Hello!

I was wondering if anyone could offer me some advice...
I am half way through my PhD in the UK and have been offered the chance to do a 3 month internship in an organisation working in an area directly related to my PhD, so I am very keen to do it.
However, I have not told my supervisors yet (as I thought I had no chance of getting the internship) and I am not sure how they will react. Is taking time out from your PhD viewed in a positive or negative way by 1) supervisors 2) by your funding body and 3) by future employers when applying for post docs.
Has anyone here done anything similar during their PhD and if so, how did people react to it? Any advice here would be really appreciated, especially as I have not got long to make a decision!

Many thanks
Anna

I've not done it myself so don't know how it works or what the general view by academics/supervisors is, but I do know somebody who did something very similar - they had a chance to go abroad for three months and took a break from the PhD to do it. As far as I know they were on a funded PhD and were able to just take a break from that and pick up when they came back. So I'd think it can be possible, but it might well depend on the nature of your funding, the nature of the thing you're going to do, and what your supervisors' reaction is. It's certainly worth exploring though! Good luck.

Who is your funding body? If a research council you should be able to check their rules on what circumstances they will permit breaks for.

I was funded by AHRC in my part-time PhD, and they only allowed breaks for medical reasons or maternity break. Nothing else, at all. Luckily I needed a break on medical grounds, so took that for just 5 months, keeping the remaining 7 months I was allowed (12 months maximum break, even during a long part-time PhD) in case I needed them later. My PhD was temporarily suspended for the 5 months, my registration date put back 5 months, and my funding halted and restarted 5 months later.

Other funders may bemore flexible (almost certainly are!).

I haven't yet started my PhD but when reading through my research council's (NERC) studentship handbook I came accross this:

70. Students can take up to a three-month abeyance of their award to enable them to undertake a work placement (directly related to the students’ training), provided this is well justified and approved in advance by their supervisor and research organisation. The studentship end dates and expected submission dates should be amended on the Je-S SDP to reflect periods of abeyance.

So I think it's possible with some funding bodies, best to check with whoever your own as I'm sure rules differ between them.