Compass - EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Computational Statistics and Data Science | Centres for Doctoral Training

A 4-year PhD training programme in the statistical and computational techniques of data science, with partners from across the University of Bristol, industry and government agencies.

The Compass CDT is no longer open to student applications, but academic staff in the Institute for Statistical Science - part of the School of Mathematics - continue to provide focused computational statistics training and PhD supervision.

Anyone interested in studying for a mathematics related PhD, including in data science or statistics, should apply to the PhD Mathematics programme.

Applications for 2026/27 entry will open in October 2026.

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Watch the video where Professor Daniel Lawson (Compass CDT Co-Director) talks about the Data Science behind Bristol's COVID Modelling.

Bristol’s Faculty of Science has been shown to lead the UK in the most recent national research assessment exercise, REF2021 across its five Units of Assessment (UOAs) according to the Times Higher Education analysis. Read more here.

Adaptive stratified Monte Carlo using decision trees

Chopin N et al., 1 Dec 2025, In: Statistics and Computing, vol 35, no 6 10.48550/arXiv.2501.04842

Additive covariance matrix models

Gioia V et al., 2 Jan 2025, In: Journal of the American Statistical Association, vol 120, no 549 10.1080/01621459.2024.2412361

Consensus in the weighted voter model with noise-free and noisy observations

Ganesh A et al., 6 May 2025, In: Swarm Intelligence, vol 19, no 3 10.1007/s11721-025-00248-z

More publications

In order to address some of the complex challenges in developing and supporting methods for the efficient production of official statistics, it is important to attract people with the unique skills, interest and experience that is provided through the rigorous study provided by doctoral research training.

Duncan Elliott

Principal Methodologist, Office for National Statistics

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