Doctor of Philosophy in Natural, Mathematical, and Computational Sciences
Doctor of Philosophy in Natural, Mathematical, and Computational Sciences
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Doctor of Philosophy in Natural, Mathematical, and Computational Sciences
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About this degree
The Venture Science Ph.D. emphasizes science-based entrepreneurship, wherein students learn how to launch and run a science- based startup, and how to bring scientific innovations to market. Additionally, the focus is on deeptech projects—that is, projects dependent confronting significant scientific or engineering challenges—in areas such as agriculture, computation, climate, and pharmaceuticals.
Target Audience
Ages 19-30, 31-65
Target Group
It aims to cultivate science-based entrepreneurship, producing graduates with startup-ready projects and the expertise to launch and manage a startup. The goal is to increase the pipeline of talent in cutting-edge science, and to facilitate entrepreneurial talent’s entry into academic spaces, and vice versa.
Mode of attendance
Full-Time and Part-Time
Structure of the programme
Entire programme is divided into three modules, each building upon the previous. It has a large research component consisting of both structured research preparation and the creation of an extensive final thesis in which students undertake cutting-edge, original, independent research.
All students are required to complete 3 stages of the thesis, during which they are closely supervised in producing a substantial piece of written research. The thesis allows students to produce sustained and focused research in a structured and personalised environment.
Tier One (MQF 8, 1500 Hours)
Module(s)
Introduction to Venture Science (MQF 7, 75 Hours)
Narrative Design and Storytelling (MQF 7, 75 Hours)
High Performance Culture (MQF 7, 75 Hours)
Introduction to Scoping (MQF 7, 75 Hours)
Scoping 1: Academic Research and Expert Interview (MQF 7, 75 Hours)
Scoping 2: Customer Development (MQF 7, 75 Hours)
Scoping 3: Feasibility and Techno-economics (MQF 7, 75 Hours)
Complex Decision Making (MQF7, 75 Hours)
Sector-Specific Business Model Design (MQF 7, 75 Hours)
Research: Tests (Theory, Practice, Reflection) (MQF 7, 75 Hours)
Venture Research (MQF 8, 750 Hours)
Tier Two
Research Progress and Progress Review (MQF 8, 1500 Hours)
Tier Three
Thesis Completion and Viva Voce Examination (MQF 8, 1500 Hours)
Although these tiers are represented as co-equal in duration, in practice many students will find that they vary: For example, perhaps the plan of study (from Advanced Research Planning and Methodology) is completed midway through year 1, but the research phase may well take three semesters. Their equivalence here represents the importance of the three moments of the degree, rather than prescribing a specific model to a student and their supervisor.
Grading System
Within any individual module assessment is of two kinds: assessment of regular assignments (typically weighted 20% as a whole) and assessment of a final assignment or project (typically weighted 80%). These grades, however, are regarded only as indicators of progress while the student is progressing through the program.
The Ph.D. is awarded on a pass/fail basis as a consequence of the viva voce examination.
Dates of Next Intake
Rolling admission
Pass rates
2023 pass rates will be publicised in the next cycle, contingent upon ensuring sufficient student data for anonymization.
Identity Malta’s VISA requirement for third country nationals: https://www.identitymalta.com/unit/central-visa-unit/
Doctor of Philosophy in Natural, Mathematical, and Computational Sciences
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What you'll learn
Learning Outcomes for Skills obtained at the end of the programme
- Students will enquire critically into the theoretical strategies for handling key research questions.
- Students will possess the most advanced and specialised skills and techniques to be able to conceptualise, design and implement a project for the generation of new knowledge or to solve critical problems or to refute or redefine existing knowledge.
- Students will formulate research-based solutions to scholarly questions in environments of incomplete information.
- Students will manage decisions with autonomy in complex and unpredictable environments.
- Students will organise projects and people for scholarly discussions in a way that is responsive to the conventions of professional engagements.
- Students will demonstrate learning skills needed to maintain continued, self-directed study.
- Students will demonstrate authority, innovation, autonomy, integrity and personal responsibility in the production or development of innovative ideas or processes in the context of an academic discipline, field of study or area of professional practice.
- Venture Science track students will organise a research project to advance scientific knowledge and capture commercial value.
- Venture Science track students will be able to connect research questions to fundraising opportunities in order to develop a viable product.
- Students will acquire and possess a systematic understanding of a substantial body of knowledge which is at the forefront of an academic discipline, field of study or area of professional practice.
- Students will gain specialised knowledge, including knowledge which is at the forefront of the field.
- Students will be able to analyse the societal, regulatory, and political contexts for their research specialization.
- Venture Science track students will organise a research project to advance scientific knowledge and capture commercial value.
- Venture Science track students will be able to connect research questions to fundraising opportunities in order to develop a viable product.
Doctor of Philosophy in Natural, Mathematical, and Computational Sciences
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Course Structure
About
Stochastic processes have driven and enhanced human creativity and learning throughout the history of science and entrepreneurship. This somewhat unpredictable exploration of the unknown in the pursuit of new knowledge and ideas often has the greatest impact on our development.
Over these next 12-weeks, you will embark on a bespoke program of self-directed study at the edge of your abilities. In Stochastic Studio, you’re primarily accountable to yourself. You’re setting your own goals, working and learning at the pace that works for you, and following your curiosity. You’re strengthening one of the fundamental skills of successful venture scientists – autodidacticism.
The most important thing you’ll do in Stochastic Studio is push yourself as a venture scientist. You will pick projects you are passionate about that are at the edge of your abilities, and work on them either alone or with others. You’ll reflect on your goals and progress, go down rabbit holes, and learn things that you did not expect to learn.
About every two-weeks we will have a live session, during which you will share your work, give feedback on the other projects presented, and engage in interactive experiences that will improve your autodidacticism. Our sessions will evolve alongside works-in-progress.
Course Goal
By the end of this course, you will be able to maximize limited resources to self-direct your own learning while making giant leaps in your personal development as a venture scientist.
Course Project
At the start of the term you will each be given USD $1,000...your challenge is to use this money to maximize your development by working on any project that you believe will most benefit you as a venture scientist (all receipts must be submitted to VSD). This might be developing a business focused project, a technical project, a project that helps you develop healthy lifestyle habits, etc.
