Foresighters Doctoral Programme at Queen’s University Belfast: 20 Fully Funded PhD Places Across Five Research Themes (2026 Intake)

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Queen’s University Belfast is recruiting 20 Early-Stage Researchers for its FORESIGHTERS Doctoral Training Programme, an innovative, interdisciplinary PhD programme that trains researchers to tackle complex societal problems through the unique lens of Futures Thinking and Futures Literacy.

This is not a standard PhD programme. FORESIGHTERS explicitly trains researchers to understand, imagine, and critically use different ideas about the future — developing the skills and capabilities to anticipate change, stimulate creativity and resilience, and drive contemporary action on challenges that span health, technology, energy, cities, and creativity.

Applications are open now. Check the FORESIGHTERS recruitment page at qub.ac.uk/sites/foresighters/recruitment/ for current deadlines.

What Is the FORESIGHTERS Programme?

FORESIGHTERS stands for Future ORiEnted Skills, Innovation for Governance for Health, Technology, EneRgy, citieS and creativity, a name that reflects its commitment to developing researchers equipped for the most pressing societal challenges of the coming decades.

The programme is hosted by Queen’s University Belfast — a member of the Russell Group and ranked in the world’s top 200 universities. Based near the centre of Belfast, one of the UK’s most affordable and culturally vibrant cities, Queen’s offers a combination of world-class research, a strong culture of equality and diversity, and a quality of life that consistently attracts international academics.

Queen’s holds the Athena Swan Gold Award — the first university in Ireland and only the second in the UK to achieve this recognition for gender equality. It also holds the Silver Diversity Mark and the University of Sanctuary designation, reflecting deep institutional commitment to inclusion across gender, race, disability, and refugee status.

Five Research Themes

All 20 FORESIGHTERS PhD researchers work within one of five interdisciplinary research themes:

1. Health

Research at the intersection of futures thinking and health systems — how can anticipatory approaches improve health policy, healthcare design, and public health responses? This theme encompasses digital health, health equity, pandemic preparedness, mental health systems, and ageing populations, examined through a futures and governance lens.

2. Technology

Research examining the governance of emerging technologies — AI, data infrastructure, surveillance, automation, and biotechnology — through a futures-oriented framework. How should societies govern technologies whose impacts we can only partially anticipate? What role does futures literacy play in shaping responsible technology policy?

3. Energy

Research at the intersection of energy transitions, governance, and futures studies. The global shift toward renewable energy and away from fossil fuels raises profound questions about policy design, distributional justice, community resilience, and long-term system change. FORESIGHTERS researchers in this theme develop anticipatory approaches to energy governance.

4. Future Cities

Research examining urban futures — how cities can be planned, governed, and designed to remain livable, equitable, and resilient in the face of climate change, demographic shifts, technological transformation, and social change. This theme draws on urban planning, geography, architecture, and social science perspectives.

5. Creativity

Research exploring the role of creative practice — arts, design, music, cultural production — in imagining and building alternative futures. This is the most distinctive of the five themes: it takes seriously the proposition that creative and artistic modes of inquiry are legitimate and powerful tools for futures thinking and societal problem-solving.

The Distinctive Training Programme: Futures Thinking and Futures Literacy

What makes FORESIGHTERS distinctive is not just the subject matter of the five themes; it is the shared methodological and intellectual framework that binds all 20 researchers together.

Futures Thinking is a set of methods and practices for systematically exploring multiple possible futures, not predicting the future, but developing the capacity to think rigorously and creatively about different ways the future might unfold. It includes scenario development, horizon scanning, anticipatory governance, and related practices.

Futures Literacy:  a concept developed by UNESCO, is the capability to use the future in ways that make sense in the present. It is the ability to recognise the assumptions behind any vision of the future, to hold multiple futures in mind simultaneously, and to act with appropriate humility about what cannot be known while still making decisions.

All FORESIGHTERS researchers receive training in these frameworks through the Thomas Moran Graduate School at Queen’s, supplemented by specialist training in skills for anticipating change and using multiple possible futures to stimulate reflection, creativity, resilience, and focus.

The Non-Academic Partnership: Beyond the University

FORESIGHTERS is not a purely academic programme. All 20 researchers engage in high-impact, interdisciplinary research with a wide range of non-academic partners, businesses, government agencies, NGOs, cultural organisations, and international bodies whose work connects to the programme’s five themes.

This partnership dimension is integral to the FORESIGHTERS model. It means researchers develop skills that are relevant not only to academic careers but to policy, industry, and civil society roles — and it means the research produced in the programme has pathways to real-world impact that purely academic programmes cannot guarantee.

Who Should Apply

FORESIGHTERS explicitly welcomes applications from individuals who are underrepresented in academia. The programme will support applicants who may need reasonable adjustments during the selection process and throughout the duration of the role.

The programme is genuinely interdisciplinary; researchers are based in academic units across the university, from engineering, humanities, social science, and the arts. You do not need to come from a single discipline. What matters is that your proposed research engages meaningfully with at least one of the five themes and with the Futures Thinking and Futures Literacy framework.

Strong candidates will have:

• A strong academic record, typically a First or high 2:1 Honours degree, plus a Master’s in many cases
• A compelling research proposal connecting to one of the five themes and to the programme’s futures orientation
• Genuine interest in interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral research
• Alignment with Queen’s University Belfast’s values around equality, diversity, and inclusion

The Funding

FORESIGHTERS positions are fully funded PhD places, as Early-Stage Researcher positions, they include tuition fee coverage and a stipend to support living costs. The exact financial terms for each position are detailed on the individual PhD project pages accessible from the FORESIGHTERS recruitment page.

How to Apply

Step 1: Visit qub.ac.uk/sites/foresighters/recruitment/ for the current list of available PhD projects and their specific application requirements.

Step 2: Review the eligibility criteria carefully — key criteria are detailed on the recruitment page. Pay attention to project-specific requirements, as individual projects within the five themes may have different disciplinary expectations.

Step 3: Contact the FORESIGHTERS team or individual project supervisors directly if you have questions about fit before applying.

Step 4: Submit your application through the process detailed on the recruitment page.

For programme and project queries: Contact the FORESIGHTERS team through the email address listed at qub.ac.uk/sites/foresighters/

Key Dates

For more information and application: 

Visit the official website of the Foresighters Doctoral Programme at Queen’s University Belfast