Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Entry requirements

MPhil: An upper second-class degree or international equivalent. Please note, acceptance will also depend on evidence of your readiness to pursue a research degree.

PhD: A master's qualification, or be working towards a master's qualification, or international equivalent. Applicants without a master's qualification may be considered on an exceptional basis, provided they hold a first-class undergraduate degree (or international equivalent). Applicants with a non-traditional background may be considered provided they can demonstrate substantial equivalent and relevant experience that has prepared them to undertake their proposed course of study.

See international equivalent qualifications on the International Office website.

Months of entry

January, September

Course content

The Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship comprises a group of academic staff with research interests in two related areas: design innovation and entrepreneurship, spanning both commercial and social sectors. This includes research wholly contained within one of these disciplines or bridging both subjects.

The centre has a reputation for a collaborative and participatory approach to teaching and research, ensuring impact for its stakeholders.

The profile of our team, most of whom are both practitioners and scholars, helps to ensure continual collaboration between academic and non-academic applied settings. We, therefore, welcome and encourage students from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. Students may join directly from university studies or be experienced professionals, for example, established entrepreneurs or designers.

Our research areas include:

Entrepreneurship

• Strategy
• Entrepreneurial behaviours
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Entrepreneurship education
• Social justice
• Innovation leadership and culture
• Enterprise education
• Design thinking
• Service design
• Wicked problems
• Social innovation
• Interdisciplinary partnerships
• Drivers of company performance

Design innovation

• Design for sustainability
• Design
• Consumer behaviour
• Design for policy
• Feminist design
• Futures and scenarios
• Human-centred design / prototyping
• UX/interface design / human-computer interaction
• Ethics, governance, and regulation of emerging technologies and AI
• Design for social innovation
• Advertising
• Nature-centred design

For more information visit the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Information for international students

See international equivalent qualifications on the International Office website.

Fees and funding

The University of Bristol is part of the South, West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership (SWW DTP), which will be offering studentships for September 2025.

For information on other funding opportunities, including University-funded studentships, please see the Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences funding pages.

Further information on funding for prospective UK and international postgraduate students.