I have been invited to have an informal chat about a new project that has become available,any suggestions on what preparation to do

Sarah please be aware there is no such thing as 'informal'. I fell for this one and was grilled for 1 hour on my 3rd year project - I was rejected! Good luck - just be yourself, I start another PhD in Oct!Andy xx

I agree with Andy about it never being informal.Just be really enthusiastic about the area of research and know what you want to achieve from doing it, future goals, why you want to do a PhD, why this one.

Well, remember your 3rd year project, maybe go over it to remind yourself what you did. Also, try and get a feel for the project you're up for, look around some of the literature about it and just look like you have an idea about what you're talkign about

mine was informal... we just went to the students union had a pint of beer and chatted about how crap dealing with commercial organisations were. He did mention he was giving me the phd quite early on if i wanted it.
So the message is - there is such a thing as an informal chat. Most academics are not formal people and they are not great dealing with people. If you relax, they will too and probably like you more for it.

I agree with pep. Mine was informal too, they just wanted to meet me and make sure I knew what I was letting myself in for. I still got asked some of the standard questions by my supervisor but there wasn't a panel! Although all the other interviews I've been to were formal ones