chemical Weapons Nonproliferation, and Neocoloniality in Pandemic Preparedness & Science Diplomacy. 

    Dr Laurence Williams

    Open to proposals on sociotechnical and knowledge controversies, including, but not limited to:
    1. Perceptions of, responses to, or contestation surrounding low carbon technologies, energy storage technologies, and fossil fuel extraction technologies
    2. Perceptions of, responses to, or contestation surrounding digital technologies
    3. Misinformation and responses to it

  • Sustainable Development

    Dr Saurabh Arora

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    Dr Matias Ramirez

    Projects:

    1. Transformative innovation policy dynamics, particularly in relation to global south countries including policy design, policy evaluation and policy transfer
    2. Inclusive innovation
    3. Transformations in food and agriculture and application of transformative innovation to biodiversity
    4. Regional innovation and development

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    Dr Sung Kyu Kim

    Open to proposals in the following research areas.

    Debates around sustainable development, including, but not limited to:
    1. Agricultural technology and innovation and rural development
    2. Circular economy and agri-food value chains
    3. Critical perspectives on sustainable intensification
    4. Food systems

    Clean energy transition in emerging and developing countries:
    1. Clean cooking fuels and technologies
    2. Energy poverty and development

    Dr Noam Bergman

    Open to proposals in areas of:

    1. Human dimensions in low carbon transitions, from how we use technology to cultural and behavioural shifts
    2. Social innovation for sustainability, including social movements, activism and local initiatives for change
    3. Tensions between the economic growth paradigm and transitioning to sustainability.
    4.  Digitalisation and its impact on energy use and sustainability transitions

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    Dr Adrian Ely

    Projects:

    1. Biotechnology regulation and governance in China
    2. The role of innovation in pathways towards sustainable food security
    3. Innovation for Sustainable Agri-Food Systems in the Brighton-Lewes Downs Biosphere.

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    Prof Fiona Marshall

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    Dr Katerina Psarikidou

    Katerina is open to proposals for PhDs with an interest in conducting social science research on following research areas:

    1. The politics and political economy of science, research and innovation for Sustainable Development - especially as applied to the agrifood and mobility sectors (e.g. from agrobiotech to alternative community-led knowledge practices)
    2. The sustainability and transformative innovation potential of Alternative Agro-Food Networks of production, distribution and consumption - for example research on community food innovations, local food systems, agro-ecology, food co-operatives
    3. Critical Food Security and Food Policy Studies - esp. on food justice, food poverty and inequalities, and inclusive food policies
    4. Sustainable Mobilities and Transport Research - esp. on alternative low-carbon mobility practices (e.g. cycling), as well as on transport poverty and mobility inequalities.

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    Dr Matias Ramirez

    Projects:

    1. Transformative innovation policy dynamics, particularly in relation to global south countries including policy design, policy evaluation and policy transfer
    2. Inclusive innovation
    3. Transformations in food and agriculture and application of transformative innovation to biodiversity
    4. Regional innovation and development

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    Prof Adrian Smith

    I am open to PhD research proposals that address the politics of sustainable development through issues such as:

    1. Grassroots innovation movements
    2. Technologies in/for commons, degrowth, and development alternatives
    3. Spaces for democratising technologies and prototyping
    4. Post-automation and technopolitics.

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    Dr Joshua Moon

    Open to proposals concerning Artificial Intelligence Risks, Pandemic Preparedness, Global Health Security/Biosecurity, Research Evaluation, & Translational Medicine. Methods experience across participatory methods, surveys, interviews, foresight, bibliometrics, networks, and data science. Current/Prior PhD supervision projects relate to Organisational Change in Chemical Weapons Nonproliferation, and Neocoloniality in Pandemic Preparedness & Science Diplomacy. 

  • Science, Innovation, and Security (The Harvard Sussex Program)

    Dr Alexander Ghionis

    Dr Alexander Ghionis welcomes PhD proposals exploring themes in disarmament, diplomacy, international security, warfare, science and technology, and organisational change and culture. His methodological interests include qualitative approaches such as interviews, surveys, and archival research, as well as ethnographic methods like participant observation and visual ethnography.

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    Prof Paul Nightingale

    1) The nature and application of technological knowledge including understanding its changing relation to science.

    2) Science, Technology and Innovation Policy

    3) Financial Innovation and Innovative forms of Finance (covering equity, debt, Loan Guarantee Schemes, etc)

    4) Biosecurity, geopolitics and the governance of emerging technology in both the public and private sectors

    5) Project delivery, benefits realization in transformational projects, and the nature of innovation in projects.

    6) The pharmaceutical and biotech industries and their changing innovation processes.

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    Dr Joshua Moon

    Open to proposals concerning Artificial Intelligence Risks, Pandemic Preparedness, Global Health Security/Biosecurity, Research Evaluation, & Translational Medicine. Methods experience across participatory methods, surveys, interviews, foresight, bibliometrics, networks, and data science. Current/Prior PhD supervision projects relate to Organisational Change in Chemical Weapons Nonproliferation, and Neocoloniality in Pandemic Preparedness & Science Diplomacy. 

How to apply

Please visit our where you will find further information on the application procedure and can submit an application for postgraduate PhD study.

Funding

Please see for a list funding opportunities offered by the ÄûÃÊÊÓƵ. These are available on most of the above projects and awarded on a competitive basis. Please see individual grants for eligibility. Please also note that you must apply for a place on the SPRU doctoral programme and separately apply for funding before the funding deadline. Your application for funding will be considered once you are offered a place on the programme.

Enquiries

For all general enquiries about our research degrees please contact our Research and Enterprise team: business-researchstudents@sussex.ac.uk