Understanding preferences for increasing uptake of successful technologies in social care

A full-time PhD scholarship is available in the School of Healthcare in 2025/26. The scholarship is open to UK applicants and cover fees plus stipend at current UKRI rates (£20,780 in 2025/26) and funds to support research activities up to £8,000. Funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) School for Social Care Research (SSCR) the scholarship is eligible to draw on other NIHR support.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing">The award is open to full-time candidates (UK only) who meet the eligibility for a place on a PhD degree at the School of Healthcare. The doctoral student will be required to conduct research relevant to adult social care practice in England and – in line with the NIHR SSCR’s research themes (see Annex 1) - the PhD will be part of our team’s focus on digital technologies in social care – particularly the <a href="https://sensitise.leeds.ac.uk/">SENSITISE</a> project.</p> <p>Digital, data-enabled and assistive technologies are often proposed as part of the solution to workforce pressures, scarce resources and increasing demand for social care. But adoption of these is often uneven and their benefits unpredictable. A persistent gap is robust evidence about what different stakeholders in social care value in technologies: not just whether technologies work in principle, but <strong>which features matter most to people who use, deliver, commission, and design care.</strong> Exploring this gap is theoretically and methodologically challenging.</p> <p>The NIHR SSCR–funded SENSITISE programme is a series of mixed-methods studies using qualitative research and stated-preference methods (including discrete choice experiments). The programme aims to generate a cumulative, open-access evidence base on stakeholder preferences for technology attributes in social care, to inform technology design, procurement, commissioning, and policy. We want to hear prospective candidates’ potential research questions relevant to SENSITISE; its aims, methods or intended outcomes.</p> <p>This PhD studentship will sit within SENSITISE and contribute directly to its empirical and methodological development.</p> <p>The successful applicant will join the <a href="https://medicinehealth.leeds.ac.uk/healthcare">School of Healthcare</a>’s PhD programme and work closely with their supervisors and colleagues in the social care research team. The School of Healthcare is a member of the <a href="https://sscr.nihr.ac.uk/">NIHR School for Social Care Research</a> (NIHR SSCR). NIHR SSCR is funded by the <a href="https://www.nihr.ac.uk/">National Institute for Health and Care Research</a> to develop the evidence base to inform and improve adult social care practice in England through research. NIHR SSCR started in 2009 and is in its fourth 5-year phase (started in May 2024). With funding through NIHR SSCR, the School of Healthcare is recruiting to full-time PhD scholarships, with a start date from January 2026.</p> <p>The successful applicant will be expected to participate in activities organised by NIHR SSCR, particularly activities that involve other PhD students funded under this programme <a href="https://sscr.nihr.ac.uk/about/who-we-are/">at other universities</a>, and, as appropriate, other National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) and <a href="https://www.nihr.ac.uk/career-development/nihr-academy">NIHR Academy</a> activities. Our School trains and inspires people passionate about undertaking research that will make a difference to society. Our PhD programme is an integral part of the academic environment at Leeds, producing doctoral graduate of the highest quality. Our applied research portfolio focuses on questions that matter for social care, enhance quality of life and care for people accessing care, and/or quality of work for staff employed in the sector. Our areas of research include: the social care workforce; enhancing care and outcomes, quality and safety; the role of technology, data and information in providing better care. The research student will benefit from the excellent research environment and will join a thriving cohort of research students in the School and Faculty.</p> <h5>Annex 1: NIHR SSCR Business Plan Aims & Objectives and Thematic Priorities</h5> <h5><strong>Aims and Objectives</strong></h5> <p>We aim to create an environment where excellent applied social care research, focused on the needs of the practice and the public can thrive. Practitioners, policy colleagues, and public stakeholders will engage with research from the earliest planning stages through to delivery, dissemination, and application. We aim to bridge the divide between academics and practitioners and to support practitioners in the understanding, use and generation of high-quality research evidence to inform their decisions by making our outputs practical, relevant, accessible and timely and by nurturing long-term, mutually respectful relationships of knowledge and skills exchange.</p> <p>The primary aims of the SSCR are:</p> <ul> <li>to commission and conduct internationally leading social care research to improve the evidence base for effective and equitable practice;</li> <li>to support the translation of evidence into practice.</li> </ul> <p><strong>Thematic Priorities</strong></p> <p>The School's research programme will cover the following key thematic areas in this context of adult social care (in no priority order).</p> <ol> <li>Supporting choice and control for people to live flourishing lives: evaluation of feasibility, quality, impact and effectiveness of existing and new models of support.</li> <li>Adult social care needs (met and unmet), and prevention in its broadest sense.</li> <li>Digital and other new technologies.</li> <li>The adult social care workforce: recruitment and retention; workforce development, skills, and training; roles development and new ways of working; challenges including equality and diversity.</li> <li>Care resources management and allocation: eligibility; assessment; innovative approaches to funding; equality and value across self- and state-funded services; financial pressures facing adults needing support and their families.</li> <li>Supporting carers and volunteers.</li> <li>Communities and local area networks to promote well-being; including asset-based approaches, social prescribing; community and individual capability; personalisation; interdependency.</li> <li>Care systems and markets: local authorities management of volume and quality in local services/markets; market-shaping and the impact on providers and others; impact of major changes (e.g. legislation/policy) to systems of care; the impact of coproduced service provision.</li> <li>Diversity, inequality and communities/populations less well represented in research: covering areas such as variations in accessing adult social care; promising practice and support for specific user groups; coproducing solutions to challenge inequality.</li> <li>Adult social care at the interface with other systems.</li> <li>Appropriate development and utilisation of robust outcome measures of interest to commissioners, managers, staff, people who use services and their carers where gaps are identified.</li> <li>Analysis of cost-effectiveness of models and intervention: ensuring that resource impacts are addressed alongside outcome impacts, and that any trade-offs are transparent.</li> <li>Using routinely collected social care data and development of analytic tools and infrastructure for service planning, policy making, identifying inequalities, and measuring outcomes.</li> <li>Understanding the acceptability of using individual social care records for these purposes from user, carer, family member and professional perspectives.</li> <li>Anticipating the future: new and emerging priorities.</li> </ol>

