I am about to graduate and I plan to apply for a phD (not this academic year, but the next). As a part of my application, I would like to contact individual researchers about upcoming opportunities (i.e. before they are posted), but I'm not sure how many emails I should be sending. I know I'm probably thinking about this a little early, but I was just wondering if anyone could give me advice.

Also, is it frowned upon to send emails to multiple members of the same department? Obviously, I want to hedge my bets, however, I also don't want to come across like I'm simply 'fishing' for funded projects; I don't know if it's better to cast the net as wide as possible or to try and be more selective.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Which country are you applying in and which discipline? The acceptability and usefulness of this method depends on this.

It's not great to send emails to many different members of the same department.

UK and chemistry. I want to do something in drug design, however, the availability of these kind of projects tends to vary. Funding can be a little hard to come by, so I think there is a danger in limiting myself - that said however, I don't want to make a bad impression by obviously fishing for funding! I'm not going to email absolutely everybody in the department, just those involved in drug design.

At the moment, I have sending 1-2 emails to smaller departments in mind and 3-4 to larger ones, but I don't know if the latter is a bit much. At any rate, I don't think sending a single email per University is a good idea.

I'm in an ok position because doing a phD self-funded isn't completely out of the question, however, I want to open up as many options as possible.

Well in the UK and in sciences, it's generally best to do a project with funding, and the best way to get funded projects is to apply for ones that are advertised, rather than email academics directly.

Having said that, I do know a couple of UK biology PhD students that got funding by contacting academics by email. If you know what you want to do, then I think your approach is fine. Emailing 4 per university is ok, if it is a large university and these people could genuinely supervise your project.

Yeah, thanks for the advice; I've been to see my lecturers/phD advisors and they've told me to be proactive and try to contact academics in advance of applying, preferably before the positions are posted. I have a lot of free time right now, so I'm working to get my application stuff sorted well in advance.

I don't think it's me trying to get specialist funding, it's more about registering my interest in phD opportunities sooner rather than later - although, it would be nice if I could negotiate funding for a specific project (sadly, I don't think I have enough experience/academic credentials for them to take that much of a risk :P).

As I understand, it lends a good impression if you're self-driven enough to seek out available projects, instead of simply waiting for them to be posted. Also can help you stand out and, to be honest, my application needs about every leg up it can get.

I'm still not sure how many people to contact in total - I don't really want to overwhelm myself, but at the same time, I need to open up as many avenues as possible. I guess that's more for me to decide, but if anyone knows the 'standard' amount emails typically sent, that would help to give me a benchmark.