MPhil / PhD Admissions

10 January 2022: Funding applications are now closed and assessment of applications is underway. Those who will be considered by the admissions funding panel should expect to be contacted for interview before the end of January 2022.

Applications submitted going forward will now be considered for admission only. 

The department’s PhD programmes coordinator runs office-hours for PhD programmes offer-holders to allow them to ask questions about the department’s admissions and scholarships processes, and the department’s PhD programmes more generally. Sessions are currently scheduled for the following dates and (UK) times.

• Thursday 27 January, 09:30-10.00 and 15:30-16:00
• Thursday 24 February, 09:30-10.00 and 15:30-16:00
• Thursday 24 March, 09:30-10.00 and 15:30-16:00
• Thursday 28 April, 09:30-10.00 and 15:30-16:00
• Thursday 28 July, 09:30-10.00 and 15:30-16:00
• Thursday 25 August, 09:30-10.00 and 15:30-16:00

NB:

• There is no need to tell us in advance if you plan to attend one of these sessions. Please simply click on the link (emailed to all offer holders from geog.phd@lse.ac.uk as part of their offer-documentation) and join the call at the advertised time.
• These dates and times may change to account for staff-absence. Where changes occur, the schedule above will be updated in advance.
• Callers will be admitted to the room individually and admitted in the order in which they joined the ‘caller-queue’.

These office hours are offered on an individual basis, for offer-holders only. Callers will be admitted to the room individually, and admitted in the order in which they joined the ‘caller-queue’.

Decisions about School-administered funding opportunities are made at the departmental level by the Department of Geography and Environment (G&E) Research Degrees Funding Panel (‘the department panel’). The department panel is composed of the department’s five Programme Directors and the G&E Director of Postgraduate Studies.

Almost all scholarships are now awarded directly by the department panel. The only exceptions are as follows:

• The School’s Analysing and Challenging Inequalities scholarships, which are awarded based on nominations by departments to a bespoke panel associated with the LSE’s International Inequalities Institute.
• Scholarships awarded by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment are awarded by the Grantham Research Institute’s scholarships committee, on the basis of recommendations from departments.

As competition for admission is intense, and competition for scholarships is even more intense, the department cannot provide School-administered funding to all offer-holders. Accordingly, all applicants are required actively to explore all potential sources of funding at all stages in their application, including before and during the LSE’s funding consideration process.

Information about how to apply for an ESRC 1+3 scholarship can be found here.

ESRC 1+3 scholarships are a funding stream which supports students in undertaking an MSc, followed by an MPhil/PhD programme. It is important to understand that ESRC 1+3 scholarships are not a combined programme, and are not an MRes/PhD programme. (The Department of Geography and Environment does not offer MRes/PhD programmes.) 1+3 scholarships are solely a funding stream, offered only by the ESRC. It is therefore only possible to apply for admission on the '1+3' mechanism via the ESRC 1+3 scholarships process, and it is not possible to apply for 1+3 admission on a self-funded basis.

NB:

• Admissions and scholarships processes in the Department of Geography and Environment are entirely separate. This means that you will only be considered for an ESRC 1+3 scholarship if you are offered a place to study with the department on one of our MSc programmes first.
• If you are being considered for an ESRC 1+3 scholarship, you will be interviewed. If you are not interviewed, you are not being considered for a 1+3 scholarship.
• If you are offered admission to one of our MSc programmes, but are not offered ESRC 1+3 funding, your admissions offer will still be valid.
• If you accept your offer of a place to study on one of our MSc programmes without securing ESRC 1+3 funding, you will be able to apply for admission to one of our PhD programmes while studying.
• Guidance about research proposals for ESRC 1+3 applicants can be found below, under ‘What guidance does the department provide on research proposals?’
• There is no 'LSE scholarships' version of the 1+3 funding stream.

The LSE doesn’t publish School-wide information on funding-application success rates. However, for September 2019 and September 2020 entry, the Department of Geography and Environment received nearly 500 applications for doctoral study. Of those, only 26 (just over 5%) were subsequently admitted to our PhD programmes with a scholarship.

We don’t say this to discourage anyone from applying. Rather, this is intended to encourage applicants to be realistic about their chances of securing School-administered funding, and to actively pursue all potential sources of funding at all stages of the admissions process.

