Information for Supervisors of WRDTP-funded students

The ESRC provides the DTP with a notional allowance of £667 per annum per student (£888 for AQM Award-holders) for each year of their doctoral studies. These monies are not to be considered a personal allowance, but are pooled to allow for greater flexibility in meeting the needs of the student cohort as a whole.

The allowance is intended to be used to pay for expenses which the student/supervisor/department deem to be in direct support of a student’s research at doctoral level and is not available to masters students.

This may include:

• UK Fieldwork Expenses
• UK, EU and overseas conferences and summer schools
• Language training courses
• Reimbursement of interpreters, guides, assistants
• Survey costs, e.g. printing, stationery, telephone calls
• Purchase of small items of equipment e.g. cameras, tape recorders etc
• Gifts for local informants
• Books and other reading material not available through libraries

Students undertaking their doctoral level study are eligible to apply to the WRDTP RTSG Top Up Scheme if their allocation has been exhausted (there are 3 funding calls per annum) – more details can be found on the VIRE.

For students to be eligible to apply for OFE, it is expected that an anticipated requirement for overseas fieldwork expenses would be flagged on their initial WRDTP Studentship Nomination Form. The allocation of funds for fieldwork expenses is at the discretion of the DTP, which will announce the process for applying for Overseas Fieldwork Expenses each December (via email and the WRDTP VIRE). There will normally be three calls per year for applications to the scheme.

It is very unlikely that the DTP will be able to fully fund a student’s overseas fieldwork trip; students may apply to use Research Training Support Grant (RTSG) funds to supplement the costs associated with overseas fieldwork, however this is entirely at the student’s discretion. A student’s overseas fieldwork visit will normally last no more than 12 months, be an integral part of the PhD, and take place during the life of the award. The DTP is not obliged to fund more than one OFE claim per student and expects the OFE to take place in one country.

More details, application guidance and criteria and the application forms can be found on the VIRE.

Any anticipated requirement for difficult language training should have been flagged as part of the WRDTP Studentship Nomination Form.  Once registered, students will need to apply for an extension (for additional time and stipend/fees funding) to their award via one of the three annual DLT additional funding scheme calls.

Up to one year’s extra support (this is over and above the standard funded length of the studentship) may be considered if a student needs to acquire or develop a working ability with a difficult language.  Each application will be considered on a case by case basis.

The DTP does not offer funding to cover any expenses incurred during the DLT period, so normally students apply for their DLT and OFE funds during the same funding call, and plan to complete their DLT and overseas fieldwork consecutively, to save on travel costs. For further guidance, and to find the application form, please visit the VIRE.

All ESRC funded research award holders are eligible to apply via the Overseas Institutional Visit Scheme, during their doctoral studies, for a paid extension of up to three months (this can be across a maximum of 3 separate visits but must be requested in a single application) to their PhD studentship in order to visit an overseas institution.

This scheme provides financial support and time for the student to establish research networks; disseminate early research findings; participate in seminars and other academic activities that are directly relevant to their research and to undertake specialist research training not available within the UK. Applications must demonstrate the potential benefits of the proposed visit to their current or future academic career and, in particular, to demonstrate how the visit/s will offer ‘added value’ to their PhD experience.

For more details and to access the application form, please visit the VIRE.

The WRDTP Company Internships Scheme offers students the opportunity to spend up to three months in a non-academic organisation within the public, civil society (voluntary) or private sector to work as part of a team involved with policy and practice development. For further details on the criteria for this scheme, and the application form, please visit the VIRE.

There will also be the opportunity for students to apply for UKRI internships, which will be supported by the WRDTP (by an extension to their funding end date, covering their fees and stipend), if they are of the appropriate quality. Calls for the UKRI scheme are circulated via email to students, and this is usually at some point during the Summer vacation period. There is usually further support for travel and accommodation costs, covered by the placement host department. Contact details for further information regarding the scheme will be shared at the same time the call is circulated.

