I'm currently attending a Ph.D in Portugal, but ran out of possible funding sources (the financial crisis is hitting us hard), so I'm considering the possibility to apply for a funded Ph.D program either in the UK (preferred, since it's closer to home) or the US. I've selected a few potential supervisors, which I plan to contact initially through email. My problem is that some of those potential supervisors work in the same universities, and some even in the same departments. Is it ok to contact them simultaneously? What if, in a rather optimistic scenario, they all show interest in being my supervisor? Thanks in advance for your help.

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Hi Mensageiro.

Sorry to hear about your funding.

I don't see any problem with contacting multiple academics in the same departments. The fact that they work in the same departments suggests that their research is related and overlaps, which means it's no surprise that your own research interests match up with more than one of these academics.

They are professional people, so I imagine they understand and don't get petty when competing for PhD students.

Personally, I applied for a scholarship at a University which covered various possible projects between two supervisors. They were so impressed by me that they both offered my their projects, meaning I was in a very fortunate position of having to choose between two academics who know each other, work in the same research group, and continuously conduct research together.

Neither academic was bitter. They both sat down with me at the same time, we discussed the ins and outs of each project at length, and they made me very comfortable by enforcing the idea that my choice should be about which project appealed to me most, and not about which of them wanted me most, etc.

Hope this helps.

It does help a lot, thank you very much GSM. I just didn't want to bruise anyone's ego, and end up making an "enemy" in the department, but I believe you're right when you say they'll be professional understanding people. Again, thanks a lot!