How to Apply
Applications for IAPETUS2 2023 studentships are now open. Please start by looking at our studentship page for information on our 2023 projects. We recommend contacting the primary supervisor of your preferred project for more information and to discuss your suitability for the project.
Application Process
IAPETUS2 will support at least 16 funded postgraduate studentships at one of our partner organizations in 2023
To apply for an IAPETUS2 studentship, please follow the guidelines below.
Application Overview
Eligibility
How to Apply
Financial Support
Application Flowchart
IAPETUS2 held an online Q&A workshop for applicants on Friday 16th December, where we outlined the application process and answered the pre-submitted questions. To see this online session, please click here. The password is +=iA720& and the sessions starts at 9 minutes and 25 seconds
Application Overview
In order to apply for an IAPETUS2 Studentship, all applicants must complete both the application form and the EDI form below by 6th January 2023 at 12pm. If you are longlisted you will be contacted by the 20th January 2023 and invited to put in a full application to the university where the PhD is based by 15th February 2023.
In order to address historical imbalances, IAPETUS2 is committed to recruiting a diverse, representative community of researchers in Environmental Science. We are guided by the UKRI policies on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, and have developed our own Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion policy to further this. This includes the Widening Participation Scheme, which identifies applicants from underrepresented groups who may be guaranteed an interview (up to 30% of interview places). Any of our studentships can be part-time if that mode of study is more appropriate for your circumstances. (International students should check the terms of the Tier 4 visa scheme to see if this is possible).
Eligibility
All applicants need to meet NERC’s eligibility criteria to be considered for an IAPETUS studentship and these are detailed in the current UKRI studentship terms and conditions
How to Apply
Please use the template to prepare your application before completing the online form. The application form is designed to provide us with the information we need to evaluate your application. We know that successful PhD students come from a wide range of backgrounds and with widely differing amounts of past experience. By using the template we can best evaluate your past achievements and potential for PhD research in the context of any past opportunities or barriers you may have faced. Our aim is to help you demonstrate your potential and make the best possible case for your future career in the environmental sciences.
We recommend that you use the template to enter and edit your supporting information in good time before the application deadline, and then use it to copy and paste the information required into the online form. Please note that we can only accept applications in this way, and you should NOT send the completed template document to us.
If you are uncertain about any of the elements of the form, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at contact.iapetus@durham.ac.uk. The DTP Manager will respond to your questions; the manager is not involved in the decision-making part of the evaluation process for studentships. We will also host an online Q&A session on 16th December to answer questions about the application process. If you have questions about the procedures for each of our partners, contact details for their administrators are also available via the link on our website, and again these administrators are not directly involved in the evaluation of applications. Academic contacts in each institution may be involved in the evaluation process.
Financial Support
IAPETUS2’s postgraduate studentships are tenable for up to 3.5 years and provides the following package of financial support:
- A tax-free maintenance grant set at the UK Research Council’s national rate, which in 2022/23 is £17,668.
- Payment of tuition fees at the Home rate (some of our partners have funding available for the additional fees charged to international students. Please get in touch with the primary supervisor of the project to learn more);
- Access to extensive research support funding; &
- Support for an external placement of up to six months.
Part-time award-holders are funded for seven years and receive a maintenance grant at 50% of the full-time rate.
Application Flowchart
FAQs
- 01 Choosing an IAPETUS2 project
- 02 Applying to IAPETUS2
- 03 After Submitting an Application
- 04 Interview and Notification
Yes, you should contact the primary supervisor. As an applicant, it is useful to discuss the project details with the supervisor and talk through your suitability for the project. After having this conversation, you can incorporate this into your application.
Yes, you may apply for more than one project if you wish. But consider how many projects you realistically have a good chance of success with. It is better to make a smaller number of strong applications than a larger number of more speculative ones.
You must complete one application form per project, but we only need a single EDI form per applicant.
If you are longlisted for multiple projects, we will ask you to select which project you want to proceed with by 27th January 2023, at 12 noon.