The only requirement is that your project must revolve around creating something that is specific and measurable, and the process of creating must make the biggest possible contribution toward your personal growth as a venture scientist (within the constraints of time and money). This could be a publication, the creation of a simple prototype (digital, physical, biological, etc.), a live presentation, a remix of a scientific product, a data model, etc.
Teachers
Intended learning outcomes
- A comprehensive understanding of the culture of high-performing teams and organisations beyond that associated with the Master’s level.
- Methodologies for operationalising the process of creating new insights into scientific and technical problems.
- Specialised knowledge of the psychological or attitudinal habits that block scientific innovation, as well as those that facilitate it, to maximize focus in an environment of uncertainty.
- Achieving unlikely outcomes, such as generating high-risk approaches from scoping or completing ambitious research projects in a timely manner;
- Communicating to specialists and nonspecialist audiences clearly about both technical topics and best practices for achieving innovation, and can do these on the basis of research-backed evidence.
- Adopting an outcomes-focused orientation as a guide to research practice;
- Demonstrating leadership skills in innovation in complex and unpredictable work and study contexts.
- Performing critical evaluations and analyses of technical and scientific areas on the basis of limited or incomplete information in order to generate new knowledge.
- Maintaining composure under challenge, demonstrating positive thinking, and rigorously practicing self-improvement.
- Demonstrating specialised knowledge of high-performance organisations in scientific research and startups, including reflection on the social and ethical responsibilities associated with these.
- Setting large goals relative to their field instead of incremental advances;
- Manage people, projects, and self in a fast-changing innovation environment
- Create research-based diagnoses for organizational problems associated with venture capital, entrepreneurship, and startups
- Continue studies of high-performance organisations in a self-directed, autonomous manner.
- Complete research projects in a timely and rigorous manner.
About
“The literature” is cited as a source of truth across all technical domains. Standardised approaches to aggregating and critically reading academic literature will encourage a common intellectual language you can speak across academic fields. In this course you will gain fluency in interview techniques that serve their rapid communication with a diverse community of academic and industry experts. Your path to galvanising collective action begins here, listening to the collective and sense-making to build a broad understanding of technologies and business models in the sector from status quo to state of the art.
This course is an asynchronous complement to Intro to Scoping. You will learn how to dig deep into doing a wide variety of secondary research as you progress through your scoping process.
Course Goal
Same as Intro to Scoping
Course Project
Same as Intro to Scoping
Teachers
Intended learning outcomes
- Knowledge of tactics and strategies for quickly ascertaining and mastering the state-of-the-art in a specialised field of study, drawing on academic research and industry expertise..
- Comprehensive knowledge across multiple research areas, beyond the level associated with a Master’s degree.
- Specialised and inter- or multi-disciplinary theoretical and practical knowledge at the forefront of a field of study. This knowledge forms the basis for an original, actionable research project.
- Designing experiments for technical next steps and incorporates academic feedback.
- Performing critical analyses in fast-changing innovation environments and quickly generate original research opportunities.
- Converting ambitious, sector-defining goals into valid technical next steps.
- Developing new skills in response to emerging knowledge and techniques across multiple research areas, and demonstrates leadership and innovation skills to create actionable plans in a complex and unpredictable environment.
- Critically comparing principles across multiple fields, including associated social or ethical responsibilities.
- Discussing, in a technically valid and accurate way, the state of the art across three or more research areas.
- Providing a clear rationale for a particular opportunity and connect it to broader goals and ambitions.
- Communicating the stakes of a research project and its feasibility to specialist and nonspecialist audiences.
- Demonstrate the learning skills to allow the persistence of study and research in a self-directed, autonomous manner, even in the face of technical setbacks.
- Integrate knowledge from new and inter- or multi-disciplinary fields and generates outcomes-oriented research projects from this knowledge.
- Transform specific technical, scientific, or technological obstacles into research opportunities, including funding opportunities.
- Manage people and projects and demonstrates the ability to respond to fast-changing innovation environments.
About
This module prepares a student to contribute new knowledge to scholarship in a specific deeptech sector, such that they can conduct (in subsequent modules) a programme of original, publishable research that advances the state of knowledge in their chosen field.
The main goal of this module is the completion of a Research Plan. The module prepares students to embark upon a substantial, sustained, unified piece of research at the MQF 8 level. The module is taught by the proposed thesis supervisor as a form of preparation specific to the thesis and the requirements of its subject matter. The thesis supervisor must possess a research doctorate in the field and sub-field of the proposed dissertation, or failing that, recent peer-reviewed scholarship in that area that demonstrates academic expertise. Approval of the match between a doctoral student and supervisor will rest with the dean of the college, and must be reported to Woolf’s QAETAC committee.
This module is not a general introduction to research or research methodologies, but a practical preparation for students preparing to embark upon the thesis. Although these skills are highly transferable to other research domains, it remains the case that the purpose of the module is scoped to the needs of the specific thesis for which it prepares the student.
The module results in a highly structured ‘Research Plan’ for embarking upon independent research at the MQF 8 level in the subsequent modules.
In order to provide context for the submission of the ‘Research Plan’ (which is the purpose of this phase of the module), the student will gain a proficient knowledge of relevant research methods and planning. Thus, in connection with the core learning outcomes resulting from the research plan, the student will additionally gain a proficient understanding of the wider context of research methods and evaluate the fittingness of the chosen method.
In this phase a student must, under the guidance of their supervisor:
Propose his or her thesis topic
Identify a provisional title
Evaluate research methods and select a strategy
Write an abstract of the proposed research
Compose a provisional table of contents for the thesis
Compose an annotated bibliography
Write a literature survey covering the primary and secondary sources
Schedule a timeline to completion, including a work agreement that establishes mutually-agreed upon expectations with the supervisor for meetings, responses to student work, and any other relevant practices.
The thesis supervisor finally prepares the student for external examination of the ‘Research Plan’.
By the end of the first year, if not earlier, the Research Plan is submitted as a digital portfolio containing six elements:
Provisional thesis title
Abstract
Expanded table of contents
Literature survey
Annotated bibliography
Timeline to completion
The Research Plan provides students with a clear framework to guide their research question, a structure into which they can fit their scholarly research, and a pathway to the completion of the thesis. The Research Plan also formally specifies the discipline the student is studying; this discipline must also be the supervisor’s scholarly field. During the module, students meet with their supervisor twice per month.
