Hi all,

I am currently completing the AHRC's electronic applications having been nominated for a PhD studentship by my university.

For the application, you have to complete a project summary, aimed at the general reader, in order to summarise the context of your research, its aims and objectives, and finally its 'applications and benefits'.

I study philosophy - it doens't have 'applications'. It may have 'benefits', but only in a very indirect way. I know why they're asking this question, but I am struggling to answer it. Has anyone else completed one of these summaries? Can you help?

Thanks!

Dear Timbob,
I completed the AHRC application process some time ago when you had to apply directly rather than be nominated through your uni. I don't remember being asked about this, and I must say that it strikes me as symptomatic of the way in which education is being increasingly treated like a business - you always need to show "quantifiable" outcomes.
However, as satisfying as it would be to challenge this utilitarian view of learning, that's not going to help your application!
Being as charitable as I can be, they are asking you "Why do this? What will you have produced at the end of it? What difference will you have made?" One way to approach this would perhaps be to talk about what your work will do for the field. I realise this overlaps with aims and objectives a bit, but try to take it wider - how does the research contribute to the field more broadly? What would it enable other people to do? Another area to think about would be what might this contribute to non-academic discussions of the topic (if there are any!) This would probably be harder and more tenuous, but perhaps you could show you are tapping into and advancing a broader cultural discussion. Or you could concentrate on a more basic "service" you are providing (business speak!) - e.g. are you going to use someone's unpublished letters and thus make them more widely available for scholarly discussion through your work? Are you going bring any new "data" (again, not really suitable for philosophy, I know) into the field?

These are just some suggestions and as I read them back they look pretty feeble! So... the best advice I can come up with in the end is to do what I did and ask some other successful applicants from previous years if you can read their applications.
Maybe you'll get some clues from that?
Good luck!(up)

Hi, have a think about whether there are any potential public policy debates your topic might be relevant too (you don't have to actually commit to engage yourself with it) - e.g say you were working on Kymlicka then your research might have relevance to debates on developing social justice practice in multicultural societies like the UK, or say Rorty's ideas how society might be structured could have relevance to those fed up with contemporary UK politics. This is what I think they're getting at on applications. But remember too that it's a standard form for all humanities subjects some of which will be very applied, so so long as you put something, I wouldn't worry too much.

Hi,

The AHRC is under immense pressure from the Treasury to justify the level of funding it receives during this time of difficulty for the public purse. They are therefore simply asking you to tell them how you think the research you will be undertaking, with their financial support, will benefit the British economy, society and culture (which is funding you via their taxes!). Take a look at the AHRC Impact Assessment website, it should give you some ideas of what to include: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundedResearch/Pages/ImpactAssessment.aspx

Good luck!