Research partnerships
Partnerships that enhance doctoral research.
Aston works with a wide range of partners across industry, healthcare, the public sector and academia. These collaborations support doctoral research in different ways, depending on your discipline and project.
Partnerships may provide:
- Opportunities to work on applied or collaborative research projects
- Access to specialist knowledge, data, facilities or professional contexts
- Insight into how research translates into practice and policy
- Exposure to different research cultures and ways of working
These experiences can enrich your research, broaden your perspective and strengthen your future career prospects.
Collaborative doctoral training
Some doctoral researchers at Aston are part of structured collaborative training routes, such as doctoral training centres, partnerships or joint programmes. These routes typically combine academic research with cohort-based training, interdisciplinary learning and external engagement.
Where available, collaborative doctoral training offers opportunities to learn alongside other doctoral researchers, build networks beyond your discipline and gain experience working across organisational boundaries.
Current joint partnerships
Aston has several established partnerships that support collaborative doctoral research, joint supervision and structured training opportunities.
These include partnerships with:
- Queen’s University Belfast
- Symbiosis International University (SIU), India
- Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong (THEi)
- Deakin University, Australia
Depending on the partnership and discipline, these collaborations may offer joint or co-supervised PhD arrangements, cohort-based doctoral training, interdisciplinary learning and opportunities to work with external partners.
Doctoral training centres and partnerships
Aston is part of several funded doctoral training centres and doctoral training partnerships. These programmes provide structured doctoral training, cohort-based learning and opportunities to work across institutions and sectors.
Current doctoral training partnerships include:
- Net²Zero Centre for Doctoral Training - focused on climate solutions and negative emission technologies
- Midlands Graduate School ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership (MGS DTP) - advanced social science research training across the
- Midlands Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership (MIBTP) - innovative, world-class research in life sciences and bolster the UK’s growing bioeconomy
- lifETIME Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) - focused on advanced imaging technologies for healthcare and life sciences
These programmes combine academic research with advanced training, interdisciplinary learning and external engagement.
Welcoming overseas visiting PhD researchers
Aston is committed to supporting international research collaboration and knowledge exchange. We welcome overseas visiting PhD researchers who wish to spend a defined period of time at Aston as part of their home institution doctoral programme.
Visiting researchers are integrated into Aston’s research environment and are supported to engage with academic staff, research groups and relevant training opportunities during their stay. This helps ensure visits are purposeful, well-supported and mutually beneficial.
International visiting researchers contribute to the diversity and richness of Aston’s research community and play an important role in our global research culture.
