Hi
Just wondered if there is anybody out there who's applied for doctoral funding in the AHRC open competition, i.e. not through block funding? If so, have you had any news? Or do you know of when to expect news? I have been told August but am understandably impatient to hear anything at all!!!

If this happens anything like last year you can probably expect to hear around the middle of August. Letters are sent out without a discernible pattern.
If it helps, even the BGP letters (which only require rubber stamping) haven't begun to be sent out, despite the fact that the online registration procedure begun almost a month ago.

No news yet but starting to get nervous!

Hi Hopeful
I had convinced myself that after all the waiting, I am resigned to not gettiing the AHRC funding and was looking forward to a letter just to put me out of my misery.
Until...got an email this afternoon saying that the letters are now ready to go out (!!!!!!) and could everyone check their postal address details so the letters would not go astray!!

That has now made me VERY nervous knowing that it's all decided! I genuinely don't hold out that much hope, don't think my area really ticks their boxes, but good luck to all those waiting! Apparantly we can now expecte a letter anytime from now up until August 21st.

Got any nails left?!

Good luck everyone who's in this situation. I was in the AHRC open competition 5 years ago (part-time student), so know what you're going through. Hope you get the results you're hoping for, and don't have to wait too long to find out.

I'm waiting to hear about the AHRC open competition myself. I missed out last year with a grade 3 and got my rejection letter around August 20th. It was a nightmare waiting around for the news, and I finally opened up my letter with a hangover. Not a good day. :-)

Hi Imposter,

Yep, had the same email myself - I guess it's just a case of sitting it out now, though my nerves will be shredded if I have to wait till close to the end of August! Good luck!

I know it's still only 3rd August.......but does anybody have any news yet?

Good luck everyone - I got my rejection last year around the 20th and my award the year before (MA) on the 22nd - this year I've bombed out again but at the block stage lol - I'm too ESRC to be AHRC but too AHRC to be ESRC lol! I sincerely hope we see a ton of acceptances here and I so feel for you, 2 summers were wrecked with the waiting!

Hey there....

Nothing here yet - just the "confirm address" email. It's painful isn't it?

I've managed to convince myself I have absolutely no chance, despite rated highly in our institution's internal scrutiny competition. Heck, I don't even have a Masters..

This is my first year applying (open competition). I've completed two years part-time (self-funded), and am desperate to go full time for two years. It's been tough.

Best wishes to all who are waiting.

- Mookie

======= Date Modified 04 Aug 2009 12:24:39 =======
I've only just checked the estimated spread of the awards, and there are only 50 doctoral award grants available in the open competition combared to 589 for the block grants. Although I didn't research the balance fully, I thought there would be a higher amount in the open competition still.

Check out the spread for the open competition here if you haven't seen it... http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundingOpportunities/Documents/SC%20available%20awards.pdf

It's worrying for some subjects really. Luckily, I've applied in one of the performing arts areas (music) that they say the open competition favours, and there are 6 awards compared to the 28 for the block grants for this. Others are less fortunate and probably stand even less chance.

At the bottom of the above document, it does say that there are 40 more awards available across the doctoral and master's schemes to "support quality applications and the breadth of subject areas", so I guess there's a little breathing room.

Hi Mcneilis,
I agree those figures sound bad. However, it would be interesting to know to what extent the universities have been 'capped' in the open competition.
My understanding is that if you have been able to apply through this year's capped open competition, then statistically you stand more chance than last year of getting an award, due to the extent in which it has been capped.
Apparently an aim of the capping process is to increase the success rates, so 50 places may be good, if hypothetically say, the Uni's have been capped in total at 250 applications for them.
So, if anybody could get the 'capped' figures, that would make really interesting reading! And trust me, I've searched for them!!!

Ah, I forgot about the capping, so hopefully we do stand more chance this time around. I know that my little university had a cap of 5 across all subjects, and had not really had much success gaining awards previously, but I know no more than that.

======= Date Modified 04 Aug 2009 15:43:18 =======
Apologies: double post.

The odds are very difficult to estimate.

Some Arts and Humanities creative maths:

*CAUTION: BAD SCIENCE FOLLOWS*

Of four institutions I've just quickly checked, applications were capped at 5 - that's across all awards (Doctoral, Masters. Research prep. etc.) My own institution had 5, and also McNeilis' too.

I seem to remember counting 40 BGP institutions - this list is available from the AHRC site if you root around.

That leaves around 70 smaller RO's potentially eligible to submit applications (based on a total of ~ 110 Uni's in the UK).

So... lets say average is 5 applications per institution x 70 institutions = total of 350 potential applications.

Looking at the awards spread PDF, with a roughly 1:2 ratio of doctoral: research prep./ professional prep Masters, then we might expect that if institutions spread their submissions across awards as the AHRC wants to allocate, based on the above somewhat spurious figures:

Potentially:

117 doctoral applications for 50 awards, just over 2:1

HOWEVER:

Not all RO's will spread their awards applications equally. My own institution had 5 allocations, submitted 4, all doctoral.

So... could be as much 7:1 for doctoral awards.

Remember of course the subject area will affect the precise odds for you, but lets assume the AHRC has weighted fairly based on no previous app's/ awards.

My head hurts....

- Mookie