I already have a conditional place on an MSc, but I achieved a first, so I am now wondering whether I should be looking at PhDs instead. My ultimate aim is to achieve a PhD, however I have a number of concerns.

I can't move areas due to personal circumstances. This means that an advertised studentship may be out of the question, and I would have to come up with my own topic. As all of my friends who have done PhDs are scientists, I'm struggling to understand the process. Their viewpoint seems to be that if you want to do a PhD, you go and ask various professors until you find one ;)

My discipline falls in between the MRC and ESRC in terms of funding, so that could also be difficult.

How do you get more info about how to construct a topic etc?

Have you tried some external funding bodies,i.e. trusts? They offer studentships as well. Also try internal university/departmental funding.Market your proposal in a way which tallies with the central themems of ESRC,etc. Also references are important in obtaining funding, so a good proposal is just half way through.....

have you looked at the MRC/ESRC interdisciplinary studentships?

However:

- the application deadline for these is April/May time, so you'd be looking at October 2008 start.
- they pretty much require a masters, so carrying on with the MSc won't hurt, but you might want to check, if it is a social science one, if it is ESRC recognised.

If you are coming up with your own project, you need to have an idea, but then find supervisor(s), and they will help you refine it into a proposal. They should also have past successful applications that you can have a look at to get an idea.

As far as the MSc goes, it's Health and Rehabilitation - depending on the modules I take, it could have more of a social science bias, but not much.

Thanks for the advice - I already keep my eye on the external jobs page at my uni, but it's worth asking if there are any internal ones.

Thanks sourapple - that looks great

Unfortunately I am tied to my city (it took me 4 years to get to go to uni in the first place, as social services wouldn't fund out of county care - same goes for where I am now).

There are interesting opportunities elsewhere too, but I'm pretty much limited to my current institution unless I suddenly manage to be able to look after myself. They are trying to change it so that budgets are assigned to the individual rather than the council, but until then I'm pretty much stuck.

The only funded opp. at my institution is an MSc in Statistics with Applications in Medicine, but I don't really want to lose the clinical side.