Applying for Irchss Postgrad Scholarship 2011 (1)
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Applying for IRCHSS Government of Ireland
Postgraduate Research Scholarships
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Basics
• Only for research degrees (= M.Litt, PhD, or integrated Masters/PhD degrees). NUI Galway‟s 4-yr structured PhD programme qualifies as “integratedMasters/PhD degree”.
• Funding for up to 3 years depending on stage
• €16,000 per year + fees (max. €5750) paid
• Must be Irish citizen or EU citizen resident in Ireland
for 3 of past 5 years• Applications to be submitted by post AND by email
by 4.00 p.m. 21 February 2011 (or before)
• Outcomes expected in August
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Basics
• DFA Andrew Grene Scholarship 2011: see T&C
• Evaluation by board of 25+ international experts
(each application read by multiple assessors).
Criteria are described on page 7 of ApplicationForm
• No other paid employment in Year 1
• Up to 3 hours per week teaching in Years 2 & 3
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Changes from 2010
• NO academic transcripts needed at applicationstage – Only submitted if you are offered scholarship
• All material MUST be supplied in the applicationform
• Two attempts only: – From 2009 onwards, applicants may only make one
application and one subsequent application
• Copies: 1 hard copy and 1 electronic copy only
• DFA Themes are new
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New to 2011
• „Formal Statement on Research Environment‟ to becompleted by Head of Department (old Section D)
• For ease of contact Scholars are requested to use a
single email for all correspondence from application,award and scholarship stages.
• MS Word only – no PDF
• Application form has been simplified• Word count to be specified by applicant.
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New to 2011
• Qualifications (Part C Academic Record)• Provision of evaluation criteria and scores
• Fee upper limit of €5750 only
• Additional bursaries not to exceed €5000
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Evaluation
• Focus on funding excellence, originality andpotential
• No subject quotas, no favoured topics nordisciplines
• International assessment
▫ N.B. assessors are assigned in accordance withPart 7 App form
• Evaluation process
▫ Numerical scoring and ranking
• No bias towards final year PhDs
• Both new and repeat applications are funded
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Evaluation Process
Four-phase approach:
1. Eligibility and Adherence to Terms and Conditions
2. Pre-meeting evaluation by Board Members
3. Assessment Board meeting
4. Post-meeting follow up
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Evaluation Criteria
Quality of Proposal Clarity and coherence of the proposed topic.
Quality and appropriateness of methodological approach.
Feasibility and credibility of the proposed research plan in the proposed
time period.
Originality and innovative nature, where appropriate.
Clarity of plans to acquire new knowledge and skills to achieve research
aims, where appropriate.
Direct alignment with Conflict Resolution Themes as set out in Terms and
Conditions (for Andrew Grene scholarship applicants only)
60/100
Quality of Scholar Match between applicant profile and project.
Track record to date where appropriate (i.e. second or third year scholars)
20/100
Provision of Institutional
Support Match between applicant, supervisor and institution.
Quality of Research environment and support available from the
Department/School.