Yes.

The admissions and scholarships processes are entirely separate at LSE. Admissions decisions are therefore made before, and separate from, scholarships decisions. However, the department strongly recommends that offer-holders only register to begin their studies with us if they have a robust finance-plan covering all four years of study in place at the point at which they register.

You will be allowed to register, but you will not be allowed to apply for funding as a continuing student.

Certain subject-specific, externally funded, School-administered scholarships require the department to consider applications from continuing students. However, the department will only consider continuing students if no suitable candidates are discovered via the admissions process. Very few of these scholarships exist. Where they exist, they are generally only awarded once every four years. To date, the department has also never awarded a scholarship to a continuing student. Accordingly, we discourage applicants in the strongest possible terms from registering in the hopes of securing funding from the School as a continuing student.

NB: This answer applies solely to MPhil/PhD admissions offer holders. Information on this question for MSc applicants who were unsuccessful in securing ESRC 1+3 funding can be found under ‘What is an ESRC 1+3 scholarship, and how can I apply for one? Is it the same as an MRes/PhD programme?’.

Yes. If you have already secured external funding, please state this in your application. If you secure external funding after your application is submitted, please notify geog.phd@lse.ac.uk as soon as possible.

In general, it is offer-holders’ own responsibility to seek out funding to support your studies. Consequently, the department is not able to seek out funding from external sources on offer holders’ behalf. However, if you do find a funding opportunity that you would like to apply for, if you have already been offered a place to study on one of our programmes, your prospective supervisors will generally be willing to consider supporting your application. If you would like to ask for support in making an application, please contact your prospective supervisors directly.

Beyond the School administered scholarships mentioned at the top of this page, the following organisations have previously supported our students.

• The Anandamahidol Foundation
• The Arts Promotion Centre Finland
• The Brazilian Government
• The Centre for European Policy Studies
• The China Scholarship Council
• The Commonwealth (Commonwealth Scholarships scheme, funded by the UK Department for International Development)
• CONACYT (Government of Mexico scholarships)
• The Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education
• The Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee
• The Peruvian Ministry of Education
• The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology

You may also wish to check the following webpages for funding opportunities.

• The Alternative Guide to Postgraduate Funding
• FindaPhD – funding page

NB: In general, the department will only support applications to third-party funding bodies if applicants have already been offered a place to study on one of the department’s MPhil/PhD programmes. Accordingly, if you are planning to apply to a third party-funding body, please first apply to the department. As the department’s admissions processes will usually take no less than one month from the point at which you submit your application to the School, and can take six weeks or longer during periods of peak business, please make sure that you apply for a place to study with us in plenty of time to accommodate any external funding body deadlines. 

You do not need to apply separately for School administered funding opportunities unless specifically stated on this page under ‘Scholarships - what’s available?’. All applicants are considered for all School-administered funding opportunities for which they are eligible, and which are available at the point at which they apply.

No. This is not necessary. 

Application deadline: 17 December 2021

Department release deadline: 4 January 2022

Allocation method: Department panel direct allocation

Number of scholarships awarded for 2021/22 entry (indicative information): x4

Number of scholarships available for 2022/23 entry: x6

Further information: LSE PhD Scholarships and ESRC studentships

NB: For these scholarships, the department makes awards and reserve nominations. Offers will generally be made by the LSE’s Financial Support Office, on the department panel’s behalf. If award offers are declined, they are re-offered to reserve candidates. The department does not rank its reserve candidates, as these decisions are affected by a number of factors, with an overarching focus on ensuring that each of the department's PhD programmes is able to recruit at least one School-funded student. In addition, as other scholarships decisions are made elsewhere in the School and by external funding bodies at a variety of different points in the year, we cannot guarantee that any declined LSE PhD scholarships or ESRC studentships will be immediately re-offered.

Programme eligibility: Any G&E MPhil/PhD programme.

Application deadline: 17 December 2021

Department release deadline: 4 January 2022

Allocation method: The International Inequalities Institute (III) permits departments to make nominations to its scholarships panel ('the III panel') for ACI scholarships in two rounds. Though the department is not guaranteed to receive any ACI scholarships, it has a strong track record of securing these.

