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Child Health Research PhD Studentships Terms and Conditions

CHILD HEALTH RESEARCH (CHR) PhD STUDENTSHIPS (2024/25) TERMS & CONDITIONS

Please read the following Terms and Conditions carefully before submitting your project outline.

  1. You are invited to submit a 3-year PhD project outline for inclusion in the annual project portfolio for the Child Health Research (CHR) funded studentships.
  2. PhD project outlines may also be made available to other funding bodies within GOS ICH, or aligned with planned campaigns or specific donor requests for fundraising.
  3. The current stipend, £20,622 per annum, mirrors those awarded by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), with a consumables budget of £5,000 per annum. The stipend is tax-free and NI contributions are not paid by the Institute or by the studentship holder. Fees are paid at the Home rate. Students who are not eligible for Home fees status are expected to be able to fund the difference between the Home and Overseas fees. However, there may three International Scholar Awards for Doctoral Training Centres (ISAD) to cover the difference.
  4. EU nationals need to check whether they are eligible for the home fee status based on their UK residency and immigration status. Applicants will be asked about their likely fee status at the interview and we advise applicants contact the UCL Graduate Admissions Office for advice should they be unsure whether or not they meet the eligibility criteria for Home fees. Further information on Brexit and the definitions for fee status assessment can be found on the UCL website and also the UKCISA website (See the pdf guide ‘Who pays ‘home’ fees for higher education in England’).
  5. Eight PhD studentships will be made available in 2024-25, of which four have no restrictions. Funds from restricted sources are available to fund three projects relevant to genetics and one project relevant to either genetics or developmental biology. Funds are not restricted by department. For all projects, student selections will be based on excellence. (See Student Selection Process in point 9 below).
  6. Current supervisors who already have a CHR PhD student will not be eligible to submit a project for two years after the student has registered. (Although project outlines may still be submitted for other schemes within and outside UCL, and such projects can be retained on our self-funding portfolio.) 
  7. The named primary supervisor on the project must be a UCL approved primary supervisor. Subsidiary supervisors eligible to become a UCL approved primary supervisor before the project starts, can be named as the Intellectual Lead on the project. All projects should have a mid-career researcher who is based at GOS ICH appointed to the supervisory team (i.e., Grade 7/8).  Appointments to the supervisory team must meet UCL supervisor eligibility criteria as set out in the UCL Academic Manual . See: Chapter 5, Part A, Section 3.2 – Supervisors: Eligibility and Eligible Staff Categories for Supervising Research Students.
  8. Queries regarding the supervisor appointment process can be sent to (ich.researchdegrees@ucl.ac.uk).
  9. Students will be offered a portfolio of approved project outlines to choose from. Note the following stages of the student recruitment process:
    1. Supervisors are asked to submit Summary Project Outlines for the project portfolio (deadline for submission: 31st of July 2023). Following a preliminary peer review by a central panel (and any required feedback), approved projects will be advertised from mid-September 2023. NB Inclusion of your project outline in the portfolio will not guarantee you a student. 
    2. New for 2024/25 recruitment round: Student applicants will be required to contact potential supervisors with the aim to discuss the group's research and supervisory arrangements prior to applying. You may provide students with a supporting statement (<300 words) explaining their interactions with your group and any role they had in developing the project. Students will be able to upload these statements as part of their application. Supporting statements may be used to differentiate between students with identical rankings during shortlisting. 
    3. Students will be interviewed and selected by a central GOSICH committee, chaired by the Institute Director in March 2024. 
    4. If a student is accepted, the supervisor will work with the student on a full PhD project proposal which will be submitted for internal peer review, and approval by the Student’s Thesis Committee to ensure that selected projects are appropriate and up to date.
  10. Project submissions are invited from across the institute, including both clinical and non-clinical projects, to ensure all aspects of research at GOS ICH are available within the CHR Scheme.
  11. Supervisors may submit up to 2 project outlines as the Intellectual Lead for inclusion in the portfolio but can only take on one student. Following the interviews, the successful candidates are ranked by the panel and in the event of several candidates indicating an interest in the same project, the higher ranked candidate will be given priority.
  12. A previously submitted project may be re-submitted to this scheme. There is no automatic roll-over from last year.
  13. As portfolio development on the GOS ICH Research Degrees Studentships webpage occurs in September late project submissions are not accepted.
  14. Supervision:
    1. Project outlines are accepted for inclusion in the portfolio on the assumption that the project supervisor applicant meets the following criteria:
