Hi guys,

for those of you in the social sciences, who have worked with 'real' people, as in interviews FGDs and so on, when you did your "pilot" study, which year were you in? How ambitious were you for the design?

Did you submit a pilot proposal to your sups? In any case, how much did it cost?

above all, i guess my largest question is, how 'serious' were you with the pilot design and execution?

I'm interdisciplinary and was recruiting for long questionnairres that would take up to an hour. The pilot design and execution was taken as seriously as the PhD overall (i.e. very seriously) and I did submit a proposal (I also used this proposal to apply for external funding for research costs - short-listed but no bananas). I started the pilot first year second term intending to finish it by the summer (which I think is a sensible plan). The recruitment was so difficult though that the pilot alone ran on into May of my second year. It cost about one thousand pounds.

And you paid for this yourself?

I didn't do a Pilot per se but I did a Needs Assessment. Got ethics in the first week of my second term and finishing at the moment (first term of my second year). I suppose that means it lasted a year.

It cost £150 for participant who were paid. Other costs included tapes, batteries, refreshments etc, didn't cost more than £50. I have a substantial (for social sciences) amount of money allocated to my research costs which paid for the payment of participants. I paid for the incidentals but that's mostly because I was too lazy to submit receipts to the Uni.

This stage makes up (cue made up statistic) 1/3 of my PhD thesis so I've taken it very seriously.

A

Indeed I did and it is a very sore point. I then went on to pay for the main recruitment (just don't ask....). I just tried to save it out of my grant. I did consider changing depts in my second year, but I really didn't think I could complete a new project in 2, or even 3 years - and I was pregnant. It seemed that I either had to make this project work or leave with no chance of trying again. So I stuck it out. This is not an uncommon situation - I know quite a few people covering their own research costs. The trick is to have a very cheap project!

hi. i am also in the social sciences. start PhD in jan. will be interviewing 'real' people. already secured access to a drop in centre used by the group i plan to research on. plan to spend maybe between 6-12 months going into the centre on a once a week basis so will cost me in travel fare. other than that and cost of photocopying my questionnaires which i will use in the interviews i plan to carry out. very senstive group im researching so will take time to get to know them and going regularly will achieve that. did have this in my original proposal and been told that i may need NHS clearance. cant tell yet until i start. though i have been given permission by the centre manager i know, the uni says i may still need NHS clearance. thats my case. hope this helps... x