Number of scholarships available for 2022/23 entry: 3

Nominations permitted for 2022/23 entry: x2

Awards made for 2021/22 entry: 0

Further information: Analysing and Challenging Inequalities

NB: If you would like to apply for this funding stream, please reference in your application how your research will fit into the themes of this funding, as set out in the further information page linked to above.

ACI 1st round: 1st round nominations are made in February, with decisions made by the III panel in March, and results announced by the School's Financial Support Office in April. Alongside awards, the ACI panel lists a school-wide 1st round reserve ranking. This means that if any ACI scholarship offers are declined before the 2nd nomination round begins, they are re-offered to the next-ranked reserve candidate in the School-wide reserve list.

ACI 2nd round: 2nd round nominations are made in May, with results announced by the School's Financial Support Office in June. 

It is also vital for applicants to understand the application deadline for those who would like to be considered for ACI scholarships at any point in the funding process is 17 December. Those who apply after 17 December are not eligible for consideration in the 2nd ESRC nomination round.

Programme eligibility: MPhil/PhD in Environmental Economics and MPhil/PhD in Environmental Policy and Development

Application deadline: 17 December 2021

Department release deadline: 4 January 2022

Allocation method: The doctoral programme directors for the MPhil/PhD in Environmental Economics and the MPhil/PhD in Environmental Policy and Development are invited to discuss eligible candidates from G&E's applicant pool with the GRI's scholarships panel. Though the department is not guaranteed to receive any GRI scholarships, it usually receives at least one each year, and often two.

Further information: GRI funding. Decisions about GRI funding are generally made by the GRI scholarship panel at the end of February/beginning of March.

Please also remember that the application deadline for those who would like to be considered for GRI scholarships via G&E is 17 December. Those who apply after 17 December are not eligible for consideration in the 2nd ACI nomination round.

To be considered for a direct-entry MPhil/PhD scholarship, you must submit your application by 17 December 2021. If you apply for direct entry after 17 December 2021, you will be considered for admissions only. If you are an MSc applicant seeking ESRC 1+3 funding, you must submit your application by no later than 14 January 2022.

Information on this can be found at the following School webpage. 

No. However, if these reflect positively on your quality as an applicant, you may wish to consider submitting these.

For guidance on what to do in this situation, please see here.

Yes, this has two important consequences.

(i) Admissions applications are considered in series at the LSE, not in parallel. This means your application will initially be released only to the selector for your first-choice programme. It will only be released to the selector for your second-choice programme if you are rejected for your 1^st choice programme, after the rejection decision is made. As some departments take quite some time to make admissions decisions, we regularly receive second-choice applications after the point at which we can consider them for School-administered funding opportunities. This is why we can only guarantee to consider your application for School-administered funding opportunities if you submit it by 17 December 2021, and list a Department of Geography and Environment programme as your first-choice.

(ii) In the September 2019 and September 2020 admissions cycles, first-choice applications were over seven times more likely to receive an admissions offer from the department than second-choice applications. During the same period, all our funding offers went to applicants who listed one of our programmes as their first choice. This does not mean that we discourage applicants from listing our programmes as their second choice. We do make offers to students who list our programmes as their second choice. However, this does reflect the fact that we only have a finite capacity to admit new students each year, and first-choice applications tend to be much more adeptly tailored to our faculty’s research interests than second-choice applications. Accordingly, we recommend that you only list one of our programmes as your second-choice if you genuinely believe that your proposed research would represent a good fit with that programme. We recommend that you do not list any of our programmes as your second-choice solely as an ‘insurance policy’.

During this phase, the School’s central admissions service conducts basic checks to ensure that you have included all the required documents with your application.

NB: the department will not receive your application until you have supplied all of the required documents and the School has received your references. Accordingly, once you have submitted your application, it is important that you do everything you can to ensure that your referees respond to our reference requests promptly.

It is also important for applicants to understand that applications are considered in series at the LSE, not in parallel. This means that second-choice programme applications are only released to the relevant selectors if their 1st choice programme rejects their application, after that decision has been made. To understand the implication of this, please see above, in the section entitled ‘Does the order in which I rank my programme choices matter?’.

Once the department receives your application, relevant academic staff who may be interested in supervising your research will consider your application. Your application will be considered in relation to the following broad criteria:

a. Do your qualifications and experience meet the expected standard?
b. Does your research proposal have the potential to produce research of a sufficiently high calibre?
c. Do your research interests align with those of the department/prospective supervisors?*
d. Will the department be able to accommodate you?

