Program Overview

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Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Overview

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.

Research Areas

• 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

Programme Structure

MPhil

• This programme is a postgraduate research master's degree.
• Researchers conduct a significant research project on a topic related to Innovation and Entrepreneurship independently under supervision.
• It does not have a taught element at the moment although researchers can still benefit from the training offered centrally from the Bristol Doctoral College.
• MPhil researchers can apply to upgrade to a PhD after completion of the degree.

PhD

• This programme allows researchers to conduct a longer research project under supervision that culminates in a thesis which makes a significant contribution to knowledge and defend it before a panel of experts in the field.
• Researchers receive training offered centrally from the Bristol Doctoral College.

Key Information

Programme Duration

• MPhil: one year full-time; two years part-time
• PhD: up to four years full-time; up to eight years part-time

Start Date

• January 2025, September 2025, January 2026

Application Deadline

• January 2025 start: 1 December 2024
• September 2025 start: Overseas applicants: 25 July 2025, Home applicants: 1 August 2025
• January 2026 start: 1 December 2025

Delivery Method

• Distance Learning, On-Campus

Location

• Clifton

Awards Available

• PhD, MPhil

Entry Requirements

MPhil

• An upper second-class degree or international equivalent.
• 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.

Fees and Funding

Home

• Full-time: £4,850 per year
• Part-time: £2,425 per year

Overseas

• Full-time: £21,300 per year

Alumni Discount

• University of Bristol students and graduates can benefit from a 25% reduction in tuition fees for postgraduate study.

Career Prospects

Graduates of the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship have moved into a variety of roles in the profit and not-for-profit sectors. Current students are planning on entrepreneurial careers, such as developing new business startups or in large businesses as intrapreneurs. Research students may also choose to develop a career in academia.

Supervisors

• Dr Gerasimos Balis
• Professor Tom Ellson
• Dr Ben Hobbs
• Dr Daniella Jenkins
• Mr Mark Neild
• Dr Don Parker
• Dr Timothy Senior
• Dr Valentina Vezzani

Research Groups

The Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship's research is organised along two dimensions:

• Design Thinking
• Entrepreneurship (and intrapreneurship)