Last update: 27 June 2022

Preparing your research proposal

The overall objective of Year 1 of the PhD Programme is to develop a three-year PhD research (“thesis”) project proposal that you will carry out in Years 2-4. Research proposals will be formally reviewed by a panel of academics and a decision made on the suitability of the project.

Project Eligibility Criteria

You will need to produce a research proposal that meets the following criteria:

The primary supervisor should be an academic staff member of the university at which the student is registered, with a contract of employment that extends beyond the end of study period for the student. They would also commit to delivering at least one day per year of material within the first-year training programme for each cohort of students.
We strongly encourage the inclusion of early-career academics and colleagues from other institutions as members of supervisory teams.
The summary of the proposed area of work should be a plan rather than a prescription, setting specific initial objectives and broad later lines of inquiry. It should give sufficient detail to confirm that it falls with the scope of the HDR UK PhD programme, i.e. has the potential for methodological innovation and substantive application.

The Proposal

Your research proposal will need to contain the following elements:

Lay Summary

Provide a summary of your proposed research for a non-specialist audience. You don’t need to oversimplify your research, but try to explain it as clearly as possible. Write in the first person (“I” and “we”) and structure your summary in this order: background to the research problem; your approach; expected impact of your work. Take care not to include anything confidential or commercially sensitive.

Research summary

Describe your research project, including key goals, for an expert audience. This must include:

Aims and research questions;
Work which has led up to the project;
Approach and methods you will use; and
Timetable and milestones, if appropriate.

Do not exceed 700 words.

References

Give the citation in full, including title of paper and all authors.

Outputs management plan

All Wellcome PhD programme students are expected to manage their research outputs in a way that will achieve the greatest health benefit, maximising the availability of research data, software and materials with as few restrictions as possible. Guidance on developing an outputs management plan, which includes a link to some good examples, is available here. If an outputs management plan is not required, explain why.

Additional information

You will also be asked to provide information on:

Any proposed research that might involve human participants, human biological material and identifiable data,
Risks of research misuse,
Freedom to operate/conflicts of interest (particularly when involving commercial partners),
Anticipated spending requirements

Year 1 Review Panel

Objective

The purpose of the Year 1 Review Panel is to:

Verify that the candidate has been actively engaged in the Year 1 Training Programme
Evaluate the proposed PhD Research Project
Recommend that the candidate proceed to the second year of the programme.

Prerequisites

The candidate shall submit a written PhD research proposal no less than one week before the review panel.

The Review Panel

The review panel shall consist of no less than three academic representatives to normally include:

The HDR UK-Turing PhD Director (or nominated representative)
The University Lead (or nominated representative) for the candidates’ institution
An independent academic representative not based at the candidates’ institution.

No members of the proposed supervision team shall be present on the review panel and suitable substitutes will be put in place if any of the above are proposed supervisors or specific technical expertise is required.

Review Process

Each review will last no longer than 30 minutes.

The candidate will be asked to open the review with a 5-minute overview of their proposed project (slides optional but no more than 3).

The Review Panel will then ask the candidates questions regarding the research proposal in the remaining time.

Following questions, candidates will be asked to leave the meeting. Candidates will be informed of the outcome by the Programme Director or their appointed representative usually on the same day.

Evaluation Criteria

The panel shall:

Evaluate if the proposed research falls under the scientific remit of the HDR UK-Turing PhD Programme.
Judge if the proposed research is feasible and that a sufficient body of work could be achieved within three years to permit the award of a doctorate.
Determine if the supervision team has the appropriate range of expertise, experience and availability to suitably guide the candidate.
Verify that the necessary data and/or computational resources are in place (or there is a credible plan for these to be in place) to accomplish the research objectives.
Identify if a suitable output management strategy is in place to allow appropriate dissemination of the research outputs.
Consider if appropriate ethical and/or research protocols are in place to allow the work to be conducted.
Determine if the proposed research expenses are justified.
Evaluate if public-patient engagement has been considered.

Decisions

At the conclusion of the review, the panel shall make one of three following decisions:

Proceed to Year 2. The panel considers there to be no major issues with the proposal and no (or very minor) corrections are required.
Minor revisions. The panel determines that the proposal is sound but some minor revisions are required to clarify or improve the proposal.
Major revisions. The panel considers that there are significant flaws in the research proposal and a major revision or alternative proposal is required.

If revisions are required, the candidate will be provided with advice and guidance as to the additional steps required.

It is considered unlikely that major revisions would be required if the candidates routinely consult with their University Lead or the Programme Directors during the project proposal development.

Public-Patient Review

HDR UK is heavily invested in ensuring the public is consulted about the research that it undertakes. You will present your proposals to a specially convened public-patient advisory group and respond to feedback as part of your proposal development.

Additional Guidance

Scientific Remit

HDRUK research currently covers a broad range of areas but proposed research projects must involve quantitative-based research which is likely to involve one or more of the following:

The design and implementation of novel analysis methods,
Use of electronic health records,
Integrative analysis across different health data modalities,
Investigation of epidemiology or population research questions,
Investigation of the causes of human disease.

Primary research activities should not include experimental (laboratory-based) work, qualitative studies or extensive data collection though some limited exposure to these activities are permitted for training and experience purposes. Proposals focusing on non-human organisms or have a specific focus on understanding fundamental human biology may not be appropriate. Pure methodology projects should be motivated by health data research problems or indicate a path to utility for research applications.

Supervisory Support

Supervision teams are expected to contain the range and depth of expertise required to support the student in their personal and research development. Otherwise, there are no restrictions on the constitution of supervision teams beyond the normal requirements set by individual universities on supervisor eligibility.

Project Submission

Once approved, a subset of students will be required to submit their research proposals to Wellcome via the WT Grants Tracker system.

Name of administering organisation: Health Data Research UK

After you submit, HDR UK will then be asked to approve all submissions on the WT Grants System. All proposed supervisors will need to also digitally verify their participation. Students are advised to submit projects well in advance of the given deadlines to allow these approvals to be obtained.