Call for proposals for top up funding scheme for four year CBC DTC Studentships 2010/11

Call for Proposals for Top Up Funding Scheme: 4-year Chemical Biology Centre Doctoral Training Centre Studentships 2010/11

In addition to the annual call for Chemical Biology Centre (CBC) Doctoral Training Centre studentships, the CBC is now introducing a top-up PhD funding scheme for supervisors who are able to provide a financial contribution towards a 4 year PhD programme starting in the 2010/11 academic year. The source of financial contribution may be from an industrial CASE award, charitable or College funding.
All studentships awarded under this additional scheme will be part of the CBC DTC and the students will receive the full DTC education and training programme over the four years.

Two levels of financial contributions are accepted under this additional scheme:

A. If you provide 75% (equates to 3 of the 4 years) financial contribution to the studentship:

• The CBC will cover tuition fees, stipend and a consumable allowance of £3,000 per student for the MRes year only.

• The tuition fees, stipend and consumables for the remaining 3 years of the PhD should be covered by the financial contribution you provide.

B. If you provide 50% (equates to 2 of the 4 years) financial contribution to the studentship:

• The CBC will cover tuition fees and stipend for 2 of the 4 years (MRes and 1st year PhD).

• The tuition fees and stipend for the remaining 2 years of the PhD as well as consumables for the whole duration of the 4 year programme should be covered by the financial contribution you provide.

For all applications under this additional scheme, flexibility will be given to the project research theme although synergy with existing CBC projects (please see ‘List of Current CBC DTC Projects' document) must be demonstrated. The expected nature of the interactions with specific existing CBC DTC projects should be indicated.

• Studentship Proposal Additional Top Up Funding Scheme Application Guidelines
  - PLEASE READ this carefully before completing the application form

• CBC Studentship Proposal Additional Top Up Funding Scheme Application Form

• List of current CBC studentship projects in our research area
  

Call for Proposals: 4-year Chemical Biology Centre Doctoral Training Centre Studentships 2010/11

Each year the Chemical Biology Centre (CBC) Doctoral Training Centre invites proposals from academics for 4 year PhD studentships. There are approximately 8 available each year for proposals in the area of Chemical Biology, particularly for those with synergy to existing CBC projects.

The deadline for project proposals for the academic year 2010/11 has now passed. Please return to this website in June 2010 for details of deadline for project proposals for the academic year 2011/12.

• Studentship Proposal Application Guidelines - PLEASE READ this carefully before completing the application form
• CBC Studentship Proposal Application Form
• List of current CBC studentship projects in our research area 

Before submitting a proposal it is strongly advised that you speak to one of our current Research Board Members and read below the reasons why proposals commonly fail.

Submitted proposals will be evaluated using the following evaluation sheet. 

Relevant Dates

4pm, Tuesday 1st September 2009: Information session (The Seminar & Learning Centre (SALC) Room 7, Level 5, Sherfield Building, Imperial College London, South Kensington campus)

• Potential applicants can find out more about the CBC in this session and ask any questions that they may have. If you're interested in attending this session, please confirm your attendance to Dr Wing-Chau Tung (w.tung@imperial.ac.uk) by Friday 28th August.

5pm, Friday 18th September 2009: Application deadline

• Submit completed application form as an electronic copy (in word document format) by email to Dr Wing‐Chau Tung (w.tung@imperial.ac.uk)

By Thursday 15th October 2009: CBC Board to review received applications and seek additional information from applicants, if necessary.

Friday 30th October 2009: Allocation of projects.

Proposal Advice

1. Speak to current CBC Research Board Members and Studentship Supervisors for advice before submitting a proposal.
2. In the proposal make sure you express synergy with existing CBC projects and speak to the academics whose projects you have synergy with.
3. The CBC is an interdisciplinary centre where students undertake research in more than one discipline. As a result:
   a) Students should have at least two supervisors but a maximum of three supervisors. One should be from a physical sciences background and the other from a biological background. The two supervisors should not currently work in the same laboratory (Please note this does not exclude two researchers from the same lab applying on the same proposal, it will simply mean a third supervisor will have to be added).
   b) It should be demonstrated that the student will undertake work in different research areas in parallel and not subsequently. This should be particularly evident in the MRes year. Students have the ability to exit the course after the first year, and should be leaving with an interdisciplinary qualification.
4. The work being undertaken should be realistically achievable within the four year time-frame.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.