20/100
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PGS Awards 2005-10
Year 2010/2011 2009/2010 2008/2009 2007/2008 2006/2007 2005/2006
Scheme Apps Award Apps Award Apps Awards Apps Awards Apps Awards Apps Awards
Postgraduate
Scholarship
649 92 630 145 461 153 365 124 378 94 293 91
Success
Rate 14% 23% 33% 34% 25% 31%
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Awards by Discipline (PGS 10)
5 5
1
2
1 1 1
5
15
1
13
4
2 2
8
4
10
1
2
3 3
2
1
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
A r c h a e o l o g y
B u s i n e s s & M a n a g e m e n t
C e l t i c S t u d i e s
C u l t u r a l S t u d i e s
E c o n o m i c s
E n v i r o n m e n t a l S t u d i e s
F r e n c h
G o v e r n m e n t a n d P o l i t i c a l S c i e n c e
H i s t o r y
I n
t e r n a t i o n a l D e v e l o p m e n t
L a w
L i n g u i s t i c s
L i t e r a t u r e
M u s i c o l o g y
P h i l o s o p h y
P o l i t i c s
P s y c h o l o g y
R e l i g i o u s S t u d i e s
S o c i a l a n d E c o n o m i c G e o g r a p h y
S o c
i a l P o l i c y a n d S o c i a l W o r k
S o c i o l o g y
T h e o l o g y
W o m e n s S t u d i e s
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Ineligibility Issues 2010
• No hard/soft copy
• Late
• Incomplete application:▫ No/incorrect signature
▫ Reference sent separately
• Outside remit
•
Outside original registration period (see App 1 T&C)• Sections left incomplete or left blank
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Scholars/Award holders
• Payments are made directly to the university
•
6-monthly progress reports - critical process-could entail the termination of an award
• Permission needed for teaching/work
experience, travel
• Template is sent to all scholars in advance
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The Application Form
• Download Word files from IRCHSS site:www.irchss.ie
• Complete „Part 1‟ of Reference Form and send formto your referee: must be typed
• Get Head of Department/School to complete „Formal
Statement on Research Environment‟ • 16 sections to be completed on Application Form
• Some sections of special importance –
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SECTION 7. PLEASE INDICATE THE DISCIPLINE(S), INORDER OF IMPORTANCE, TO WHICH YOUR PROJECTRELATES.
• Choose conventional disciplines (e.g. French,
Sociology, History, Classics, Psychology, Film
Studies, English, Marketing, Geography)
AND/OR
Interdisciplinary areas (e.g. Women‟s Studies,
Cultural Studies, Irish Studies)
• This assists IRCHSS in choosing your assessors
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SECTION 10. PROJECT
(10A.1) Description of topic (no more than 1000 words)
• aims and objectives • central research questions
(10A.2) Methodology (no more than 600 words),
• investigative and analytic methods• theoretical frameworks
(10A.3) Research plan (no more than 400 words)• including a schedule of the completion of
tasks/phases of the project and efficientmanagement and performance of research
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SECTION 10. PROJECT (cont’d)
(10A.4) Description of the relationship of the project to
existing research. Suggest how the project will make anew contribution to knowledge (no more that 600words). Do not provide bibliographical lists or footnotes.
(10A.5) Description of any specialist knowledge/datarequired to undertake the project (e.g. languagecompetence, technical skills, use of specialist software,etc.). Describe plans for acquiring this knowledge/data ifis not already in place. Describe how data required forthis project will be accessed. (No more than 200 words)
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SECTION 10. PROJECT (cont’d)
(10A.6) Description of the reason for choosing this
institution and supervisor for the project. Pleaseprovide details if the project will be part of anestablished research team. (No more than 400 words)
(10A.7) Detail any proposed research trips (no more thanthree weeks duration) which will be necessary as part ofyour proposed project. (No more than 200 words)
(10A.8) Description of dissemination plans (i.e.conference papers and publications) and potentialimpact, where relevant. (No more than 4200 words)
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SECTION 10. PROJECT (cont’d)
FOR APPLICANTS ALREADY STARTED ON PhD :
(10B) Assess your progress to date (no more than 500words).
(10C) Description of modifications made to the proposal if the proposal has been previously submitted (no morethan 200 words).
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(10A.1) Description of topic (no more than 600words).