      1. The applicant must be the student's intended supervisor supported, where possible, by other eligible members of staff of GOS ICH.
      2. The primary supervisor must have a proven track record of good supervisory practice, and must meet the requirements set out in Chapter 5, Section 3 of the UCL Academic Manual, and section 15 below).
      3. Supervisors must ensure that all areas of expertise necessary for the student to be able to successfully complete the project have been identified and will be made available to the student either as part of a supervisory team or a collaboration.
      4. The proposed supervisors’ supervisory load must not exceed the maximum number of students permitted as set out in Section 3.3 of the UCL Academic Manual by the start of the project in September 2024.
      5. The supervisors’ salary funding must be guaranteed for at least 2 years from September 2024.
      6. Supervisors must have agreed with their Section Head that sufficient space (desk and laboratory) is available for the Postgraduate Student.
      7. The applicant must not have ‘overdue’ final reports due to be submitted to any external funding body, CHR-CIO or GOSHCC.
    2. In the case of a GOS ICH / University of Toronto project:
      1. There is joint supervision established with an academic from the University of Toronto to join the ICH student’s supervisory team (i.e., as second subsidiary supervisor).
      2. A 6-month period will be spent by the student at the University of Toronto.
      3. The period spent in Canada will be considered as study leave.
      4. Study leave will be formally applied for as per UCL regulations and approved prior to departure (see ‘Study Leave for Postgraduate Students’). Study leave cannot be taken within first 3 or final 3 months of the PhD.
    3. Supervisors must complete the online MS Form to submit project proposals by 5pm Monday 31st July 2023.
    4. Supervisors will be contacted with any requests for further information regarding their project outlines from the review panel. The approved portfolio will accompany the advertising of the Studentships from mid-September 2023. Supervisors of projects chosen by successful students will be required to submit a detailed full project proposal which must be discussed and agreed with the student. This will be peer reviewed in May-June 2024. The studentships will generally start at the beginning of the 2024/25 academic year.
  15. UCL eligibility criteria for supervisors:
    1. For supervisor eligibility see: 
    2. A Principal Supervisor should:
      1. have satisfactorily completed any probationary period attached to his/her appointment.
      2. have expertise in the proposed area of research. 
      3. have had previous experience of at least one successful PhD supervision within a supervisory team (defined as having taken a student all the way through to a research degree award). 
      4. For a probationary member of academic staff to be appointed as Principal Supervisor, supervision must be undertaken within the context of an experienced supervisory team comprising at least one demonstrably active researcher with experience of at least two successful supervisions.
    3. A Subsidiary Supervisor must:
      1. have expertise relevant to the area of proposed research;
      2. be familiar with the standards required for MPhil/PhD research.
    4. A Research Fellow (Grade 7) may be invited to act as a Subsidiary Supervisor but must, in addition to the requirements specified for Subsidiary Supervisors:
      1. Have a research contract lasting at least 3 years from the time the supervised student commences his/her programme of study;
      2. Be able to provide evidence of good quality publications for which they have had a substantial degree of responsibility;
      3. Preferably have some experience in supervising MSc-level students.
    5. Research Fellows Grade 8 and above may be appointed as subsidiary or primary supervisors subject to necessary UCL approval.
    6. All supervisors must have fully approved UCL supervisor status registered on their MyHR record prior to the portfolio being advertised in September 2023.  This can be arranged via the GOS ICH Research Degrees Office where necessary.
    7. Supervisors must not exceed the maximum number of research students permitted under their supervision. (Please see Section 3.3 of the UCL Academic Manual and section 8 above.)
  16. CHR primary supervisors will be expected to comply with the following:
    1. Complete the student’s annual monitoring information, e-Log and other monitoring requests made by the Research Degrees Office by the deadlines requested.
    2. A brief annual report tracking the progress of the student's work is required, with a complete report at the end of the studentship.
    3. Report on the student’s career progression for a period of three years after the completion/award of their PhD.
    4. Encouragement is given to the publication of research results in scientific journals. UCL researchers are required to upload their final accepted manuscripts to UCL’s Research Publications Service (RPS) within 3 months of first online publication to qualify for REF submission. Applicants should refer to UCL’s REF Open Access Policy for further guidance. Any publications arising from the project shall acknowledge the CHR-CIO’s financial support.
  17. Research results must not be patented or put to any commercial use without the express permission of the Trustees as appropriate.
  18. No material change in the nature of the research, or the terms of an approved grant, shall be made without additional review.

To apply, please complete this MS Application Form by 5pm Monday 31st July 2023.