Midlands4Cities Collaborative Doctoral Award

Qualification: PhD

Department: Archaeology and Ancient History

Application deadline: 13 January 2021 (noon UK time)

Start date: September 2021

Overview

Midlands4Cities Collaborative Awards are now open for 2021

The Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership (M4C) brings together eight leading universities across the Midlands to support the professional and personal development of the next generation of arts and humanities doctoral researchers. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), this is a collaboration between the University of Leicester, University of Nottingham, University of Birmingham, De Montfort University, Nottingham Trent University, Birmingham City University, University of Warwick, and University of Coventry, and will provide research candidates with enhanced mentoring, subject, and skills training (including cross-institutional training), and support in preparing for a career.

Our Collaborative Doctoral Awards (CDAs) are co-designed between an M4C university and an external partner organisation. CDAs offer a project with established research aims, responding to particular needs in the cultural, creative and heritage sectors.

Supervisory teams are pre-established and are made up of academics from the M4C partnership and a member of the external partner organisation.

A Collaborative Doctoral Award allows you to:

Produce a quality thesis under expert academic and partner supervision.
Gain first-hand experience of partner organisations outside the university environment.
Enhance employability and skills through development opportunities in line with M4C’s commitment to ‘quality thesis plus'.

In addition to the Collaborative Doctoral Award, M4C also offer an alternative Open Doctoral Award in which you will design your own project.

Duration of study

The normal maximum award tenure is 4 years (48 months) for full-time study and seven years (84 months) for part-time study.

Advice and Support with your application

There is advice and support with your application available at one of the writing workshops aimed at potential students who are planning to submit an application for PhD research to Midlands4Cities.

Consult the application Guidance Notes

Contact the M4C central team if there is anything you are unsure of in the guidance notes.

Projects for 2021

Archaeology and Ancient History

Project: Predicting and Protecting Lithic Landscapes

This project seeks to characterise the significance and extent of Dartmoor’s prehistoric subsurface archaeology, to inform future landscape management practices and to raise local and national awareness about this valuable heritage.

Leicester Supervisor: Dr Laura Basell

Partner Organisation: Dartmoor National Park Authority.

Doctoral training partnerships

Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTPs) and Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) are multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional schemes designed to support the training of the next generation of world-class researchers. The University of Leicester is a lead partner in four DTPs/CDTs through which we can offer funded PhD studentships in a wide range of research areas.

Studentships are available to highly motivated and qualified applicants and provide a generous support package usually including a full fee waiver, annual stipend, and research training support grant. Studentships are in most cases offered early in the year for October start. Enquiries outside of the main application periods are welcomed.

Funding

Collaborative Doctoral Award offers 4 Years funding for full time students (part time option available)

Awards for UK residents cover UK tuition fees and provide a stipend at the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) rate.

International students will also be able to apply for an AHRC funded postgraduate studentship for the start of the 2021/22 academic year. EU applicants are now classified as international students. They will be eligible for tuition fees at the UK rate and a stipend to support living costs. UKRI (AHRC) funding will not cover international fees set by universities.

For further details please read the UKRI Guidance on EU and International Eligibility for UKRI funded studentships.

A studentship consists of three elements:

Payment of tuition fees for UK and international applicants of £4,407 per annum (indicative rate) for 2020 entry as set by UKRI (pro-rata for part-time study).

A maintenance grant (or stipend) for UK and international applicants of £15,285 per annum (indicative rate) for 2020 entry as set by UKRI pro-rata for part-time study).
Additional funding opportunities which include a Research Development Fund to support primary research activities, an Engagement Fund to enable students to undertake placements and other professional development activity and a Cohort Development Fund which supports groups of M4C students to design training, development and research activities.

Entry requirements

You should either hold a Master's qualification at the time of application or be able to state that you will have completed one by the time your PhD begins (even though the result may not be known and the final examination board may not yet have taken place). You can also apply on the basis of having equivalent relevant professional experience in lieu of a Master's qualification.

Informal enquiries

Leicester M4C general funding and application enquiries

Louise Taylor ahrcdtp@le.ac.uk

Midlands4Cities enquiries@midlands4cities.ac.uk

How to apply

The application cycle for 2021 is open

To apply for AHRC Midlands4Cities Collaborative Doctoral Awards

Select the project you want to apply for

Submit both of the following: a) University of Leicester PhD application and b) Midlands4Cities funding application

Step 1 Submit your University of Leicester application

Apply for your Leicester PhD using the relevant subject Apply button at the bottom of the page.

If you apply for more than one studentship in the same department, please only submit one University application form, but indicate both projects/funding sources.
If you are applying for projects in different departments, please complete separate University application form for each department/project.
Under the funding section select Studentship and in the drop-down list select AHRC Midlands4Cities.
In the References section, do not include your referee's email address. Instead, in the tab provided use pgradmissions@le.ac.uk as the email for both referees. References are requested as part of the AHRC M4C application only.

We would recommend you try, where possible, to submit your PhD application to Leicester before Christmas or at the very latest by 6th January 2021. This will allow you time to submit your M4C funding application (Step 2) in good time for your referees to submit their references before the 13th January (noon UK time) deadline.

Step 2 Submit your Midlands4Cities application

Complete the Midlands4Cities application form.

For more details please refer to the M4C website and please read the M4C guidance notes.

Eligibility

From the academic year 2021/22 AHRC funding is open to UK and International research students as detailed on the UKRI website.

You should either hold a Masters qualification at the time of application or be able to state that you will have completed one by the time your PhD begins (even though the result may not be known and the final examination board may not yet have taken place). You can also apply on the basis of having equivalent relevant professional experience in lieu of a Masters qualification.

Awards for UK residents cover UK tuition fees and provide a stipend at the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) rate.

International applicants will be eligible for tuition fees at the UK rate and a stipend to support living costs.

UKRI (AHRC) funding will not cover international fees set by universities. Funding for this may be available from other sources but specific guidance on this is currently not available. Please watch out for updated information on the UKRI and Midlands4Cities websites.