The student’s attention is directed to literature on the topic of the proposed thesis, and thus methodological research guidance, beyond the oral instruction of the student’s supervisor, will be provided within the domain of study specific to the student’s thesis. This will vary considerably, depending upon the topic of the thesis, and it forms a natural component of the literature survey. Within Venture Science, the literature survey will also include a Sector Architecture, which articulates the successes and failures of academic research in a specific field with commercial, industrial, and financial factors. (Thus, it is neither appropriate nor possible to list here the bibliographic references that will be needed by the student. We have, however, provided valuable works of general research guidance and reference, and works to aid the student in evaluating the best research method for the thesis.) Although the nature of the training will vary by discipline and by the focus on human subjects, the supervisor will include scholarly ethics as a topic during this period.
The ‘Research Plan’ is submitted to be examined by an academic in the same field, selected by the thesis supervisor with the approval of the college dean (for the role of college deans, see Woolf’s MFHEA-approved Policy of Quality Assurance). The examining academic must possess a research doctorate.
Teachers
Intended learning outcomes
- Critical understanding of the diverse scholarly views at the forefront of a specific scientific field. This understanding forms the basis of an original research question.
- Specialised knowledge of key strategies related to the creation of deeptech research.
- Comprehensive knowledge of received critical or scholarly paradigms beyond that associated with Master’s-level study.
- Employing the standard modern conventions for the presentation of scholarly work and scholarly referencing.
- Assessing, analysing, and criticising the various strategies for handling matters arising in the context of scientific, industrial, and entrepreneurial innovation.
- Communicating to specialist and nonspecialist audiences about the conclusions of state-of-the-art scholarly research.
- Applying an in-depth domain-specific knowledge and understanding to the evaluation of scientific research and can use this understanding to advance research questions.
- Proposing appropriate, well-scoped solutions to complex and changing reception of scientific research.
- Comparing and evaluating the different methodologies recommended in scholarly sources pertaining to how scholars should handle critical paradigms.
- Apply a professional and scholarly approach to research discipline-based problems.
- Act autonomously in identifying research problems and solutions related to at least one critical paradigm in the course, and can map these to a timeline.
- Demonstrate self-direction in research and originality in solutions when engaging scholarly disputes.
- Create a research-based approach to a discipline-specific (or interdisciplinary) problem, integrating knowledge from new research.
- Design a scholarly project that conforms to contemporary standards around research ethics.
- Solve problems and be prepared to take independent decisions related to the methods and principles of research, including prioritizing and scheduling research activities.
- Manage interdisciplinary issues that arise in connection to methodological paradigms within each field.
About
One of the best ways to understand customer needs, check your assumptions, and overcome the tendency towards self-referential design, is to conduct customer discovery research before you build a product or service.
This customer discovery course will help you develop the necessary skills and practice setting up research efforts to understand needs of your target customers, get familiar with a sense of ambiguity, and compare what people say they do to what actually happens.
Course Goal
By the end of this course, you will be able to design and conduct customer discovery research to produce insights that inform the development of your science ventures products and services. Our course goal is to bridge the gap between your ideas as the founder and your customers, theoretical knowledge of different customer discovery research methods and practical application, ensuring that you can apply your customer discovery research skills effectively in real-world scenarios as you will be recruiting your potential customers and getting primary data for your venture.
Course Project
One of the most exciting aspects of this course is that it will culminate in a customer discovery exhibition. You will not only gather qualitative data through your research but also transform your findings into tangible and visual representations. This exhibition will showcase your in-depth understanding of your customers and the insights you have gained through your research. It will be a platform for you to present your updated personas and journey maps based on your findings.
Teachers
Intended learning outcomes
- Specialised knowledge at the forefront of a particular research area to intervene in debates in academic and industrial research.
- The differential impacts of technological, scientific, regulatory, and financial constraints upon research.
- Comprehensive knowledge of the ways academic research intersects with related industries.
- Knowing the relevant patent/regulatory/legislative/government funding landscape.
- Demonstrating specialised or multi-disciplinary knowledge of a specific industry, including knowledge of the social and ethical responsibilities associated with that industry.
- Knowing an industry structure: how it has evolved, key drivers, and key stakeholders.
- Communicating to academic and nonacademic, as well as industrial and nonindustrial, audiences clearly about research-based conclusions for further research.
- Knowing how to find the right investors within a given sector.
- Conducting outcomes-oriented customer development scoping.
- Knowing what early-stage sector-specific investors look for; can construct milestones for fundraising in the context of a technically valid roadmap.
- Performing critical evaluations with incomplete information to solve problems in new or unfamiliar contexts in order to produce original research
- Developing new skills in response to emerging changes in industry or regulation and demonstrates leadership skills and innovation in complex, unpredictable innovation contexts.
- Have the learning skills necessary to continue research projects in the face of technical, regulatory, or other setbacks.
- Manage people and projects, demonstrating the ability to respond to fast-changing regulatory, technological, and entrepreneurial environments.
- Create a research-based diagnosis to challenges within a specific industry and articulates these challenges to opportunities for original academic research.
- Demonstrate autonomy in the direction of research in complex academic and industrial contexts.
About
To successfully translate research into new products and services that are beneficial for human and planetary health - you need to develop clear insights into the rigorous and fulfilling journey of today’s deep tech founders. Key to this journey is being able to skilfully navigate the landscape of dilutive and non-dilutive deep tech funding opportunities.
By analysing investment opportunities using the same lenses of deep tech funders, you will be able to evaluate key investment criteria funders use to perform their investment decision-making and develop strong negotiation skills.
Course Goal
By the end of this course, you will be able to evaluate varying perspectives and approaches across deep tech funders of what it means to be an investable company and founder. You will be able to build qualitative and quantitative assessments on many of the key dimensions deep tech funders use in their due diligence. And you will become fluent in the key terms and concepts funders use throughout their due diligence and investment proposal processes.
Course Project
In your final project, you will experience making and accepting an investment offer to a deep tech company of your choice. You will draft the key terms of an investment proposal, and critically analyze its impact on a company’s value and governance.
Teachers
Intended learning outcomes
- Develop a critical knowledge of the received scientific, scholarly, and industrial paradigms in a given field.
