Can you write the application to say that you know it is risky but you can address it? So that it sounds less risky and draws the attention to what you want to achieve. A lot of applications are risky but if you can address them appropriately it should be fine.

Though it would be better to ask other people who know that funding body better. There should be someone in your department who has applied before and has some experince with what they expect. As every funding body is different and we can only give generic advice.

Yeah that must feel nice to get back. And massive kudos for posting of your success despite it all because I usually hear awful stories on this forum.

Though why do some universities choose such flawed external advisors? Your external was obviously invested in an idea/approach that ran in competition with your work. They were clearly not assessing your thesis as a work towards a PhD but the assessing idea itself. This does prove that you are able to defend your work even against your critics but your idea should not be attcaked in such a manner during a viva. A less invested and more impartial external would be far more critical examiner.

I know a viva should be hard but sometimes I think it is made far more difficult than is appropriate. A well written and meticulous thesis is worth a PhD even if the wider community disagrees with the content.

Hi Boo,

I don't have direct experince of studying in Ireland but I am Irish and am collaborating with a couple of Irish Universities. From my experience it is a good system. There are less PhD students but the quality is there. Though there is a general lack of money in the system after all the years of austerity which has hollowed out some of the physical infarstructure.

In general Irish people are very freindly. Literally ask for anything and people will do there best to help you (but dont be too demanding, its rude). So I doubt you will have any problems settling. Though from friends I have heard supervisors can be very very hands off. Where they will always make time for you and give you advice but will never give any direction. And they see it as your project and that they are only there incase something massively goes wrong. That is not all supervisors but I have heard it too much.

I don't think you will have too many problems if you are just generally friendly. Goodluck!

Sorry if I sounded too harsh, it wasn't intended and it can be difficult sometimes to express nuances in text (difficult for an engineer at least).

Though thousands of square meters of lab space and 4000 employees, sounds awesome. There will always be something going on and there should be a huge vat of institutional knowledge to draw on. They will be so helpful and probably far more useful than your supervisor. I am kinda envious but good luck!

I am with eng77, the country/culture is far bigger than the university ranking. You want to work in environmental that will get the best out of yourself. Because at the end of your PhD people will judge you on your publication record more than which university you went to.

You are a month in, don't get disheartened. It sounds like you want a more hands on supervisor. Instead you have a senior academic who is well funded, well connected and has a good lab. Those are some amazing benefits and can you adapt to use them? I would give it a few more months and leave if you fell you need a supportive supervisor. Supervisors are one of the most common complaints on this forum, so you are not alone. You just got to be realistic about how much time he can give you (he can always help in none-time heavy ways)

My advice is to read. Just read as much as you can, thinking how everything affects your work. I think a mistake a lot of people do is rush into doing work, without taking the opportunity to get a broad knowledge of the field and competing ideas/technology/methods. It doesn't need to be relevant but will make you far more rounded as a researcher. This will help you become an independent researcher and become a self-starter.

There is a lot of knowledge on this forum with regards to appeals/complaints. Though it is really hard to give advice without context. Ie, what are you appealing? Is your supervisor on your side?

Can you explain what the acronyms are? I have no clue.

Hi Ranch,

So you have 2 offers from 2 universities; one 40mins away, one 2 hours away. And you don't know which one to choose. Is that right?

Seriously, there are other things to consider. Which one has more funding? Which one is a a better university, supervisor, department, project etc ? Those are the some of the things I would consider before travel distance. A PhD is 3 years so making sure the PhD itself is best for you should be your priority. Also the interview doesn't matter now if you have offers from both of them. Hope this helps.

Hi narabzad,

I would really recommend you to take your real name of that.

Your CV looks strong and you have a lot of good strengths such as publications. But they need to come first. Really you should put your most important "selling points" first as recruiters only spend 30s or so reading a CV and you want to highlight your strengths, like the publication. It quickly shows that you are a serious candidate. It might be a good idea to a have a search for academic CV structures.

Good luck with your PhD application

Contacting supervisors directly is a good idea and show initiative. Though I wouldn't send them a full-blown proposal in the first email, maybe say you are working on one and say what it is about. It looks good that you are thinking that far ahead but you don't want to be to pushy (or they steal your idea). If they are interested they will ask about it and then I would send it over.

Also, a lot of supervisors have ideas/projects that they are interested in but don't have funding yet. They might direct you towards them but don't be forced into one just for the sake of a PhD.

Goodluck!

Yes. Acknowledge all the funding as it doesn't hurt you and they are the people you never want to annoy.

Whatever subject interests you and there is funding for. If you don't know what to do, choose a general masters in computing and go from there.

Have you tried turning the page landscape and fitting the 8 columns in together?