<p>To apply for this scholarship opportunity applicants should complete an online application form and attach the following documentation to support their application. </p> <ul> <li>a proposal (maximum two pages) outlining your research question, objectives and plan of methods that you might use</li> <li>a full academic CV</li> <li>degree certificate and transcripts of marks</li> <li>Evidence that you meet the University's minimum English language requirements (if applicable)</li> </ul> <p>To help us identify that you are applying for this scholarship project please ensure you provide the following information on your application form;</p> <ul> <li>Select PhD in Healthcare as your programme of study</li> <li>Give the full project title and name the supervisors listed in this advert</li> <li>For source of funding please state you are applying for a <strong>NIHR SSCR Scholarship</strong></li> </ul>

Applicants to this scholarship in the School of Healthcare should normally have an Undergraduate degree of 2:1 or above (or international equivalent) in a relevant subject area. A Master’s degree is desirable, but not essential. Applicants who are uncertain about the requirements for a particular research degree are advised to contact the School or Admissions Team prior to making an application.

The minimum English language entry requirement for postgraduate research study in the School of Healthcare for this award is an IELTS of 7.0 overall, with at least 6.5 in each component (reading, writing, listening and speaking) or equivalent. The test must be dated within two years of the start date of the course in order to be valid.

<p>We are offering a full-time PhD scholarship in the School of Healthcare for one UK candidate, covering UK tuition fees for 3 years subject to satisfactory progress, matching UKRI maintenance stipend (currently £20,780 in 2025/26) and funds to support research activities up to £8,000. The award will be made for one year in the first instance and renewable for a further period of up to two years, subject to satisfactory academic progress.</p> <p>Applicants must not have already been awarded or be currently studying for a doctoral degree.</p> <p>Awards must be taken up from 1st May 2026.</p> <p>Applicants must live within a reasonable distance of the University of Leeds whilst in receipt of this scholarship.</p>

<p>For further information about the admissions process, please contact the Faculty Admissions Team.</p> <p>e: <a href="mailto:fmhpgradmissions@leeds.ac.uk">fmhpgradmissions@leeds.ac.uk</a></p>