When you submit an IAPETUS2 application online, you should receive an automatically generated email confirming you have submitted your application form. Please check your junk folder if you do not think you have received this. Please contact us if you have not received this and we can check that your application has been received.
IAPETUS2 will then contact applicants on the following dates after this:
Friday 20th January, 5pm – Confirm whether an applicant has been longlisted or not
Tuesday 21st February, 5pm – Confirm whether an applicant has been shortlisted for interview or not
Friday 3rd March, 5pm – Confirm whether an applicant has been awarded a studentship or not
Please do not contact IAPETUS2 in advance of these dates and times to check on the status of your application as notifications will be sent out only on these dates.
No, your reference details need to be on your IAPETUS application. Please notify your references that if you are longlisted, they will be contact by IAPETUS2 from Friday 20th January and to please be available to submit a reference on your behalf as there is a quick turnaround.
If possible, we are asking all references to please use the IAPETUS standard reference form in order to be able to compare all references like for like. Please encourage your reference to use the reference form provided.
On Friday 20th January, you will be notified whether you have been longlisted or not. At this stage, anyone longlisted for a project will be asked to email the primary supervisor of the project a copy of their CV and transcripts by Monday 23rd January. Please do not email these in advance as supervisors complete the longlisting stage using anonymised application forms only.
Please keep your CV to no more than 2 pages long, please do not include a photo on your CV and please ensure your CV is written in gender neutral pronouns to avoid unconscious bias during the application process.
Firstly, the Supervisory teams longlist the top three applicants who are the best fit for their project then each partner organisation produces a shortlist of up to seven applicants. The Studentship panel (made up of representatives from all IAPETUS2 institutions) compares the applications across the partners and makes awards based on their assessment of both the application (60%) and the interview (40%)
Criteria are published (Appendix 3 in Student Guidance document) based on background, project fit and future potential (50:40:10)
You will be notified by email when you need to submit a PhD application to the awarding university. This will likely be in late January, early February after longlisting. (The date depends on which institution you would be applying to).
You apply to the university where the primary supervisor is based at. (The first supervisor listed on the project). If the primary supervisor is based at BAS, BGS or UKCEH, you apply to the university of the second supervisor.
It is worth discussing this question with potential supervisors, but for the most part you should be able to reuse the material from the initial application in the personal statement part of the form – we’re not anticipating the need to rewrite the material substantially.
Due to the large numbers of applications, IAPETUS2 cannot offer any feedback to applicants.
Interviews will be held on Tuesday 28th February and Wednesday 1st March 2023. You will not get to choose the date and/or time of interview. Please ensure you are available to be interviewed on these dates.
If you are successful at shortlisting stage, you will receive your invitation to interview by 5pm on Tuesday 21st February 2023. If you are not successfully shortlisted, you will receive notification of this on this date.
All IAPETUS2 interviews will be held on Zoom on Tuesday 28th February and Wednesday 1st March 2023.
No, you will not need to give a presentation. The interview will be structured in a question and answer format. There will usually be three interviewers and each applicant will be asked the same set of questions. Interviews will normally last no longer than 30 minutes.
All interviewed applicants will hear from IAPETUS2 on Friday 3rd March 2022
If you are offered a studentship with IAPETUS2, we will need you to respond to this offer by no later than midday on Wednesday 15th March 2023 at 12 noon.
IAPETUS2 is unable to tell you whether or not you are likely to receive a studentship as it depends on how many acceptances and declines we receive from those offered a place.
IAPETUS2 is unable to tell you how long you will be kept on the Reserve List for as it depends on how many acceptances and declines we receive from those offered a place. The first group of offers must respond by Wednesday 15th March. After this point, IAPETUS2 will make new offers for the declines it has received, and will continue to do so until we have a complete cohort. We aim to do this as quickly as possible, but we do need to give those who receive offers time to consider the offer. IAPETUS2 will notify those left on the reserve list once it has closed.
Due to the large numbers of applications, IAPETUS2 cannot offer any feedback to applicants.
All IAPETUS2 projects will be online by Friday 4th November at 5pm.