- Possess expert knowledge of the motivations, aspirations, and challenges of science entrepreneurship.
- Understand and intervene in key theoretical or methodological debates for the field of enquiry.
- Become familiar with the motivations and challenges of science founders who have launched ventures in the field of enquiry.
- Acquire domain-specific terminology to discuss the proposed thesis topic.
- Employing the standard modern conventions for the presentation of scholarly work and scholarly referencing.
- Demonstrate leadership skills through group scoping, coaching, and volunteering.
- Form an entrepreneurial team with knowledge of how to avoid early-stage pitfalls.
- Demonstrating specialised or multi-disciplinary knowledge about venture funding in science, including about associated social and ethical responsibilities.
- Autonomously gathering material and organising it into a coherent presentation or essay
- Performing critical evaluations and analysis with incomplete or limited information to identify key scientific opportunities for original research.
- Proposing appropriate solutions to complex and changing reception of technical feasibility and production environments.
- Identify and explore areas of potentially novel scholarly enquiry within the domain of the proposed thesis topic.
- Comparing and evaluating the different methodologies recommended in scholarly sources pertaining to a specific technical, scientific, or market challenge.
- Engage critically with scholarship dealing with the proposed thesis topic and methodological approaches to it.
- Produce a clear, concise, and well-scoped account of the research on the basis of very wide-ranging bibliographic materials.
- Communicate clearly and convincingly, both orally and in writing, about the chosen field
- Comparing different approaches to successful scientific entrepreneurial launches in the field of inquiry.
- Apply a professional and scholarly approach to research discipline-based or interdisciplinary problems.
- Effectively navigate online repositories of primary and secondary sources, as well as other relevant Internet resources for the study of the proposed thesis topic.
- Grasp the theoretical and technical issues that affect the proposed field of enquiry and the relative strengths and weaknesses of alternative approaches in the secondary literature and in the industry.
- Demonstrate practical skills in gathering information from a variety of primary and secondary sources and in contextualising specific (inter-)disciplinary questions.
- Act autonomously in identifying research problems, opportunities, and solutions related to a specific scientific or mathematical field
About
To develop the ability to lead in uncertain environments, participants will utilize pragmatic interview techniques to access the judgement, expert knowledge, and intuition of successful deep tech entrepreneurs.
The Applied Cognitive Task Analysis methods are highly rigorous, and are used by academics and practitioners throughout the world and across industries.
Through this course you will gain a deeper understanding of the processes that influence the choice and behaviour of entrepreneurial thinking and to better understand how expert judgements and decisions can shape science ventures in uncertain times.
Participants will be encouraged to examine how the characteristics of the decision-maker and the immediate environment can help or hinder judgements and decisions, and to develop an informed understanding of the ability of successful deep tech entrepreneurs, including themselves, to make decisions.
Course Goal
By the end of this course, you will be able to recognise the cognitive skills in yourselves and others that differentiate highly skilled performance from journeyman levels of performance. You will do this by eliciting knowledge (both explicit and tacit) from recognised skilled performers in the world of deep tech entrepreneurship.
Course Project
By completing a series of Applied Cognitive Task Analysis interviews with deep tech entrepreneurs you will work towards the creation of a new book called "Venture Science". This will be a collaborative output that consolidates all students' work, and culminates in a “book launch party” during our in-person London intensive. Copies of the book will be printed and shared with all experts students have interviewed, the Deep Science Ventures community, and future Venture Science Doctorate students in order to provide insights into venture science expertise.
Teachers
Intended learning outcomes
- Critical and comprehensive understanding of how their research connects to broader societal concerns
- Comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the interpersonal, societal, and consumer factors influencing the “correctness” of a research process.
- Specialised knowledge of decision-making processes and techniques to create a framework for original research.
- Performing critical analyses of new situations in order to produce original research with societal relevance.
- Demonstrating leadership skills and innovation in complex and unpredictable research contexts.
- Communicating to specialist and nonspecialist audiences about the societal and ethical dimensions of a research project while being clear about risks and benefits.
- Demonstrating specialised or multi-disciplinary knowledge of the social and ethical responsibilities associated with a specific research field.
- Demonstrate autonomy in the direction of research and high level of understanding of decision-making processes.
- Possess the learning skills necessary to allow the continuation of self-directed research, even in conditions of extreme ambiguity.
- Manage people and project in a context where interpersonal dynamics may strongly influence choices in research direction.
- Create a research-based approach to problem solving, by establishing a context for testing a variety of outcomes.
About
In this course you will learn about the inner workings of technoeconomic analyses and their importance in scaling technologies. The course features six milestones that will introduce the central tenets of building a successful and robust technoeconomic model. You will explore the critical outcomes of a technoeconomic analysis, including operating costs, capital expenses, and financial forecasts, and how to generate these outcomes through process modeling. The culmination of the course will be a complete technoeconomic report and a presentation that outlines the important findings from each participants work.
Course Goal
The goal of this course is to develop an example technoeconomic model for each participant to evaluate ideas in their opportunity area through economic evaluation and case studies. Through this process, participants will gain a deeper understanding of their technology and have a defined roadmap for creating an economically viable product.
Course Project
Over the 12 weeks of this term, you will create a technoeconomic model that can be used throughout the programme to evaluate the economics of your product/process. The project will begin with a literature review and market research to understand existing information in the context of a TEA. Through the development of the model you will gain an understanding of the operating expenses and capital needed for your technology and be able to communicate these effectively through a user-friendly faceplate. The project will culminate in a roadmapping session as well as a slide deck to pitch investors or board members about the findings from your model. It is essential the materials from the milestone are used to highlight the value the model brings to your company and process/product.
Teachers
Intended learning outcomes
- Specialised and multi-disciplinary knowledge at the forefront of a field of study to develop further opportunities for research.
- Comprehensive knowledge and understanding of scientific, technological, and other constraints to original research.
- Demonstrating specialised knowledge, including knowledge of the social and ethical responsibilities associated with overcoming constraints.
- Accelerating technoeconomic analysis to exceed expectations as a function of industry exposure;
- Conducting rigorous outcome-centric technoeconomic analysis;
- Quickly developing new skills in response to changing conditions of research, including sudden changes in feasibility.
- Communicating to specialist and nonspecialist audiences about technical, technological, economic, and cultural barriers to research in a specific area.
