I am 20 months into my 42 month PhD project. My project is industrially sponsored and I was told from the beginning that they would have an influence on the project direction. My original proposal was accepted by my supervisor but 6 months in, my industrial sponsor changed its mind about some aspects of the project which meant all of my methods of analysis were now incompatible and the work I had done so far was now useless.

After spending 5 months trying different ways to adapt I was forced to have a major rethink, my co-supervisor strongly suggested a new route which he claimed was simple and easy. I had absolutely no experience from my degree in this new area but from what was described I thought it was the miracle fix and leapt on it, taking 1-2 months to read up on the technique. I discovered that despite his claims, there was limited literature for my specific application of the technique and that the way I would be using it was slightly different from the normal. My main supervisor had absolutely no knowledge/experience of this new technique so I was left with my co-supervisor taking the lead. He kept passing me off to his other PhD students whenever I asked for help and they could contribute little since I was using this adapted version of the technique.

I have spent the past 8 months attempting to get the technique to work to no avail. I have a yearly transfer report/viva in two months, I scraped through the last one by the skin of my teeth. At the moment I will be going in with no data and a load of excuses. There is an alternative technique which may work but I wouldn't see results until after the transfer report/viva.

At this point I would rather just quit since I am incredibly stressed, I'm losing sleep and I'm miserable. If I'm likely going to fail my yearly progression is it better to just quit now?

This experience is quite common in research. People go for many years with things not working until it all comes together in the end.

You probably won't fail, you will just get a grace period and have to come up with a detailed plan to get back on track. The viva might yield some helpful direction? Or is there anyone else you could speak to in the mean time to try to get some results or get your technique to work?

I agree with TreeofLife - you probably won't fail this, and may come out of it with some good suggestions. Who knows - perhaps the fact that you are using a technique in an adapted way will turn out to be your original contribution? I say stick with it - there are always points that make you despair, but you might feel a lot better after this transfer viva.

I completely know what you're going through! My project was pretty much handed to me, at least the hardware and goal, it turns out however some of doesn't even appear possible and I've spent the last 6 months trying everything, and none of it works. I too only just got through my first year viva.

Don't give up though! A lot of people I've spoken to, like TreeofLife said, spend a good majority of time with very little working but then it all comes together. It's hard to stay positive, I too am completely miserable now, but you just need to sit down and really think about it.

Also just to point out a few of my friends got their PhD from things that didn't actually work. It isn't always about saying this works for this, but sometimes you can pass on the basis that something doesn't work and you've shown that too. I'm not sure if that's relevant in your area though. Stay positive. You still have a lot of time!

Thanks for the advice people, I think I'm going to go ahead and quit though. In the day or so since I've decided this it's felt like a weights been lifted off my shoulders, I've felt happier than I have done in months and had several full nights sleep. My only concern now is how to tell my main supervisor since he was a nice guy and I don't want to burn bridges etc. Also does anyone know what the consequences of leaving are/the procedure i.e. will I have to pay any money back? Will I have to have multiple meetings with head of school/program etc or will I just be able to leave hassle free?

I would strongly advise to stick out this crisis and not quit just yet - especially as there are still unexplored avenues in terms of alternative techniques. I would explore this other avenue first before making a huge decision like that, and maybe talk to your main supervisor again. Quitting might seem like to offer some relief in the short term, but ultimately it might be more difficult to recover in terms of your career. It might be the right thing to do - I would just urge you to explore every other possibility before making such a huge decision. Good luck with whatever you decide!

Another thing I would say, from a pragmatic point of view, is consider staying until you have something else to move on to, if you can stand it. Things might turn around in the meantime and if not, at least you won't have that horrible gap between giving something up and finding work.