* It is particularly important that applicants understand how important it is for their research interests to fit with those of the department. The reasons for this are as follows.

• Our programmes tend to have distinctive methodological focuses, described on their respective prospectus pages. This means that if, for example, you submit a physical geographic research proposal, we will not be able to supervise you as we specialise in human geographic research. Similarly, if you research proposal is inconsistent with the methodological focus of your chosen programme, you are unlikely to be successful.
• Our faculty’s research and teaching commitments, and the School’s rules, mean that they can only commit to supervising a limited number of research students at any given time. This means that they are likely to favour applications whose proposed research is most interesting to them, and which they feel most competent to supervise.

If our faculty consider that your application meets all criteria set out above, they will recommend to the Programme Director that you be interviewed. If your application does not meet all of the above criteria, your application will be rejected.

Interview invitations are sent directly by the faculty members who will be conducting your interview. If you are invited to interview, this means that the department is strongly considering you as a potential candidate for doctoral study. All potential students are interviewed, regardless of any previous association with potential supervisors, the department, or the LSE. Interviews will generally be conducted remotely, by telephone or VOIP. Interviews will generally last 20-30 minutes, but may last longer than this. Interviews are not recorded, but your interviewers are required to record their assessment of your interview using a departmental interview record form. All interviews will conform to the expectations described here.

NB: the interview process is not supposed to be intimidating. Interviews are supposed to be rigorous and challenging. However, your interviewers will not be trying to catch you out or trip you up! Rather, this is an opportunity for you to discuss your motivation for doctoral study, your academic and professional background, and your research proposal with your interviewers. This is also a chance for you to ask questions about the next stages of the application process, the particular MPhil/PhD programme to which you have applied, and the demands of doctoral study more generally.

After your interview has been completed, your interviewers will make a recommendation to the relevant Programme Director about whether you should be offered you a place to study with the department. This recommendation is taken very seriously, but the final offer/reject decision rests with the Programme Director, not your interviewers. If the department decides to offer you a study-place, the admissions service will produce and send formal offer documentation to you. If your application is unsuccessful, you will be informed of the outcome by the graduate admissions service. All candidates who are offered a place to study with the department are also considered for all funding opportunities offered by the School for which they are eligible, as described above, in the section entitled ‘How does the scholarships/funding process work in the Department of Geography and Environment?’

The entry requirements for each programme are listed on the prospectus pages for each programme. In general, the minimum entry requirement is a merit overall in a relevant master’s degree programme with a 65%+ average, as well as a 70%+ distinction in the same degree programme.

- You are not required to meet the 65%+ average with a 70%+ dissertation results requirement with your most recent master's-level degree. It is possible to satisfy this requirement with a previous degree’s results.

- As the LSE is a world leading social sciences institution, in general, only candidates with a strong social sciences background are encouraged to apply.

- As admission to the department’s PhD programmes is extremely competitive, meeting the minimum entry requirement for our programmes does not guarantee acceptance.

Yes! The admissions process considers all applications holistically. This means that you’re welcome to apply if your academic qualifications don’t quite meet the stated entry requirements, or if you’re from a professional background and feel you can meet the entry requirements via relevant professional experience.

In particular, we keen to engender diversity in our PhD cohorts. Accordingly, we do not require you to have attended a world-leading academic institution in order to apply to study with us at the doctoral level. (This is because admission to many world leading academic institutions at the undergraduate level depends significantly on pre-existing forms of privilege that have nothing to do with applicants’ actual abilities.) This does not mean that we are un-interested in your academic history and performance. Rather, this means that we will assess your academic background in context, in light of the comprehensive guidance (covering education systems and highly regarded institutions in almost every country in the world) provided by the LSE’s graduate admissions service to our selectors, as well as any other information that you provide to us via your application.

This means that your previous qualifications and/or professional experience are of a comparable standard and syllabus to a taught master’s degree featuring an independent research component. 

Information on the LSE’s English language requirements can be found here.

NB: The department has no role in administering the language requirements system. If you have questions about the language requirements, please contact Graduate Admissions.

No, applications without a research proposal will not be considered.

No. We think it’s best that our applicants’ decisions about what they want to study are based on their own commitment to and interest in a particular research topic.