- Manage people and projects in such a way as to overcome constraints.
- Integrate knowledge from multiple research areas to form judgments about constraint and opportunity on the basis of limited, incomplete, or fast-changing information.
- Demonstrate autonomy in the direction of research and the ability to sustain a research project in the face of technological limitations.
- Conduct technoeconomic analysis at the forefront of innovation in their field, with outcomes-oriented findings that challenge norms of publication and practice.
About
The aim of this course is to guide PhD candidates through the process of strategic experimental design to accelerate the journey from hypothesis to market-readiness. It aims to bridge the gap between performing a valid experiment and crafting a set of strategically selected experiments that lead to the shortest and most impactful path to market success.
The course is scaffolded to guide you on how to connect standard experimental validation with a series of optimised experiments that consider risk, potential for upside, and the necessity to hit critical milestones efficiently. This is achieved by first identifying the major value inflection points relevant to the approach’s ultimate goal. You will then learn to reverse-engineer the trajectory from these points: work backwards to what Milestones are needed to prove concept, then work backwards from that to the optimal set of experiments to reach those milestones (accounting for risk, funding and cost-value of time). As you build your experimental plan, the course places an emphasis on creating an execution strategy centered around a core set of 'critical path' experiments.
In Experience design you will experience the following:
You will have bi-weekly one-to-one meetings with a DSV supervisor
You will have bi-weekly one-to-one meetings with an external technical supervisor
You will attend all weekly All-Hands meetings with the whole DSV community to engage with Founders-in-Residence that are presenting their work
And you will present your own Experiment Design work at select All-Hands meetings
Course Goal
This course aims to bridge the gap between performing valid experiments and strategically selecting those that lead to the shortest, most impactful path to your approaches’ market success, by emphasising potential upside, and critical experimental milestone derisking.
Course Project
Your course project will be split into six project milestones designed to incrementally build and refine your strategic experimental plan. This plan aims to minimise risks, enhance clarity from initial experiments, and position your research for successful execution as you go into year 2.
Teachers
Intended learning outcomes
- Comprehensive knowledge of a technical domain at a level beyond that associated with the Master’s degree.
- Specialised or multi-disciplinary theoretical and practical knowledge at the forefront of a field of study in order to formulate an original research project.
- Critical knowledge of methods of prototyping in order to scope research projects.
- Communicating to specialist and nonspecialist audiences alike about the success or failure of prototyping efforts, and what this means for ongoing research.
- Demonstrating specialised or multi-disciplinary knowledge, including reflecting on the social and ethical responsibilities associated with a specific research field, as well as the implications of such responsibilities for prototyping efforts.
- Developing new skills in response to emerging knowledge or techniques and demonstrates innovation in complex and unpredictable innovation contexts.
- Performing critical evaluations of prototyping efforts, often with limited information, to solve problems in new or unfamiliar environments and produce original research.
- Integrate new knowledge and skills to create new research opportunities in a chosen technical space.
- Manage people and projects and demonstrates the ability to prototype, adjust, and iterate until a project is viable.
- Demonstrate the learning skills to continue a project over multiple years, and an understanding of the learning and technical bottlenecks that may impede the project.
- Demonstrate autonomy in the direction of a research project, subject to constraints of reality and value.
About
Concise, compelling storytelling is a powerful tool for enhancing personal performance, sense-making of scientific datasets inspiring collective action, and effectively conveying the value of your science venture. Contextualising and communicating the overarching mission, the hypotheses and the results will make our venture scientists charismatic and coachable. Graduates will use their words and visual design wisely to bring key stakeholders into their venture creation story, and together they will bring the story to life. This course will focus on the cutting edge of praxis in narrative design & storytelling.
Course Goal
By the end of this course, you will have developed a full brand experience for your science venture to engage key stakeholders with. This will include your brand statements, visual identity, information visualizations, fundraising narrative, a visualization of your products value proposition, and a final way to tie all these elements together in a full brand experience (usually a website).
Course Project
Throughout this 12-week period you will work with a number of different designers and contractors to develop all of the initial Narrative elements to effectively tell your science ventures story. Everything that you develop throughout this course will build on each other, and eventually culminate into a full brand experience that you will be presenting to a panel of representative stakeholders for your science venture. We will be using a human factors method called a “desirability study” with these stakeholders. This will be used to determine the effectiveness of your brand experience in connecting with your audience, and also your success in this course.
Teachers
Intended learning outcomes
- Comprehensive knowledge of tools for presenting data clearly and narrating a story of technical achievement.
- How to project from the current state-of-the-art in a particular field to explain the potential significance of new areas of research.
- Comfort speaking publicly to technical and nontechnical audiences;
- Developing new skills in response to feedback and demonstrates innovation and leadership in communicating about scientific research in an innovation context.
- Communicating complex technical topics in simple terms without loss of accuracy;
- Make self-assessments for continuous professional development of speaking and writing skills.
- Demonstrate autonomy in the direction of research and a high level of understanding of the power of narrative in persuading others to accept research conclusions;
- Integrate knowledge from multiple domains to make a persuasive case for the relevance of highly specialised research.
- Clearly and unambiguously reach technically valid conclusions on the basis of research outcomes.
About
This course will introduce you to Scoping, a process of working backwards from a desired societal outcome to improve your understanding of the possible ways to achieve that outcome. You will learn the basics of scoping, characterise outcomes, decompose problems, and mapping the relevant technoscientific landscape. As you progress, you will engage with scoping moves, prioritisation criteria, and discover your personal opportunity areas you will be focusing on during your PhD. The course culminates in generating a long list of approaches ranked by their upside, neglect, and tractability.
Course Goal
The course aims to equip you with the skills needed to generate, assess, prioritise, and propose innovative solutions in a creative and first-principled way.
Course Project
All the milestones in this course build toward the end of the term project where you will assess and rank your approaches for your venture creation endeavour. You will prepare a presentation that effectively showcases the proposed approaches while providing a clear and convincing justification. Each approach should clearly articulate its reasoning chain, explicitly explaining how it connects to the high-level outcome and the quantified outcomes or sub-outcomes you have identified.
Teachers
Intended learning outcomes
- Comprehensive knowledge of how to define the state of the art in a field using literature reviews and interviews with academics and industrialists.
