Hello all :)

I need you valuable advice and opinion one more time. I am thinking of applying for ESRC Funding for next year (which will be my second year of the PhD). Does anyone know if this is possible or if ESRC only has the +3 studentships available? I have tried to find out online and I get the impression that anyone can apply unless they are in their final year.

I have never tried to get ESRC funding before as I am EU and it could only cover my fees which are already covered by my University. However the forthcoming September I will complete 3 years of staying in UK which allows me to apply.

Any ideas?

Hope you are all progressing well. 8-)

The ESRC will not announce until January what funding schemes will run for 2011. They had made universities apply for a completely different system of funding focussed around doctoral training centres (mainly a consortium of universities) but with the spending cuts they are not telling anyone who has got what or how many students can be funded, until the ministry tells them what their overall budget will be. I think though that it's unlikely to be good news...
Under the old schemes as far you would have been able to apply under the +3 scheme for 2 years funding, assuming you and your department met all of the criteria. The trouble was that universities were loath to give quota awards to people like you as it meant losing some money, so it meant trying to get an open competition slot, where the competition is much tougher. What things will look like in January is something no-one can tell you now for definite, but you should talk to whoever coordinates the link with the ESRC in your department because you will need that person's support to push you ahead of any new students.

hmmmm interesting. thank you for this Bewildered. I thought that the schemes are the same every year and only the amount of money -and consequently number of scholarships- changes.
I was thinking to go for it idependently with the support of my supervisor rather than for the quota awards that are already allocated to the universities (perhaps both if I am allowed to, which I doubt).
I will try to find the right contact for this as you suggest and talk to my sup about it. Luckily he is extremely supportive and also very high in the hierarchy of the university which might help.

xx

You can't do anything independently. If it's the open competition, departments can only put one application per subject area forward, so there has to be an internal competition first for that slot (assuming there is more than one person interested).