Our centres of excellence

Royal Holloway is a member of several Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTPs) and the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security for the Everyday (CDT) within the south east of England that are funded by one of the seven UK Research Councils. Techne, a DTP of nine universities, funded by the Arts Humanities Research Council, is managed from Royal Holloway. Each year Techne offers up to 60 postgraduate research studentships to outstanding students pursuing the ‘craft’ of research through innovative, interdisciplinary and creative approaches across the arts and humanities. As well as supporting students during their degrees, after completion of a PhD, it nurtures supportive exchanges and collaborative opportunities with a range of partner organisations, including the National Trust, Historic Royal Palaces and the National Archives, as well as offering a careers programme delivered by The Careers Group. The EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security for the Everyday (CDT) is also based at Royal Holloway. Its main objective is to develop cohorts of multidisciplinary researchers with a broad understanding of cyber security and a strong appreciation of the interplay between technical and social issues.The CDT offers ten scholarships each year to cyber security researchers at Royal Holloway. StoryFutures is a £9m+ Research and Development collaboration funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s ‘Creative Industries Clusters Programme’. StoryFutures fuels innovation and growth in immersive storytelling by sharing cutting-edge research with creative SMEs across multiple disciplines including media arts, drama, psychology, electronic engineering, geography, management, history and computer science. Bringing together leading creative companies, research experts and major organisations like the BBC, The National Gallery and Discovery, it develops and prototypes new ideas to enrich innovation in creative industries.

“I started my PhD in 2017 in partnership with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, studying the large collections of 18th and 19th-century Cinchona bark, from which quinine comes. I was commissioned by Kew to write a book on the natural and social history of tonic water and the origins of the gin and tonic. Just the Tonic was published last November and won ‘Best Debut Drinks Book’ at the Fortnum and Mason Food and Drink Awards 2020. The support from AHRC Techne NPIF and Royal Holloway made this possible, and I really recommend both the scheme and the university, which have been very supportive.”

Kim AHRC Techne-funded doctoral researcher on a National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF) Studentship