- Building from gaps in understanding to create original research projects that address urgent social, scientific, and ethical issues.
- Making assessments of personal continuous professional development in order to sustain a research project.
- Specialised theoretical and practical knowledge to identify gaps in industrial/academic understanding.
- Performing critical analysis with incomplete, limited, and changing information to solve problems in new environments and produce original research
- Explaining the state of the art in a field and discuss its potential and limitations in a way that is accessible to technical and nontechnical audiences, communicating clearly the implications of this research.
- Demonstrating specialised or multi-disciplinary knowledge, including social and ethical knowledge arising from the application of one’s research.
- Developing new skills in response to changing knowledge, techniques, and technological feasibility, and demonstrate leadership in setting an agenda for further research.
- Map a technology development roadmap to execute despite uncertainty;
- Use hypothesis-based procedures to test and resolve technology roadmap uncertainties;
- Identify technical/scientific thresholds and limits (constraints);
About
Business modelling is a core capability that can greatly help deep tech founders in building a successful business. Being able to deploy resources in a way that aligns with the business strategy enables the founder to run efficiently and achieve their business goals quicker.
This course will take a one-two step approach to learning business modelling. First, participants will create their business strategy through the lean canvas approach. This will require taking pen to paper and laying out the customer segments, revenue streams, unique value proposition, cost structure, etc. Second, participants will build a financial model in Excel to project out revenues, costs, financing needs, and more for the next five years. This is an iterative process and at each milestone, participants are expected to fine-tune their assumptions.
Strong business modelling adds rigour to a startup and gives potential investors increased confidence in the founder. While founders may end up hiring a CFO as the business grows larger, it will remain a core job of the founder to deploy resources efficiently and steer the business financially. This course aims to equip founders with this necessary skill.
Course Goal
By the end of this course, you will be able to create a Lean Canvas and financial model for your deep tech startup. Through this work, you will be able to evaluate what revenues, resources, and financing are necessary to grow your startup.
Course Project
Over this term, you will first create a Lean Canvas for your startup (Milestones 1+2), which will then help you create a robust financial model in Excel for your startup (Milestones 3 through 6). You can choose from two Excel templates for your financial model:
A subscription-based financial model for startups aiming to sell recurring subscriptions to consumers (B2C) or businesses (B2B)
A product-based financial model for startups aiming to sell various products on a one-off basis at various prices.
This template Excel model will guide you through building out market information, revenue projections, resource and cost needs, financial statements, financing needs, valuation, and various scenarios. This financial model can be a starting point for managing your business and speaking with investors.
Teachers
Intended learning outcomes
- Specialised theoretical and practical knowledge to formulate business models on the basis of valid technical knowledge as well as careful analysis of industry.
- Comprehensive knowledge of the core principles of creating and capturing value within a deeptech research sector.
- Communicating to specialist and nonspecialist audiences (or, technical and business audiences) clearly and unambiguously about scientific research outcomes and their implications for industry.
- Performing critical analyses with incomplete or limited information in order to connect original academic research to workable businesses at scale.
- Demonstrating specialised knowledge of the connection between scientific research and business models, including awareness of the social and ethical dimensions of this connection.
- Demonstrating leadership and innovation in complex and unpredictable innovation contexts.
- Demonstrates autonomy in the direction of research as well as in the desired business outcomes potentially associated with a research project.
- Manage people and projects, demonstrating the ability to shape scientific research in response to fluid industrial environments.
- Develop a business plan appropriate for a deep tech venture-backed startup that combines scientific evidence with knowledge of industry factors such as patents, funders, major research centers, customers, and regulators.
About
This module prepares a student to contribute new knowledge to scholarship in the sciences, particularly the mathematical or computational sciences, such that they can conduct (in subsequent modules) a programme of original, publishable research that advances the state of knowledge in their chosen field.
The main goal of this module is the completion of a Research Plan. The module prepares students to embark upon a substantial, sustained unified piece of research at the MQF 8 level. The module is taught by the proposed thesis supervisor as a form of preparation specific to the thesis and the requirements of its subject matter. The thesis supervisor must possess a research doctorate in the the field and sub-field of the proposed dissertation, or failing that, recent peer-reviewed scholarship in that area that demonstrates academic expertise. Approval of the match between a doctoral student and supervisor will rest with the dean of the college, and must be reported to Woolf’s QAETAC committee. This module is not a general introduction to research or research methodologies, but a practical preparation for students preparing to embark upon the thesis. Although these skills are highly transferable to other research domains, it remains the case that the purpose of the module is scoped to the needs of the specific thesis for which it prepares the student. The module results in a highly structured ‘Research Plan’ for embarking upon independent research at the MQF 8 level in the subsequent modules. In order to provide context for the submission of the ‘Research Plan’ (which is the purpose of this phase of the module), the student will gain a proficient knowledge of relevant research methods and planning. Thus, in connection with the core learning outcomes resulting from the research plan, the student will additionally gain a proficient understanding of the wider context of research methods and evaluate the fittingness of the chosen method. In this phase a student must, under the guidance of their supervisor:
Propose his or her thesis topic
Identify a provisional title
Evaluate research methods and select a strategy
Write an abstract of the proposed research
Compose a provisional table of contents for the thesis
Compose an annotated bibliography
Write a literature survey covering the primary and secondary
sources
Schedule a timeline to completion, including a work agreement that establishes mutually-agreed upon expectations with the supervisor for meetings, responses to student work, and any other relevant practices.
The thesis supervisor finally prepares the student for external examination of the ‘Research Plan’.
By the end of the first year, if not earlier, the Research Plan is submitted as a digital portfolio containing six elements:
Provisional thesis title
Abstract
Expanded table of contents
Literature survey
Annotated bibliography
Timeline to completion
The Research Plan provides students with a clear framework to guide their research question, a structure into which they can fit their scholarly research, and a pathway to the completion of the thesis. The Research Plan also formally specifies the discipline the student is studying; this discipline must also be the supervisor’s scholarly field. During the module, students meet with their supervisor twice per month. The student’s attention is directed to literature on the topic of the proposed thesis, and thus methodological research guidance, beyond the oral instruction of the student’s supervisor, will be provided within the domain of study specific to the student’s thesis. This will vary considerably, depending upon the topic of the thesis, and it forms a natural component of the literature survey. (Thus, it is neither appropriate nor possible to list here the bibliographic references that will be needed by the student. We have, however, provided valuable works of general research guidance and reference, and works to aid the student in evaluating the best research method for the thesis.) Although the nature of the training will vary by discipline and by the focus on human subjects, the supervisor will include scholarly ethics as a topic during this period.
