What is SPaRK?

SPARK is a Horizon2020 funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie doctoral training programme that supports 20 interdisciplinary PhD students at Queen’s University Belfast. PhD students funded within Marie Skłodowska-Curie programmes have the title of Early Stage Researcher (ESR).

Queen’s welcomed its first Cohort of 10 ESR’s in January 2018 and the second in October 2018.

To read more about our researchers and their projects click here.

At its core, the SPARK Programme is driven by the need to develop future leaders whose skills combine disciplinary excellence with a capacity for interdisciplinary, intersectoral and international (3i) working that creates genuinely disruptive thinkers.

These are the thinkers who will have the edge in a highly competitive, global job market.

Why? Because they have not only disciplinary expertise but also the intellectual flexibility required to respond to a constantly changing professional environment and broader socio-economic landscape. In essence, SPARK combines ground-breaking research projects with higher level skills development at cohort level which seeks to produce creative thinkers and problem-solvers.

SPARK researchers are based in academic Schools or research institutes across all three of Queen’s Faculties: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS); Engineering and Physical Sciences (EPS); and Medicine, Health and Life Sciences (MHLS).

In addition, they are trained as a cohort via The Graduate School to be Thinkers, Leaders, Innovators and Communicators who are Future-Ready.  The Graduate School provides world-class facilities as well as an intellectual hub for 3i training, debate and dialogue.

Back to top