If your plan is to do a PhD, I would say it's not necessary to do a placement. You will get a lot of practical experience during the PhD and some programmes have placements for 3 months or so built in.

Full time is generally better as it's easier to be engaged with the course and students on your cohort.

Why don't you stick with the PhD, try to salvage it the best you can, whilst applying for jobs. If you get something, then make your decision?

Sounds like the supervisor has a big ego and doesn't like you telling him he's wrong. Maybe it's the way you're saying it? Some people take offence at the smallest things.

If it was me, I would quietly find someone else to check what I was doing, and if I was still right, then just carry on with it and not keep highlighting to the supervisor that I was right.

It's becoming increasingly normal for PhD students to hot desk, or so I'm led to believe. At my uni, we all have desks in offices, but we are running out of space and hot desking is being discussed. I've heard at other unis laptops are given out. As pm133 put it so eloquently, you've no option but to just get on with it.

If I wasn't so busy this week I would happily comment on this. Anyone else?

Anyone?

I think the post just may be poorly worded... I think they are suggesting to add an experienced researcher to a grant to increase their chances of getting funding or collaborate with them to use their expertise and in the end, get better quality science to publish in top journals. This seems like a good route to follow if you ask me, and is usual practice. It's often easier to win funding if grants are interdisciplinary and multi institution. Costs don't come in to if they are justified.

They aren't suggesting that they will do the work and then just add a famous author to the paper who hasn't done anything.

I think it depends on the scale of the project. For large projects for postdocs, it's as fallenonion has said.

For small projects, it's more usual to do these things alongside another job or project. You can still apply for funding, but it might just cover travel or consumables - we have a pot of money in my department for things like this for example. In other cases, there's no money at all and you just do it. I don't think the large research councils are set up for giving out funding like this.

Either way, you do have to be attached to a department to apply and there are rules around whether you can lead a large funding bid for example.

Maybe someone who has actually applied for a large grant from a research council could comment?

Apply for oxford. Those odds look good to me.

There are fewer PhDs outside of DTPs now, it's true. I'm in biology as well, so it's probably a bit different to SS. The main websites are findaphd.com and jobs.ac.uk. Also look at the info on department web pages. Definitely apply for more than one things as DTPs are really competitive as well.

I'm just saying self funding isn't a barrier to going to conferences. I agree with your PGR director, those postgrad loans for PhDs shouldn't even be on the table.

What deadlines are you talking about? There's lots of options for applying for PhDs without applying to RCs and deadlines vary throughout the year eg on findaphd.com.

Ok, I see what you mean. I don't know enough about job options in industry post PhD to advise you. I don't know whether you'd be better off financially now or in the long run if you quit the PhD and went back to industry, or did the PhD and went back to industry. If the PhD will give you extra skills for industry, then stick with it, if not, maybe find another job and then leave?

What were your reasons for starting the PhD in the first place?