Hello all,

I have spent days trawling through acres upon acres of webpages and I am still so confused as to how to begin trying to find funding to fit with my circumstances.

I am a british citizen living in Croatia. I would like to undertake doctoral research with a supervisor from one of the following universities: Zagreb, Belgrade- Serbia, Sarajevo-Bosnia or Ljubljana-Slovenia. As far as I am aware none of these institutions offer funded programmes, but I have been offered the opportunity to be supervised by professor(s) at at least one of these institutions.

My research field is conflict transformation in post-conflict societies (from a psychoanalytic perspective).

My question is where do I start? Do I approach the universities aforementioned with my proposal and then try and find funding or do I find funding and then approach the insitution.

If it is the latter, how on earth can I convince any funding body to sponser a british citizen looking to undertake her research in a european (possibly non EU reg.) nation. And who would such a funder likely to be??

Urrrgh, it's so confusing and any help out of this maze I've got stuck in would be so dearly appreciated.

Many thanks,
Lib

Is there anyone reading that can help or direct me to another website that may be able to?

Thank you!

I don't really know anything specific about conflict studies per se but there is no reason, in theory, why you shouldn't be able to apply for funding as a UK national in one of the universities you mention. If you have a supervisor in mind, you can liaise with him/her about looking for funding. The funding issue doesn't really interest the fees office as generally once the fees are paid that's it. I realise that it could be the difference between you starting a PhD or not but a uni wants its fees upfront, whoever is paying them.

normally people approach the uni first and then go looking for funding. A funding organisation is unlikely to give you the monies unless you can assure them where, when and what you'll be studying. To be honest it's not really a linear process, each step influences the other. I would look at each university individually. Even if they only offer MAs, click into the programmes and see if there are any contacts you can tap into. If they do offer master programmes, they might be interested in somebody who's looking to do a PhD.

Have a look at this link for guidance: it's for a programme in Germany last year but it does give an outline of how you would go about applying for funding and broad thematic ideas for possible projects.
http://www.mladiinfo.com/2010/04/30/berghof-foundation-grants-for-conflict-studies/

Have you tried the conflict studies reserach centre? It seems to be based in the UK but its 'current work' and 'publications' indicate projects with wide ranging remits. Again, useful if even only for contact info.

Finally, a lot of conflict studies in Northern Ireland. Have a look at those and get some ideas from them.

Hope that's been at least some help:-)

Dear Ady,

I am extremely grateful to you for a most comprehensive and as such helpful reply. Especial useful was: "normally people approach the uni first and then go looking for funding. A funding organisation is unlikely to give you the monies unless you can assure them where, when and what you'll be studying. To be honest it's not really a linear process, each step influences the other. "

This has been very reassuring. I think my muddle was related to a sense that the process is not linear and that sort of stumped me before getting off the blocks so to speak, didn't know where to start.

So, if I want to study in a particular european country (1st choice Croatia) are you suggesting that I establish a relationship with them/supervisor and then set about securing funding? That seems to me to make sense. I suppose my question at this stage is then one of likelihood that a UK based institution albeit related to my area of study would be interested in funding a british citizen to study outside of the U.K. I suppose all these questions as you intimate, cannot be addressed in a formulaic way.

I wasn't sure what influenced what- funding over course or course over funding!

I felt so down about it all (overwhelmed with where to start) and you have given me much to work with and I'm really grateful to you.

Many thanks,
Lib

Hi Liberty (good name considering your topic area!)

Glad I could help at least a bit. It is difficult and confusing. I applied for funding linked to a specific university and was lucky enough to get it and so have done my PhD there. Others I know have decided to go ahead without funding and hope they will get funding after they start. I know people who have sourced funding for their second year, or one girl for her final year. As I say the uni doesn't really care as long as the fees are paid.

A potential prof./supervisor may well be willing to take you onboard but often are very unclear themselves about fees etc. Afterall they are on the big bucks! However, they do get emails sent to them re funding etc so it is a good idea to link up with somebody and while they may not put you in direct contact with a funding source, they may be able to point you in the right direction. As a postgrad myself I frequently get emails sent to me and my cohort about programmes opportunities all over Europe.

Good luck with it (up)

Just one more thing (I'm a big Columbo fan!)

Are you on any mailing lists? What about this one http://peaceandconflict.ca/

Hi,

I suspect fees would be low so it's more living expenses you'd need & funds for research costs eg fieldwork. It might be that it's similar to some other Central European countries where you either do your PhD alongside a job as research / teaching assistant to the professor who supervises it / tend to do it part-time while working another job to pay your way. Is there a newspaper that advertises academic jobs - it might be worth looking to see if there's adverts that might give you a clue about the system (assuming you know the language)? Another idea might be to seek advice from a national academy of sciences. Here's the link to the Croatian one:
http://info.hazu.hr/home

Another helpful peace/conflict resources link is:
http://www.internationalpeaceandconflict.org/
Have a look under resource guides for some funding ideas.

Hi Bewildered,

So helpful thank you. Especially the link to Croatia's academy. All of your suggestions are helpful because they give me a springboard to begin this process, until coming here I just didn't have a clue where to begin.

I am feeling transformed in my confidence thanks so much to the kind support of yourself and Ady. I am so grateful to you both for your time and generosity of support.

Thank you,
Liberty