Hi there, I recently received the exciting news that my own self-developed project has been selected for Research Council funding. The next step in the process is for the project to be advertised publicly, and suitable candidates selected for interview. I will have to apply too, and am naturally a little nervous about losing my project altogether. I understand that my Supervisor will do the initial shortlisting, but will not have the final say in the selection process. Has anyone had experience of this? If so, any tips, insights or words of encouragement would be much appreciated. Thanks.

In my experience this sounds a little strange. I've only heard of developing a project yourself (or with supervisor support) and going for the Research Council funding as yourself (no other candidates - just you plus your project), or applying for a pre-existing project, which multiple candidates might apply for (although sometimes if you've been closely involved or something it might be "known" that it you are going to be selected but they have to go through the motion of interviewing other candidates and rejecting them).

Yours sounds like a bit like a mixture of the two. It sounds terribly unfair that your project could be given to another student. If it isn't too late could you not say that you want to put yourself and your project (as a package) forward for funding (the first route I described above)?

I guess what you're saying is, you developed the project, but your supervisor actually applied for the funding and therefore is the project PI. You are not technically associated with the project, hence it could go to another student. For future reference, you supervisor could have applied for the project and named you as a PhD student (or post-doc if applicable) therefore the project would be yours and you wouldn't need to apply.

Yeh, it must be what TreeofLife says. I am not sure why your supervisor would have done that - could just be inexperience/lack of knowledge (my supervisor wasn't sure of all the possible ways of applying for funding when I applied for mine). I think the fact that you developed the project puts you in very good standing to be the student who is awarded the funding. I would make it clear in the interview(s) that you actually came up with it/developed it/had very strong input, what your plans are etc - it makes you the ideal candidate. You are at an advantage to all other candidates as you have all the background knowledge that has informed the project proposal. It is also possible that you're also more likely to see it through - as it was your own idea to begin with.