AHRC Landscape Award Studentships

• You are advised to apply for a place as soon as possible, in order to develop the best application you can. Please read Birkbeck guidance on applying for PhD programmes.
• You should consider who you would like to supervise your project. You should consider potential supervisors but where needed the faculty in which your chosen PhD programme is based will be able to provide guidance about this.
• You must consult with your proposed supervisor before applying for an AHRC DLA studentship.

Applicants will be required to complete an online preliminary application form.

The preliminary application form includes the following:

Personal details

Details of the proposed supervisor(s)

• Applicants must approach their proposed supervisor(s) before applying and have their explicit agreement/consent before indicating their name(s) on the application form.
• More details about the supervisory team will be expected in the full application.

School, faculty and programme of study

Qualifications underway/ completed

• If you are currently undertaking your degree, please ensure you enter the date when your result will be known. If you are successful in your application, your studentship offer will be conditional until your degree result is confirmed.
• If your current programme is at postgraduate level, please include modules taken and results (where known).

Other markers of esteem or success (Maximum 600 characters)

• List any academic prizes or awards you have received or other relevant experience.

Relevant employment

• Please provide details about relevant employment for the last three years. If you have more employment history than space is available on form, please provide details of the most relevant employment.

Research experience (Maximum 3,000 characters)

• Summarise your research experience to date: this could include research projects you have been involved in, papers/articles you have published, submitted or are preparing, or conferences you have attended or presented.

Statement of motivation (Maximum 1,800 characters)

• Describe your reasons for applying for an AHRC DLA studentship and how funding and support provided will enable you to complete the proposed doctoral research.

Proposed research (Maximum 1,800 characters)

• It is important your research is summarised as concisely as possible.
• Summarise your proposed project
• Please note you are not expected to submit a full research proposal at the preliminary application stage. Applicants invited to make a full application will then submit a full research proposal.
• AHRC expects students to submit their thesis by the end of their funded period.

Confidential Personal Information Monitoring form

• You will be asked to complete a mandatory confidential personal information monitoring form before you can submit your preliminary application. AHRC require DLAs to collate equal opportunities data. Staff involved with the assessment of the content of your application will not have access or be permitted to view this form. Applicants can choose non-disclosure options for all of the questions within this form

Widening participation Additional Information (optional)

• We are committed to addressing inequalities in participation for Arts and Humanities doctoral training. We encourage applications from all under-represented groups, including people with disabilities, ethnic minorities (especially Black British and British Bangladeshi), lower income families and mature students.
• In order to be awarded an AHRC DLA studentship all applications will need to meet the minimum PhD Programme entry requirements and fulfil the academic and residential criteria outlined in this application guide. The Widening Participation form will be considered by a separate panel made up of people not otherwise involved in the assessment (the WP sub-panel) who will provide an assessment which will be used to supplement assessment of the other aspect of applications that would otherwise be considered as part of the application process.
• This form allows you to provide further background information to your application that you may wish to be considered during the selection process.
• This section is not for outlining the topic or content of your proposal or how your work aligns with equality, diversity and inclusion.
• Consequently, we encourage you to be clear in this section, whether sex, gender, age, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, socio-economic background has impacted your achievements.
• The WP sub-panel will consider all Widening Participation forms and agree one of the following categories:
  • Highly relevant to Widening Participation priorities
  • Relevant to Widening Participation priorities
  • Low relevance Widening Participation priorities
• This form will be reviewed by a separate WP sub-panel . Staff involved with the assessment of your preliminary and full application will not have access or be permitted to view the contents of this form; they will only be provided with the category outlined above.
• Please note that while this question is a mandatory component of the form, if you do not want to answer this question or feel that this section does not apply to you, please write “Not Applicable” or N/A in the free text box.

Declaration

• Holders of AHRC DLA studentships are required to abide by the terms and conditions of the UKRI and AHRC Training Terms and Conditions, copies of which can be found below.
• You will be asked to declare that you accept that any award of an AHRC DLA studentship is on the basis of accepting the terms and conditions and any amendments that UKRI or AHRC subsequently make.

Please note: the full application form will only be available to those who submitted a preliminary application and were invited to proceed to the full application stage.

The full application form requires the following:

A lay abstract of 1,500 characters

A full research proposal (maximum 10,000 characters)

You should work with your proposed supervisor(s) to develop your application. They will need to provide a supervisor statement in support of your application, and can advise on the drafting of the project proposal.

You should treat the proposal as an opportunity to show that you have begun to explore an important area of study, and that your research has the potential to challenge and develop that area. It is also important to demonstrate that you can express your ideas in clear and precise English, accessible to a non-specialist. You must include the following:

Introduction

• Background to the proposed research area
• A clear indication of the gap in existing research and an explanation of how the project intends to address this
• Purpose of the proposed research
• Principal question or argument
• Relevance and importance of the proposed research
• Scope of the project including key methodologies or approaches.

Bibliography

Schedule of work including field work and training requirements

• Students must consider the feasibility of their study within the proposed funding period (minimum 3.5 years and up to 4 years). Applicants should highlight any potential risks of disruption and how these can be mitigated.

Supervisor statement of support

Supervisors will be asked to comment on

• the research proposal
• the applicant’s preparedness for research
• the research environment
• how the proposed work relates to AHRC Remit and Birkbeck’s research strategy

References

You will also need to identify two referees, one of whom may be your proposed supervisor.