2026 theme: Care inequalities: Rethinking Support for Children, Families, and Adults
Dates: Monday 7th – Friday 12th September 2026
Location: Sheffield
The Centre for Care Summer School is a week-long residential programme in Sheffield in September 2026, for students whose PhD studies align with the themes and research of the Centre for Care. The theme of the 2026 Summer School is ‘Care inequalities: Rethinking Support for Children, Families, and Adults’.
The Summer School provides an opportunity for PhD students, particularly those towards the end of their studies, to present their work and receive feedback from mentors, Centre for Care team members and other participants. The programme will also include lectures on theoretical and methodological topics given by Centre for Care team members and guest speakers, and workshops focusing on career development and other skills. Students will have a mentor from the Centre for Care, who will work with them during the week and be their key contact.
We encourage applications from anyone whose research aligns with the Centre for Care, and particularly with the theme of the Summer School. We are not focused on any particular methodology or theoretical approach; and also welcome applied and codesigned projects.
The Summer School has up to 12 fully-funded places in 2026- funding includes accommodation, travel and subsistence. We welcome applications from students who are from or who are currently undertaking their studies in low- and/or middle- income countries (using information compiled by the OECD; a list is available from Wellcome). For these students, we can reimburse visa fees where a visa is required. Places on the summer school will be confirmed in March 2026, to ensure that visa application processes can be completed in time for September 2026.
We require applicants to have completed their confirmation review/upgrade or similar (which typically takes place at the end of the first year of full time study in the UK). This is so that attendees have a relatively advanced understanding of their research project, theoretical framework(s) and method(s). This is necessary because much of the Summer School is highly interactive and will require participants to reflect back on their own research projects.
A full programme will be provided to participants upon securing their place.
Previous Sumer School attendees said this:
I was very impressed by how well we were looked after and the activities in the evening. During bowling or walking tours we really got to know our colleagues and the CfC staff which enabled me to make meaningful connection and establishing a network of people who have similar research interests as me.
The summer school was absolutely brilliant, it was extremely well-organised and aspect of the summer school was very well thought through. It make me feel special to be part of the CfC community.
The CfC summer school was a real highlight for me, I loved meeting other students and learning about how broad care research could be. I’d not really looked at care theory before but it inspired me to look further into and really challenged some of my thinking
About the Centre for Care
The Centre for Care is a research-focused collaboration between the Universities of Sheffield, Birmingham, Kent and Oxford, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the Office for National Statistics, Carers UK, the National Children’s Bureau, and the Social Care Institute for Excellence. Funded by the ESRC (Economic & Social Research Council), our work aims to make a positive difference in how care is experienced and provided in the UK and internationally by producing new evidence and thinking for policymakers, care sector organisations and people who need or provide care. In studying care, we focus on ways of improving wellbeing outcomes and on the networks, communities and systems that support and affect people’s daily lives, working closely with external partners.
We focus on support, services and protections to promote the wellbeing of vulnerable or disabled people of all ages (children and adults), and the networks, communities and systems that affect them. We don’t include childcare in this definition.
Application process
Applications open on 13th February 2026 and close on 6th March 2026.
To apply, we require a supporting statement from an academic supporter. Your academic supporter can be your PhD supervisor, Director of Postgraduate Studies or Head of Department. In the statement, they must confirm that they support your application and your attendance at the Summer School. They should explain why the Summer School would be valuable for you (e.g. why it might benefit your project, or your personal and career development).
Please copy your academic supporter into the email when you send your application. If your PhD supervisor is not your academic supporter, please copy your PhD supervisor into the email too. We will send our decision to them as well as to you. We may contact your academic supporter to confirm information included in your application.
You should also provide a summary of your PhD research. This should clarify what theories and methods you engage with in your work. This will help us to ensure we have a diverse range of disciplinary perspectives and areas of research represented at the school.
We also ask for information about how your research relates to the Centre for Care, and how attending the Summer School would benefit you and your research. Please take a look at the Centre for Care website before applying.
We’re also interested to hear how your work might support our goals to build a more representative community of researchers (both in terms of EDI and interdisciplinarity). Feel free to share anything you feel might help to explain how your participation would help us to achieve this.
We also ask for details about travel costs. If you have support from your funder or institution to travel to the Summer School, please let us know. This will not have any bearing on our decision to award a place, it just helps us plan our budget.
Finally, please attach proof of registration for your PhD studies.
If you are offered a place, you will be asked to commit to a Code of Conduct before we can confirm your attendance.
How we will assess your application
Proposals will be assessed using the standard Economic and Social Research Council expert reviewer scoring system against the following assessment criteria:
- Research Excellence: Is the applicant engaged in excellent research?
- Fit: Has the applicant clearly stated which aspects of care their research addresses?
- Capacity Building: Has the application made it clear how attendance will develop the applicant and their research?
Application form
Click here to access the application form (Google doc). Applications are open until 6th March 2026.
Problems accessing the form? Please email centreforcare@sheffield.ac.uk to let us know.
Assessment process
Applications will be reviewed by a panel composed of members of the Centre for Care Management and Leadership Group.
We will follow principles of peer review, including on conflicts of interest. The most highly ranked applications will be awarded a place, up to the total number of spaces available at this year’s Summer School.
Assessment processes will be overseen by our Centre Manager.