No. When producing your research proposal, you should follow the School’s guidance for production of application documents.

The School provides detailed guidance about research proposals here. This guidance covers all applicants, including MSc applicants seeking ESRC 1+3 funding. Applicants are required to follow the word limits set out on the School-level guidance page, and the department does not require applicants to address specific topics. This general guide is also strongly recommended reading.

In general, your research proposal should be an indication of your research interests, how you developed them, and how you intend to pursue them. We recognise that your research interests will continue to develop while you complete our taught courses. Accordingly, if you are offered admission to one of our programmes, your research proposal will be considered a ‘living document’ throughout your time with the department, and not a fully binding commitment. Expectations for ESRC 1+3 applicants are the same, except that your application will be considered in light of the fact that you are earlier in your developmental trajectory than a direct entry applicant.

Information on the department’s research interests can be found on the department’s research page.

As a research unit, the department is split into three clusters. Each of our MPhil/PhD programmes is associated with one of our research clusters.

1. Economic Geography research cluster
- MPhil/PhD Economic Geography

2. Environmental Economics and Policy research cluster (EEP)
- MPhil/PhD Environmental Economics
- MPhil/PhD Environmental Policy and Development

3. Urbanisation, Policy and Development (UPD)
- MPhil/PhD Human Geography and Urban Studies
- MPhil/PhD Regional and Urban Planning Studies.

For each programme, the department appoints a Doctoral Programme Director (DPD). Doctoral Programme Directors are responsible for their individual programme, and meet together to discuss matters which affect all of the department’s PhD students. As the Department of Geography and Environment is slightly unusual in having five MPhil/PhD programmes, to ensure coherency, consistency and cohesion, the department also appoints a Director of Doctoral Studies, who operates in an oversight capacity in relation to the department’s doctoral research programmes as a whole.

 Yes. However, when contacting our faculty, please remember that as they are world-leading academics they tend to be very busy and receive many requests for support. Consequently, we can’t promise that our faculty will respond to your emails.

As doctoral degrees are a demanding and long-term commitment, we think it’s best that our applicants’ decisions about what they want to study are based on their own commitment to and interest in a particular research topic. Accordingly, we ask that you don’t do this.

No. As with any piece of academic work, feedback helps. However, in procedural terms, it’s not necessary to work on your proposal with a faculty member before applying. We value the diversity of our applicant cohort and don’t want to restrict this by requiring that you work with a faculty-member before applying, or secure their support in advance.

No. As we welcome applications from prospective students without a prior connection to the department, we do not require this. We also ask that you refrain from requesting that the department circulate your research proposal and/or CV, as this is not procedurally necessary.

You should always tailor the content of your email to the intended recipient. You’re much more likely to receive a response if your email specifically says why you think the person you’re contacting should be interested in supervising your project, and why your proposed research would fit within the department’s research environment. Accordingly, before emailing anyone, we recommend that you look through our faculty’s departmental profile pages, and look through the department’s research information pages.

We recommend waiting at least a full working week, and preferably two. We also recommend that you do not chase a faculty member for a response more than once.

We recommend that you do not do this. 

This means that the faculty member you emailed has asked the PhD Programmes Coordinator to respond on their behalf. There are many reasons why a member of faculty might do this, so this shouldn’t dishearten you or stop you from applying to study with us. However, it does mean that our faculty member has chosen not to respond to you. As such, we recommend that you don’t chase faculty members for a response if this happens.

There are no hard and fast rules about this, but we have provided some guidance below.

When you first write to a member of our faculty, you should always address them by their title, i.e 'Dear Professor [Surname]'. You can find our faculty's titles by looking at their personal webpages. If the faculty member you want to reach out to is described as 'Professor of [subject area]', you should address them as 'Professor [Surname].' If their webpage describes them as an 'Associate Professor' or an 'Assistant Professor', you should refer to them as 'Doctor [Surname]'.

If one of our faculty write back to you, please pay attention to how they sign their name. If they sign their email as 'Professor [Surname]' or ‘Doctor [Surname]’, you should continue to address them in that way. If they sign off their email with their first name, then it's probably okay to address them in your next email as 'Dear [first name]' 

Please remember that the above are not hard and fast rules, and you should always pay attention to the tone of our faculty's emails.

