Has anyone had any concerns about 'ownership' of a project when their PhD is part of a team project?

Is it normal for a PhD candidate to join and work with a post-doc on a project that has been going on for a while now?

I have submitted an application for the post, but have only recently heard about the team aspect and that some work has already been done. Was I being old-fashioned with the idea that a PhD student is the originator or original thinker?

It is very normal in science projects - and even some other areas where there is a large overall funded project underway. It can be frustrating wrt ownership and someone posted recently about this having been told that no-one in the lab 'owned' their project. I think ownership isvery important, however.

I would ask them about the boundaries and see what their attitude is. If they tke the 'no ownership - it's all collective' line and don't seem to acknowledge the need for a properly distinguashable project, I would be wary.

It sounds like the group is funded towards a certain goal

I wouldn't be put off, it just means that it will be very focused - this can be good or bad - sometimes they can be quite high pressure - deadlines expected - but with an organsied supervisor this should not be too bad - but essentially your project would be doing work to fit in with what they want

It depends what YOUR goal is?
A- any old PhD as long as its a good one that'll get you published - this one sounds fine

B - you have some rough ideas of the field you want, you'd prefer to develop your ideas in conjunction with the supervisor, but ultimately you want to decide the direction - this might not be for you

I would still go talk to them and find out the limits though -you never know it might not be that bad

Note that projects which already have external funding generally already have a plan - they had to in order to be funded from outside the dept. It really depends on your field and what kind of resources you require. If you are in a field where it is possible to get funding as an individual for a project proposal of your own - you could go that route (that's what I did - but there are downsides to not being part of a larger group/project).

Work ownership can be really problematic in modern "big science" projects. You can get situations in which a number of postdocs and grad students working on one thing and then it becomes dubious as to who did what. It is a nightmare for thesis examiners.