The ‘Research Plan’ is submitted to be examined by an academic in the same field, selected by the thesis supervisor with the approval of the college dean (for the role of college deans, see Woolf’s MFHEA-approved Policy of Quality Assurance). The examining academic must possess a research doctorate.
Teachers
Intended learning outcomes
- Develop a specialised knowledge of key strategies related to the analysis of critical paradigms or methodologies
- Develop a specialised knowledge of key strategies related to the analysis of critical paradigms or methodologies
- Critically understand the diverse scholarly views on methodological paradigms. This understanding forms the basis of an original research question
- Critically understand the diverse scholarly views on methodological paradigms. This understanding forms the basis of an original research question
- Develop a comprehensive knowledge of received critical or scholarly paradigms beyond that associated with Master’s-level study
- Develop a specialised knowledge of key strategies related to the analysis of critical paradigms or methodologies
- Critically understand the diverse scholarly views on methodological paradigms. This understanding forms the basis of an original research question
- Assessing, analysing, and criticising the various strategies for handling matters arising in the context of critical paradigms and methodologies
- Applying an in-depth domain-specific knowledge and understanding to the evaluation of critical paradigms, and using this understanding to advance research questions.
- Proposing appropriate, well-scoped solutions to complex and changing reception of methodological paradigms
- Applying an in-depth domain-specific knowledge and understanding to the evaluation of critical paradigms, and using this understanding to advance research questions.
- Assessing, analysing, and criticising the various strategies for handling matters arising in the context of critical paradigms and methodologies
- Comparing and evaluating the different methodologies recommended in scholarly sources pertaining to how scholars should handle critical paradigms
- Employing the standard modern conventions for the presentation of scholarly work and scholarly referencing
- Proposing appropriate, well-scoped solutions to complex and changing reception of methodological paradigms
- Employing the standard modern conventions for the presentation of scholarly work and scholarly referencing
- Communicating to specialist and nonspecialist audiences about the conclusions of state-of-the-art scholarly research
- Proposing appropriate, well-scoped solutions to complex and changing reception of methodological paradigms
- Comparing and evaluating the different methodologies recommended in scholarly sources pertaining to how scholars should handle critical paradigms
- Assessing, analysing, and criticising the various strategies for handling matters arising in the context of critical paradigms and methodologies
- Communicating to specialist and nonspecialist audiences about the conclusions of state-of-the-art scholarly research
- Applying an in-depth domain-specific knowledge and understanding to the evaluation of critical paradigms, and using this understanding to advance research questions.
- Communicating to specialist and nonspecialist audiences about the conclusions of state-of-the-art scholarly research
- Employing the standard modern conventions for the presentation of scholarly work and scholarly referencing
- Comparing and evaluating the different methodologies recommended in scholarly sources pertaining to how scholars should handle critical paradigms
- Apply a professional and scholarly approach to research discipline- based problems
- Apply a professional and scholarly approach to research discipline- based problems
- Apply a professional and scholarly approach to research discipline- based problems
- Create a research-based approach to a discipline-specific (or interdisciplinary) problem, integrating knowledge from new research
- Design a scholarly project that conforms to contemporary standards around research ethics
- Manage interdisciplinary issues that arise in connection to each methodological paradigms within each field
- Demonstrate self-direction in research and originality in solutions when engaging scholarly disputes
- Solve problems and take independent decisions related to the methods and principles of research, including scheduling and prioritizing research activities
- Solve problems and take independent decisions related to the methods and principles of research, including scheduling and prioritizing research activities
- Design a scholarly project that conforms to contemporary standards around research ethics
- Act autonomously in identifying research problems and solutions related to at least one critical paradigm in the course, and can map these to a timeline
- Manage interdisciplinary issues that arise in connection to each methodological paradigms within each field
- Create a research-based approach to a discipline-specific (or interdisciplinary) problem, integrating knowledge from new research
- Act autonomously in identifying research problems and solutions related to at least one critical paradigm in the course, and can map these to a timeline
- Solve problems and take independent decisions related to the methods and principles of research, including scheduling and prioritizing research activities
- Act autonomously in identifying research problems and solutions related to at least one critical paradigm in the course, and can map these to a timeline
- Demonstrate self-direction in research and originality in solutions when engaging scholarly disputes
- Create a research-based approach to a discipline-specific (or interdisciplinary) problem, integrating knowledge from new research
- Demonstrate self-direction in research and originality in solutions when engaging scholarly disputes
- Design a scholarly project that conforms to contemporary standards around research ethics
- Manage interdisciplinary issues that arise in connection to each methodological paradigms within each field
About
Advanced Research Progress and Progress Review helps a student who has just completed the ‘Research Plan’ to undertake a cadence of supervised, original research leading to a substantial portion of their research thesis being completed (2-4 chapters or equivalent).
Although students may request twice-weekly meetings early in the writing process, it is expected (and students typically prefer) not to meet more than twice per month thereafter. This allows the student time to develop their independent research and writing. As the student advances in independence and confidence in their research, and under the discretion of their supervisor, they may reduce their supervisory meetings to 1 time per month, though they must continue to participate in ‘Work in Progress’ seminars each month.
Under the supervision of their supervisor, and through regular submissions and synchronous feedback sessions, students hone and strengthen their ability to conduct innovative, original research at the very forefront of an academic discipline.
While the focus of year one was on preparing the ‘Research Proposal’, the focus of year two is on the actual work of research, whether that be in the library, working with datasets, work in the lab, or deep reading in the scholarship on a chosen topic, producing extensive notes and questions, and rough drafts of chapters or thesis sections.
In addition, supervisors in year two will facilitate the student’s participation in the broader scholarly community, whether through presenting in the ‘Work in Progress’ seminar for graduate students and scholars, or through recommended and invited academic conferences.
Teachers
Intended learning outcomes
- Specialised knowledge of key strategies related to research methods in a specific technical discipline.