No. Admissions decisions are based on academic merit alone, without any reference to an applicant’s financial situation. Applicants who are able to fund themselves or succeed in securing a scholarship or sponsorship from any source will be considered for entry to the programme in exactly the same way as applicants who have no funding in place. The same procedures and standards apply to all applicants competing for entry.

Yes, as long as you will be able to provide official proof of your final degree results by the time you are required to register for the programme.

We understand that the fee is expensive for some of our applicants. Happily, a waiver process exists. To apply, click here.

NB: The waiver decision process is solely controlled by the Graduate Admissions service, not the department. For questions about this process, please contact the graduate admissions service.

Questions about the mechanics of the application process should be submitted to LSE’s central Graduate Admissions Office via the online enquiries system, which includes an option to submit a written enquiry, and not to the department.

Before contacting the Admissions Office, please check to see if the information you are looking for can be found on the LSE’s graduate study webpage and the School’s general admission enquiries page. You can also track your application and find out how to carry out the most common tasks online using the admissions service’s ‘How do I…’ page.

Applications rejected without interview - in general, if an application is rejected after initial consideration, our academic staff will indicate briefly via the admissions system why it has been rejected. This information can be requested from the admissions service. The department cannot provide this to you.

Applications rejected after interview - you are free to enquire with those who interviewed you about their reasons for deciding not to offer you a place to study with the department, and you are welcome to ask the graduate admissions service for a copy of your interview record form. However, our academic staff are under no obligation to provide feedback.

This can be found here.

Please note: the Department of Geography and Environment is not responsible for the PhD in Cities. This programme is delivered by the LSE’s Department of Sociology. If you would like to ask questions about the PhD in Cities, please contact sociology.phd@lse.ac.uk.

Information on fees can be found on the page relevant to each programme, which can be found here.

The maximum period of full-time registration is four years.

The department expects all students to undertake the taught phase of their MPhil/PhD studies full time, without exceptions.

The department will only consider applications to transfer to part-time study after students have completed the taught phase of their studies (usually the end of the 1st year) and will not make decisions in principle at the point of admission.

At present, the School is offering considerable flexibility to currently registered students, to allow them to study remotely. However, this is a temporary measure. The department does not plan to offer distance learning/remote/online PhDs on a permanent basis.

Under normal circumstances, all students are required to be in regular attendance at the School so that they can attend courses, supervision meetings and other seminars as required by their programme. Periods of study away from the School can be undertaken, but require departmental and central approval. Applicants should make plans on this basis, expect to be required to study in London.

The department’s rules for supervision are as follows.

(i) Students must have two supervisors.

(ii) At least one supervisor must be either an Associate Professor or a full Professor employed by the Department of Geography and Environment. NB: Staff employed by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment do not count for the purposes of this rule.

(iii) Other supervisors can be from elsewhere within the School.

(iv) External supervision (i.e. supervision by faculty from outside the LSE) will normally only be permitted where suitable supervision cannot be found within the LSE. This is normally only permitted where a supervisor leaves the School mid-way through a student’s time with the department, and not at the point of admission. If your research proposal cannot be supervised within the School at the point at which you apply, you are highly unlikely to be offered a place to study with the department.

Please note – it is the department’s responsibility to ensure that each student receives appropriate supervision. Consequently, it is ultimately for the department to determine which supervisors should be allocated to each student. 

Registration for Geography and Environment PhD programmes will take place during late September 2022.

The only exception to this rule is for students taking EC400, ‘Introductory Course in Mathematics and Statistics’. EC400 is a pre-sessional course run by the Department of Economics, which is a pre-requisite for many graduate level courses run by the Department of Economics. If you opt to take EC400, or are required to take it, you will be required to register earlier. Early registration for EC400 usually takes place in the 2^nd half of August.

EC400 is mandatory for students on the MPhil/PhD Environmental Economics, and optional for students on the MPhil/PhD in Economic Geography.

The department does not allow students to skip the taught phase of their doctoral studies.

Our programmes aim to produce world class researchers in the field. In order for students to be able to undertake research at this level, the department believes that students must have a sufficient range of 'tools' to do so. It therefore requires that its students complete, and pass to the required standard, a range of courses in order to provide them with these tools and techniques that can be applied in their research.