With over £10m funding from the EPSRC, the Centre for Doctoral Training in Diversity in Data Visualization (Diverse CDT) celebrates the arrival of its first student cohort.
Funded to the tune of over £10m from the EPSRC, the Centre for Doctoral Training in Diversity in Data Visualization (Diverse CDT) is celebrating the arrival of its first student cohort this month, October 2025.
Diverse in disciplinary and social background, the first cohort of 11 students is primed to draw together collective experience to maximise the potential of data-led change.
The cohort’s arrival marks the launch of a landmark investment in diversity in data visualization and innovation in PhD research. Diverse CDT is the first Centre for Doctoral Training to be led by City St George’s, working in collaboration with the University of Warwick.
Students
As a keynote to their first ‘immersion’ week, the cohort chose to lead an experiment in mapping and showcasing the sheer range of skills and capabilities brought together through the CDT.
Current Diverse CDT students’ combined knowledge extends across many domains, including biology, psychology, social advocacy, mathematics, statistical analysis, graphic design, heritage, geography, digital storytelling, illustration, finance, and photography. By harnessing insights from across domains, the CDT aims to connect diverse audiences with data, changing what can be seen to see what can be changed.
Each cohort of students also diversifies doctoral research itself, bringing lived experience and perspectives typically underrepresented in data visualization to the programme and to postgraduate study more broadly.
Innovation in PhD Study
As an innovative CDT, the Centre breaks the traditional model of a 1:1 student-supervisor experience, replacing it with an emphasis on collaborative research, cohort-led activity, and engagement with community stakeholders beyond the University.
Principal Investigator, Professor Stephanie Wilson says:
“We are very proud of what we have achieved in launching Diverse CDT at City St George’s and Warwick. We are looking forward to excellent interdisciplinary research and rethinking the shape of doctoral level study to ensure that it is truly inclusive.”
Beyond Science & Technology
Diverse CDT extends across Schools and disciplines at City St George’s. The programme draws on leadership and sociology expertise from Bayes Business School and the School of Policy & Global Affairs, and cross-domain specialism from the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies at the University of Warwick. Within City St George’s the Centre is primed to connect visualization researchers with challenges from across and beyond the University’s six Schools.
Beyond City St George’s, each student has the opportunity to complete research placements with industry and academic partners. The CDT is excited to connect our postgraduates with projects led by a range of organisations including the Natural History Museum, Ordnance Survey, and the West Midlands Combined Authority.
Funding from the EPSRC and partners has enabled this truly transformative Centre for Doctoral Training to set out on an ambitious and outwardly connected research programme.
The delivery team is led by Principal Investigators Professor Jason Dykes and Professor Steph Wilson, and co-Directed by Professor Cagatay Turkay at Warwick.
Cross-posted: Data Visualization Doctoral Training Centre launches in UK first • City St George’s, University of London