North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership
Pilot studies, planning and preparation prevents poor PhD performance – the value of piloting research methods
Tamsin Fisher, Health and Wellbeing, Keele University, 2017 Cohort
Young people’s well-being and autotelic practices: a narrative and go-along inquiry of youth activities
The research process so far has been a rollercoaster of emotions and progress, though I am sure that I am not alone in this. Stepping into the second year of a PhD is daunting but exciting as preparation for data collection is underway and there is hope that the answers to the questions become nearer. For many, the start of the year will be filled with ethics and one can only hope that it takes one attempt! My ethics, however began back in March… 6 months into the PhD and a little earlier than most!
Welcome – and welcome back – to all our NWSSDTP Students!
The new NWSSDTP Student Handbook for 2019/20 is now live and can be found here. This should be your first source of information about your studentship. Please don’t hesitate to email us at nwssdtp@liv.ac.uk if you have any queries after reading this information. However, please note that your institutional Administrative Contacts are best placed to answer queries about registration, tuition fees and studentship payments – as these are primarily handled at an institutional level.
Dates are now set for the first Methods X Stream meetings of the academic year. Further information about the Methods X Programme, and the meeting dates, can be found here. If you have not yet identified your choice of Methods X Stream, you will receive an email shortly prompting you to do so.
Our NWSSDTP Coordinator, Dr Julie McColl, will shortly be launching a new monthly NWSSDTP Newsletter. This will include details of upcoming events and funding opportunities, as well as profiling individual NWSSDTP students and reporting on recent NWSSDTP activity. Keep an eye out for this landing in your inboxes shortly, and do get in touch with Julie if you have an idea for a blogpost to feed into the newsletter.
Finally, all that remains is to wish you all a successful 2019/20 academic year!
Hayley Meloy, NWSSDTP Manager
CASE Competition 2020
Paperwork for the next NWSSDTP CASE Competition (for October 2020 start) is now live!
Please visit our new CASE Studentships webpage here.
The CASE Competition is an annual studentship competition where academics from the four NWSSDTP institutions can apply for funding towards postgraduate projects that will be co-supervised with a representative from a non-HEI partner organisations. Successful applicants will then be invited to recruit a postgraduate candidate to undertake the project.
NWSSDTP CASE Studentships provide an opportunity for PhD students to gain first-hand experience of work outside an academic environment, with the student working on a doctoral project supported by both expert academic supervisors and a co-supervisor from a non-HEI partner organisation.
Additional Studentship Competition – funding available for projects using ESRC Datasets
North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (NWSSDTP) is running an additional supervisor-led studentship funding competition in 2019, to encourage projects that utilise ESRC Datasets.
Applications are invited from prospective supervisors at any of the four constituent universities (Keele, Lancaster, Liverpool or Manchester). Successful applicants will then be invited to recruit a candidate to undertake the proposed projects, commencing October 2019.
For more information, see https://nwssdtp.ac.uk/how-to-apply/use-of-esrc-datasets/
Studentship Competition 2019 Deadline
The deadline for submitting an studentship application for October 2019 entry is 5pm on 4th February 2019.
Candidates may apply for funding towards master’s and doctoral (1+3/2+2) study, or doctoral study only (+3/+2). The NWSSDTP does not fund standalone master’s programmes. Applications must be submitted via one of our 19 subject pathways, for an eligible programme. Details of eligible subject areas and programmes can be found on our pathway pages
For details of how to submit an application, please visit our How to Apply page.
Happy New Year!
A very Happy New Year to all students and staff in the NWSSDTP!
2018 was a busy year for the North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership. Since our DTP officially launched in October 2017, with our first cohort commencing their studies, we have been working hard on developing and delivering funding and training opportunities across the North West.
In April, we completed our second round of studentship recruitment, awarding a total of 67 studentships across the consortium for programmes commencing in October 2018. 23 of these awards were for CASE studentships – doctoral projects that will be co-supervised by a non-HEI collaborative partner.
