Hello, I need some advice. I did a (brutal) Skype interview for a very interesting
Phd Research Fellowship about 1 week ago. In the application they did not ask to supply references and I wrote " references will be supplied by request".
So far I haven't heard anything and not been asked for my references. It's been a long process- more than 3 months from application to the interview.
Obviously I forgot to ask when to expect to hear from them, what do you reckon, dead end?

Probably. In my experience, you usually hear back from a successful interview the same day or the next day. Is there going to be another round of interviews?

I knew I wouldn't know straight away, they told me they're interviewing 5 people( 1 position). So they wouldn't be able to let me know that soon.
I've heard, both here, and from others it sometimes takes a while to get the outcome, especially when it's an advertised position, rather than your proposition?

Anyway, not holding my breath, but will be good to know either way...

Well, not in my experience. I had maybe 7 interviews last year and I always heard back, successful or not, within 2 days. These were all advertised positions. They would have interviewed several people for each position. It's easier to make these decisions quickly while it's still fresh in their mind. Usually they offer it to the preferred candidate first and then let the other candidates know once the preferred has accepted. Having said that, I did once get a rejection email about 2 months after the application deadline passed, so there's always some slow people!

Agree with ToL although my experience is with industrial jobs.
If a company interviews you and you are a stand-out candidate they will not waste time offering you the job. There are always exceptions and I was once offered a job three weeks after interviewing. Clearly in that case I can assume they offered it to someone else first. In the main though, I expect to hear straight away. If I don't I assume the worst and move on.
Certainly you should not put off other jobs in the meantime.
What you could do if you have another offer is to phone the person you do want to work for and let them know that they are your first choice and essentially find a nice way of giving them 24 hours to decide. I've done that before as well and found this to be a successful strategy.