Studentships update - Summer 2007
News about recent progress on the DTG 2008 round, new guidance documents and web pages and a winner of the POST fellowship.
DTG 2008
On the 2nd July we initiated the process for calculating the Doctoral Training Grants to start in October 2008.
Within the next two weeks you will receive an email listing all qualifying grants that we have used in our calculation and you will have until 31st July to send us a list of any awards that you think we may have omitted.
This will allow us the whole of August to consult you further over any queries raised.
We are hoping to announce DTGs earlier this year but the final decision on awards cannot be made until the budget is confirmed. We understand this is likely to be in October.
New studentship postgraduate handbook
The new studentship handbook is now available on our website.
During the summer we plan to consolidate the handbooks to address the requirements of HEI’s and MRC units. We will be notifying DTA co-ordinators by email of future updates.
2007 MRC/ESRC competition update
The application deadline for this year’s competition was 27 April. A total of 53 applications were received in contrast to the 20 available awards. The decision making panel met on the 26th June 2007 and applicants have been notified of the outcome of their application.
Doctoral training accounts final statement of expenditure
The 2004 DTA of some universities is profiled to end on 31st December 2007.
Those universities will receive a letter in September reminding them that the award is coming to an end. Towards the end of November a Final Statement of Expenditure (FSE) will be sent and this will have to be completed within 3 months of the end of the DTA to ensure that the final payment is made.
If you have any queries relating to this please contact:
vanessa.chauhan@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk
Winner of the 2006 MRC/POST fellowship competition
In April 2006,third year PhD student Cathy Taylor from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine was selected as the first awardee of the MRC/POST fellowship.
Cathy Taylor - winner of the 2006 MRC/POST Fellowship Competition
The fellowship is a three-month, fully funded placement at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) and allowed her unique access to a Parliamentary and policy-making setting. Cathy’s placement concluded in May 2007 and a brief entitled ‘Tackling malaria in developing countries’ was produced for the parliament POST publication. You can view this publication on the parliament website.
The winner of the 2007 competition was Fiona McEwen from the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, who will be taking up her placement in October 2007.
The 2008 competition will be advertised in the New Year by which time we will have extended the scheme to include additional fellowships at the Scottish Executive and the Welsh Assembly Government.
Doctoral training accounts final statement of expenditure
The 2004 DTA of some universities is profiled to end on 31st December 2007.
Those universities will receive a letter in September reminding them that the award is coming to an end. Towards the end of November a Final Statement of Expenditure (FSE) will be sent and this will have to be completed within 3 months of the end of the DTA to ensure that the final payment is made.
Bookings now open for UK GRAD & UKHERD conferences
This year’s annual researcher development conferences run by UK GRAD and UKHERD will take place on consecutive days in September 2007 at London Euston Novotel as follows:
- UK GRAD Sixth Annual Conference: 12 September 2007
Profiting from Postgraduate Talent: Making the most of the skills agenda - UKHERD Third Annual Conference: 13 September 2007
Researcher Development: From policy to practice
For more information please visit the Conferences website..
GRADschools in 2007
GRADschools offer 2nd and 3rd year postgraduate researchers the opportunity to gain new perspectives on PhD and career options. They also provide an opportunity to gain motivation, inspiration and insights into how to enhance working relationships.
The national GRADschools fill up quickly and there are only a limited number of places available on the Brighton course in October 2007. To secure your place, visit www.grad.ac.uk/pgapply and complete the on-line application form now.
Je-S
A condition of receiving an MRC DTG is that details of those students in receipt of a studentship be entered onto the joint electronic submission (Je-S) system within three months of starting. We are aware that some users have had problems with the system and have done our best to assist in sorting these out. The MRC is considering using the quality of our RO’s Je-S data as a qualitative indicator during calculations of future DTG’s.
Queries should, in the first instance, be addressed to the helpdesk(JeS1Help@rcuk.ac.uk )
Further information or suggestions
If you have any topics for future bulletins or articles for dissemination please send your emails to:
frank.stravens@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk
