Who does a PhD?

It's an interesting question because most of us instinctively picture the same sort of person. Someone who has always excelled academically, sailed through university and always known exactly what they wanted to research.

Spend a little time with the postgraduate researchers on the SustAI programme, however, and that picture quickly begins to change.

Among the current cohort are people who have spent years in industry, people returning to education after raising families, people whose careers have taken unexpected turns, and people arriving from disciplines that might never have imagined themselves connected to artificial intelligence or sustainability. Their journeys are very different, yet they all arrived at the same place: a desire to question, explore and contribute to solving meaningful sustainability challenges.

Doctoral research has never depended on everyone thinking in the same way. The most interesting ideas often emerge when different experiences, disciplines and perspectives meet. A researcher who has spent years solving practical problems in industry approaches a question differently from someone who has come directly from academia. Someone with experience in law brings a different perspective from an engineer; a statistician sees different patterns from an architect. Research becomes richer because of those differences and that sits at the heart of the SustAI programme.

The relationship between sustainability and artificial intelligence can seem contradictory at first. AI has enormous potential to help tackle some of society's biggest sustainability challenges, yet it also raises important questions about energy use, environmental impact and responsible development. Exploring those tensions is part of what makes SustAI's research so relevant. Alongside technical knowledge, it also calls for curiosity, resilience, collaboration and a willingness to see problems from new angles.

Many prospective applicants already possess those qualities but simply haven't thought of them as the foundations of doctoral research.

The postgraduate researchers currently studying with SustAI certainly hadn't imagined themselves following a traditional academic path.

Alma Gibic spent many years working as a project manager and IT consultant, delivering technology projects for governments, international organisations and private-sector clients before beginning her PhD. Her growing interest in environmental challenges inspired her move into academic research, where she could explore how technology and AI might contribute to more sustainable systems. Looking back, she speaks warmly about discovering a community where people from engineering, computer science, sustainability and the social sciences learn from one another every day. Her greatest surprise has been how collaborative the experience has been, through conversations, conferences, networking and shared learning across disciplines.

Jenny Cox completed a master's degree part-time during maternity leave while working as an academic tutor. She expected doctoral study to feel rather solitary but, instead, found supportive staff, a close-knit cohort, opportunities to travel, present research and shape her own learning, along with the unexpected bonus of genuine friendships.

Postgraduate researcher, J, describes weekly meetings, board games and barbecues that happen as naturally as research discussions. They also discovered something reassuring: expertise grows remarkably quickly when you're surrounded by people who want to help you succeed. That sense of support begins in the first year, where postgraduate researchers are given time to develop their knowledge, explore ideas and identify the research questions that genuinely matter to them.

Taken together, these stories paint a very different picture of doctoral research from the one many people carry in their heads.

Rather than a rarefied world occupied by a handful of exceptional academics, the SustAI community feels purposeful, collaborative and deeply human. People challenge one another's thinking, share knowledge generously and bring very different experiences to the same conversations. Together, those different viewpoints deepen the discussions and strengthen the research.

Every postgraduate researcher arrives with a different story, different expertise and different ways of thinking. The one thing they are all encouraged to bring is their perspective.

We firmly believe that meaningful research is strengthened by people who see the world differently and ask different questions. Professional experience, lived experience, technical expertise and creativity all have a place around the table. Every point of view changes the conversation, and every conversation has the potential to influence where the research goes next.

Every doctoral researcher brings a different combination of strengths. Academic ability matters, of course, but so does persistence when a problem proves difficult, an enquiring mind that keeps drawing you deeper into a subject and the willingness to keep learning long after you've become good at something. Those qualities often develop over years of work, life and experience, and they are every bit as valuable to the research journey.

Perhaps that's why the question of ‘who does a PhD?’ doesn't have a single answer.

So, wherever you come from; completing your studies, building on years of professional experience, changing direction or bringing expertise from an entirely different discipline; your perspective could help shape the questions that matter next.

A PhD isn't defined by where you've come from. It's defined by where your next question might take you.