- Critically understanding of the diverse scholarly views on specific methodological approaches in the natural or mathematical.
- Critical knowledge of methodological debates in a technical research discipline.
- Autonomously gathering material and organising it into a coherent presentation or essay.
- Employing the standard modern conventions for the presentation of scholarly work and scholarly referencing
- Comparing and evaluating the different methodologies recommended in scholarly sources pertaining to how researchers should settle interpretative questions.
- Assessing, analysing, and criticising the various strategies for handling matters arising in the context of natural or mathematical sciences research methods.
- Applying an in-depth domain-specific knowledge and understanding to selecting and defending a research method in the natural, mathematical, or computational sciences.
- Proposing appropriate solutions to complex and changing problems pertaining to methodology in the natural or mathematical sciences.
- Solve problems and be prepared to take leadership decisions related to the methods and principles of research.
- Apply a professional and scholarly approach to research problems pertaining to qualitative and/or quantitative methods in a scholarly discipline.
- Efficiently manage interdisciplinary issues that arise in connection to methods in the natural or mathematical sciences
- Create synthetic contextualised discussions of key scholarly debates in a chosen discipline
- Demonstrate self-direction in research and originality in solutions developed for creating knowledge in the natural or mathematical sciences.
- Act autonomously in identifying research problems and solutions related to advancing knowledge in the natural and mathematical sciences.
About
Entering the third year of doctoral studies, students will have a well-defined research topic, a clear structure to organise their proposed research, a firm grasp of the relevant literature, a practical timeline in which to conduct their research, and a substantial body of drafted thesis chapters or sections (equivalent to 2-4 chapters).
In this module, the aims of the methodology module are fulfilled and the research of the past two years is brought into one overarching argument. The exact length of the thesis will vary by method and discipline, but ordinarily will not exceed 80,00-100,000 words, exclusive of any appendices.
The thesis will constitute a substantial, original, independent piece of research, which is clearly articulated in relation to the primary evidence and secondary literature, and which is organised in relation to the plan first envisaged in the methodology module.
Students may select the Integrated Thesis option for their dissertation, which results in a shorter document drawing directly on publishable or published material. The Integrated Thesis option will typically be 20-40,000 words (not longer than 80,000 words without express permission from Woolf), exclusive of appendices and data sets. A doctoral thesis on the Integrated Thesis option may be accepted for examination if it consists of a minimum of three papers of publishable quality, framed by an introduction, a literature survey (either written as a stand-alone chapter or divided among the constituent chapters), and a conclusion. The thesis must represent a contextualized and broadly coherent body work, justified in the introduction and conclusion. At least one paper must be authored solely by the candidate. Any co-authored papers must include a statement describing the candidate’s contribution to the paper. Where the co-author is another student at Woolf who also intends to include the paper in their own thesis, permission to include the paper must be approved, prior to submission for examination, by the Academic Board of the college, with written notice to Woolf’s Quality Assurance, Enhancement, and Alignment Committee (QAETAC).
Regular supervision meetings keep the student on-course with the timeline agreed in the methodology module. Supervisory meetings concentrate on a pre-submitted piece of research in a pattern that continues until the first draft of the thesis is complete.
Although students may request twice-weekly meetings early in the writing process in module two, it is expected (and students typically prefer) not to meet more than once or twice per month by this stage of the thesis. This allows the student time to develop their independent research and writing.
All full-time students must meet with their supervisor at least once per month. Students meeting only once a month must also participate each month in Works-in-Progress seminars.
After the completion of the first draft, meetings focus on the harmonisation of the parts, adjustments to the overall argument, and the supervisor seeks to ensure that the student guides the thesis with a single, coherent line of enquiry.
The final meetings with the student focus on polishing the editorial aspects of the thesis, and helping the student prepare for examination.
While there is not a formal requirement that a piece of the thesis will have been published already, the thesis should contain publishable work, and the student should graduate with a clear plan of revision toward publication (e.g., a series of articles, direct publication, or recasting the argument as a book for a more general audience).
Teachers
Intended learning outcomes
- Expert knowledge at an MQF 8 level of the topic addressed in the thesis.
- The different types of textual and non-textual evidence used for the field of enquiry;
- A comprehensive overview of the most important primary and secondary literature in the field of enquiry;
- Key theoretical, methodological, or historiographical debates for the field of enquiry;
- Communicate clearly and convincingly, both orally and in writing, about the methodological approaches, major theoretical and interpretive problems, and interpretative strategies for the thesis topic;
- Engage critically with scholarship dealing with the proposed thesis topic and methodological approaches to it;
- Identify and explore areas of potentially novel scholarly enquiry within the domain of the proposed thesis topic.
- Assessing, analysing and critiquing primary sources and secondary literature;
- Understanding and applying standard modern conventions concerning the presentation of scholarly work and scholarly referencing.
- identifying a specific, unique, and well-scoped domain of research enquiry for the proposed thesis;
- Acquire domain-specific terminology to discuss the proposed thesis topic;
- Communicate clearly and convincingly, both orally and in writing, about the formal structure and methodology of the thesis (showing an awareness of alternatives);
- Delivering a thesis in a structured, well-scoped, and orderly way;
- Justifying the choice of pursuing a research topic according to a specific scholarly methodology fitting to a domain of enquiry.
- Comparing different approaches to the designated field of enquiry and make critical choices between them;
- Summarising a wide-ranging body of information from multiple sources;
- Communicate clearly and convincingly, both orally and in writing, about the thesis topic;
- Produce a clear, concise, and well-scoped account of the research on the basis of very wide-ranging bibliographic materials.
- Applying historical and critical approaches to the interpretation of primary and secondary sources in such a way as to make a genuinely new contribution to knowledge;
- Demonstrate practical skills in gathering information from a variety of primary and secondary sources and in applying it to specific disciplinary questions;
- Grasp the theoretical issues that affect the proposed field of enquiry and the relative strengths and weaknesses of alternative approaches in the secondary literature;
- Manage complex, sustained research on a problem in the natural or mathematical sciences, and develop new interpretive strategies;
- Conduct a programme of research that contributes to professional knowledge.
- Effectively navigate online repositories of primary and secondary sources, as well as other relevant Internet resources for the study of the proposed thesis topic.
Doctor of Philosophy in Natural, Mathematical, and Computational Sciences
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