PhD Awards for Improvement Science

In brief

The Health Foundation has developed this programme to work with UK universities to support the long-term development of improvement science.

Organisations working to improve the quality of healthcare often struggle to produce robust evidence that their improvement projects are working. Research which helps to build the evidence base is vital to encourage the adoption and spread of approaches that can improve the quality safety and value of healthcare services. Improvement science has an important part to play in this. Funding universities to support PhD level study in improvement science will help to develop the theory, methods and understanding of research in practice to facilitate improvements across healthcare.

The PhD Awards for Improvement Science offer an opportunity for researchers to specialise in applied improvement science early on in their career. It will enable them to develop ideas which draw upon a wide range of academic disciplines and evaluate these in practice with partners in the health service.

We are funding eight universities to each support two PhD students. Organisations receive up to £140,000 funding per student, giving them the opportunity to further develop their studies in this emerging field.

The application period for the PhD Awards for Improvement Science is now closed.