Please note that for international students who commenced their awards before October 2024, UK Visa and Immigration rules means that there may be restrictions relating to their engagement in internship and placement opportunities. For example, international students doing any (paid or unpaid) work outside their degree programme need to remain with term-time working hour conditions, i.e. no more than 20 hours per week. International students are advised to seek guidance from relevant local institutional contacts.

The WRDTP offers funding to students to run activities/events and develop their own themed networks.  The funding can be used to cover the running of events (room bookings, presenters’ fees, promotion/advertising and catering) and travel and subsistence to support the development of the network. Student-led Networks should focus on substantive themes and encourage participation from students across a variety of WRDTP pathways.

For more information, please visit the VIRE.

Supervisors have a key role in the nomination of students to the WRDTP for ESRC funding in our annual Studentships competition. For further details and guidance, please see the following documents/webpages:

• WRDTP Studentships – main webpage
• WRDTP Call for Pathway, AQM and Collaborative Awards – SUPERVISORS
• WRDTP Studentship FAQs 2023_24
• WRDTP Training FAQs 2023_24

As a minimum requirement of the ESRC, a rigorous Training Needs Analysis (TNA) must be undertaken annually for all ESRC funded students (including those on the MA and PhD) that will ensure they develop a progressive training agenda over the lifetime of their programme that addresses both the depth and the breadth of the training received.

Doctoral Training Partnerships are responsible for ensuring that there is an auditable, robust and consistent approach to training needs analysis for all students, across all pathways and in all the partner HEIs, and are required to review training needs analysis on an annual basis to monitor what training needs have been identified and how they are being addressed.

It is expected that TNAs are completed in the first weeks of a new student’s studies (both 1+3 and +3) and then reviewed annually with the supervisory team.

The WRDTP TNA form seeks to gather information about training in advanced research methods; core research methods; general research skills and transferable skills. For each of these categories, we want students/supervisors to provide brief information about training completed within the past 12 months, and information about training needs for the next 12 months.

Please note the the ESRC/WRDTP TNA is in addition to any local training auditing processes.  Students and supervisors will therefore need to ensure that any local processes are also followed, as required by their HEI.

WRDTP Actions following the successful completion of the TNA cycle:

All responses are collated by the DTP Office and allocated for review to each of the 7 interdisciplinary training Pathway Directors.

Each Pathway Director is required to prepare a summary report for their Pathway, which is then submitted to the WRDTP Training Group meeting. The Directors of the AQM (Advanced Quantitative Methods) and AQUALM (Advanced Qualitative Methods) Groups are also given access to all the responses and similarly compile a report.

The Training Group is comprised of all the Pathway Directors, the WRDTP Director and Manager.  As such, senior academics from across the seven HEIs are involved in the scrutiny of the TNAs and in taking decisions on where gaps in training need to be addressed, and in selecting the most appropriate and cost-effective modes of delivery.

The WRDTP is required to report annually to the ESRC details of any external collaboration, societal/economic impact or international activity that ESRC funded doctoral researchers have been involved in during the last 12 months.

This information is captured via supervisors completing the WRDTP Collaboration and Impact Report Google Form (circulated by email, via the DTP Office) for each of their students by a specified deadline, on an annual basis.

Supervisors also receive a PDF document with this email, outlining the egenral student/project details we have on file for each of our funded students. Supervisors are asked to review this document, and let the DTP Office know of any changes (e.g. to their thesis title, if a student has since submitted their thesis etc).

The WRDTP has a diverse postgraduate community. As part of training during the PhD PGRs will establish networks with academic staff and encounter staff in a variety of contexts both professional and social. PGRs will also often act as staff members when they undertake teaching. When they do teach PGRs are expected to observe professional boundaries that apply to all staff members at the University in which they are employed.

It is a vital part of the PhD process that PGRs should be able to have regular contact with staff and to be able to engage with them intellectually. However, it is also important that where inappropriate conduct or behaviour takes place that there are transparent processes and clear guidelines that can be followed to protect both staff and PGRs. It is against this background context and following consultation with the WRDTP PGR forum that the following recommendations of best practice are proposed.