Year 1
Table of contents
Objectives
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.
Identifying a research project that you will dedicate three years of your life towards can be challenging. You will be supported by your university and HDRUK in these efforts through a number of activities in the first year to help you with this. See more information on choosing your PhD.
Continuation of your funding support from HDRUK beyond Year 1 is dependent only on successfully developing a credible thesis project. There is no coursework or exams.
University-based activities
At the start of Year 1, you will work with your HDRUK University Lead to develop a bespoke programme of activities that will support your ability to choose a thesis project.
Each university will have different facilities and resources at its disposal to support this so we are not prescriptive but the following examples provides guidance on what might be suitable:
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Two rotation projects, spanning 8-12 weeks, one in Autumn and one in Spring based within different research groups within your university,
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Graduate-level courses, for example offered as part of a Centre for Doctoral Training, given insights into different research areas,
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Participation in externally-led short projects via the HDRUK community or other partners.
You may also want to propose your own training regime and we will be happy to support this in discussion with your University Lead and the HDRUK Programme Director.
Workshops
HDRUK will host a series of short workshops throughout the year to give insight into different areas of scientific research carried out by members of our community across all four nations of the UK as well as external partners organisations (e.g. NHS Digital). These could be lunch-time seminars to full or half-day residential events. The aim is to give you insight into assets which are available nationally within or linked to HDRUK that you could access as part of your PhD research.
Immersions
Immersion Weeks are extended residential training events lasting 3-4 days. There are normally at least three such events in Year 1. Topics vary from year to year and determine by the immersion event lead but, for example, past immersions have included:
- “Clinical Prediction Models” by the Centre for Health Informatics at the University Manchester,
- “Public Health Data Science” from Statistical Science and Institute of Health Informatics at UCL,
- “Bioinformatics” by the European Bioinformatics Institute.
Cohort building events may also be held alongside immersion weeks.
Research Project Proposal
You will need to produce a formal written research proposal by the end of Year 1 giving details of your research plans in Years 2-4 and the supervision team that will support the project and you. See more information on developing your research proposal.
PPIE Training
An important part of your research proposal will be the lay abstract and the addition of appropriate public-patient co-design and engagement activities. We will leverage the extensive experience of HDRUK to support your training in this area through our PPIE team and our Public Advisory Board to ensure your proposals are written and presented suitably for wider audiencs.
Proposal Review Panel
Your thesis project proposals will be assessed by both the Programme Director and a multi-institutional panel of University Leads or External Experts. The aim of the viva is to provide feedback on your project so that you may improve your research plans (where necessary) before the proposal is submitted to Wellcome.
You may submit your proposal for review in either June or August of your first year. The first deadline allows time for substantial revisions should the project be assessed have deficiencies or permit PhD studies to begin by the summer. The second deadline allows students flexibility to spend longer on first year activities to support project development but does not leave substantial time for revisions should proposals be unsuitable.
HDRUK approved Research Proposals must be submitted by the 30 September to Wellcome at the end of your first year. Failure to do so may jeopardise continuation of funding support.