What we offer

We provide a four-year PhD programme, including an MRes qualification earned during your first year of training. During the first year, you will define your own research topic to carry out during years two to four.

We support a wide range of activities to complement your PhD, such as conference and workshop participation, placement and secondment opportunities, and industrial and international collaboration.

You'll develop a broad range of mathematical, computational and statistical skills, and collaborate with industry, government and applied sciences. You'll bring a new mathematical mindset to their challenges.

We will prepare you for a career in research and industry, enabling you to connect applied mathematics and statistics. You'll graduate with great problem solving abilities, ready to work in the emerging world of big models and big data.

Fully-funded studentships

We have at least 10 fully-funded studentships available to start for full-time study in October each year. Studentships cover fees, a student stipend, and a training support fund to support travel and research-related expenses.

First year

In the first year, you'll complete training consisting of taught courses, short research projects, and participation in Integrative Think Tanks. This will lead to the award of an MRes qualification.

You'll choose six units across a cross-disciplinary syllabus with two units from each of these streams:

• Statistics and data science
• Applied and probabilistic analysis and modelling
• Computation and numerical mathematics

The exact choice of units will depend on your background and experience. More detail on available units can be found in the University's Programme and Unit Catalogue.

You'll develop the subject of your thesis, through working with academics, industrial partners and other students in the cohort.

Interdisciplinary research projects

You'll work in small groups on an interdisciplinary research project, which will bring together elements of the core streams into a short research project.

Student-led symposia

The student-led symposia will run continuously through your first year. You'll be deciding on topics and reading group activities, as well as inviting speakers to give seminars or short courses from a self-managed budget.

Topics will often relate to upcoming Integrative Think Tanks. There will be support from SAMBa leaders and students from the years above you.

Integrative Think Tanks (ITTs)

ITTs are facilitated, week-long, off-campus workshops involving around 80 participants. They include postgraduate students, academics from mathematical sciences, application-focused researchers, and collaborators from around the world.

You will be presented with high-level challenges from non-mathematical partners. You'll be working in small groups to formulate these challenges into mathematical problems.

Find out more about ITTs.

Thesis formulation

During the three-month summer period you'll determine the subject of your PhD thesis research through a structured and mentored process. You'll work with your chosen supervisor to prepare a Thesis Formulation Report, outlining motivation, objectives and methodology for your proposed PhD.

Second year

You'll start work on your PhD thesis whilst also undertaking a number of taught units. You'll attend at least one ITT and act as a mentor to new SAMBa students.

Third and fourth year

You'll focus on research and the preparation of your thesis. Your PhD thesis must be submitted within four years of joining SAMBa.

You'll continue to be involved in student-led symposia throughout your four years at SAMBa and present developing research to first-year students, including open research problems for discussion. You'll also participate in at least one more ITT.

Opportunities for training include:

• organising of conferences and workshops at Bath or elsewhere
• getting involved in public engagement and outreach activities
• delivering training courses, for example in Mongolia or Paraguay
  

Tutoring

All students are encouraged to tutor undergraduates during their time in SAMBa and you will be paid to do so.

We work in close collaboration with partners from industry, government agencies, and other academic departments to deliver novel research with high impact.

Read more about our work with partners.

PhD development

Many of our students are co-supervised by non-academic partners in delivering interdisciplinary research. These jointly-supervised PhDs are created in a number of ways. The most common is through the Integrative Think Tanks where students and academics from SAMBa work closely with partners to develop joint ideas and explore routes to deliver them. These PhDs can be picked up when you move into the research phase or are advertised as individual PhD projects that run alongside SAMBa.

Joint PhDs can also develop from existing relationships that academics or students bring to the project, or from links with new partners that are made during the PhD research.

Most PhDs with joint supervision will involve you spending time at the partner organisation, whether that is in academia or industry.

International collaboration

The Department of Mathematical Sciences and SAMBa are very international in their outlook. This gives plenty of opportunities for you to engage with relevant research activity with overseas collaborators, or by spending time abroad.

You can participate in workshops or schools, extended research visits, or deliver your PhD research with a co-supervisor from an international organisation.

Placements and internships

We encourage you to take part in placements and internships. Placements are an integral part of your research activity, and will likely contribute to your final thesis (e.g. spending time at a partner company or an overseas collaborator).

Internships provide relevant and valuable experience, but the work delivered can be related to the thesis and you will generally suspend from PhD studies to undertake them. Funding for internships is provided by the host organisation.

There are lots of opportunities to undertake an academic or industrial placement or internship during your PhD research phase. These build cross-disciplinary links and train you in the research language of other disciplines.

Organisations where SAMBa students have spent time include:

• The Alan Turing Institute (London, UK)
• BT (Ipswich, UK)
• CIMAT (Guanajuato, Mexico)
• Cummins (Derby, UK)
• Cytel (Boston, USA)
• ESPCI (Paris, France)
• Georgia Tech (Atlanta, USA)
• HSBC (London, UK)
• Japanese National Informatics Institute (Tokyo, Japan)
• Mango Solutions (Chippenham, UK)
• Met Office (Exeter, UK)
• MIT (Cambridge, USA)
• Novartis (Basel, Switzerland)
• Roche (Welwyn Garden City, UK)
• University of Rome (Rome, Italy)
• Wood (Dorchester, UK)

As a graduate, you'll be well set up for a career in academia, industry, or elsewhere. Our graduates have moved on to postdoctoral positions at for example, Imperial College London, MIT, the Institute of Science and Technology, Austria, the University of Bristol, and the University of Exeter.

Others have moved to data science startups, actuarial firms, and pharmaceutical companies.

Some even took time out to cycle across Kenya!