• Aims and objectives
• Central research questions = what are the questions to
which you are seeking answers?• Provisional structure of thesis
* KEEP PROSE SIMPLE, DECLARATIVE ANDPRECISE IN ALL SECTIONS – DO NOT WRITE IN
‘ESSAY MODE’
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Illustration from first paragraph of a successful application :
“This thesis aims to expand our understanding of the Irish harp as
a key cultural signifier in 18th- and 19th-century Ireland. Using
a combination of sociological and literary analysis, it will
contextualise the position of the harp in relation to the
ideological, political and economic structures of the period.More specifically, it will trace the various visual, literary and
musical representations of the harp alongside an examination
of the harp as an actual object of musical performance and as
an economic commodity. A particular focus will be given to the harp‟s evolving role within Irish nationalist discourse from
the period of the United Irishmen (and the crucially important
Belfast Harper‟s festival of 1792), to the Sinn Féin movement
of the early twentieth century.”
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Illustration of research questions :
“The thesis will pose the following specific questions:
What are the specific ways that the figure of the Irish harp beenmobilised in Irish discourse, and with what purpose and effect?
Were there variations in the cultural meanings of the harp among
different socio-economic and political groups? What factors might
explain these variations or evolutions?
What is the relationship between literary and iconographicrepresentations of the harp, and the manufacture, performance and
reception of the harp as a musical instrument? How did economic
and sociological factors affect the role of the harp as popular
performance instrument? How do these material factors relate to the
literary, scholarly and iconographic representations of the harp?
To what extent does the position and meaning of the Irish harp
enable us to understand the general evolution of Irish nationalism in
the period?”
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(10A.2) Methodology (no more than 600words).
• With what „tools‟ do you propose to find answers to your
research questions?
• Investigative and analytic methods, for example:
qualitative methods, quantitative methods,critical analysis, linguistic analysis, semiotic
analysis, etc.
• Theoretical frameworks, for example:
historicism, feminism, sociolinguistics,
postcolonial theory, structuralism, etc.
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(10A.3) Research plan (no more than 400words).
• Outline of development from year to year in term of
tasks and phases
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(10A.4) Description of the relationship of theproject to existing research. Suggest how theproject will make a new contribution toknowledge (no more than 600 words).
• Describe briefly what you know of the existing field already,
showing that you know what the major works in the field are at
present
• Do not give bibliographical lists or footnotes – discuss and
briefly evaluate the scholarship in plain prose, perhaps
categorising by theme or chronology• Suggest how your work will EXTEND and/or CHALLENGE this
work (what are the gaps and problems in the existing field that
you will address?)
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Illustration :
“The iconographic and ideological significance of the Irish harp has not
been explored in a comprehensive interdisciplinary context to date.
Some excellent musicological examinations exist such as Colette
Moloney‟s recent synthesization of Bunting‟s collections which
deals authoritatively with one specific area, but is therefore limited
in range. While Joep Leerssen has expertly examined the creation of
a „self -image‟ of Ireland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,
the prominence of the harp as an agent in the formation of culture,
ideology and society is not a central concern of his. Barra Boydell‟s
research into the iconography of the harp offers interesting
overviews; however much of his lore on the subject comes from the
visual or historical. In no case are the theoretical perspectives of
semiotics and feminist theory deployed.”
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Illustration :
“More specifically, my project should add to our existing knowledge
of these areas in several ways:
providing a more extensive, richer, and more complex
interdisciplinary analysis of the various roles and meanings of the
Irish harp than has hitherto been possible;
a demonstration, through the case study of the harp, of the relations
between ideological, political, cultural and economic spheres inIrish society in the period;
a deeper understanding of the history and dynamics of cultural
nationalism in Ireland.”
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(10A.5) Description of any specialistknowledge/data required to undertake the project(e.g. language competence, technical skills, use
of specialist software, etc.). Describe plans foracquiring this knowledge/data if is not already inplace. Describe how data required for this project
will be accessed (no more than 400 words).
• Languages
• Technical skills: e.g. laser profilometry, interviewing
• Software: e.g. SPSS, NUD*IST, NVIVO, XML, GIS, etc.• Datasets
• Archives
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(10A.6) Description of the reason for choosingthis institution and supervisor for the project.Please provide details if the project will be part
of an established research team
• Supervisor‟s expertise
• Appropriate library or other institutional resources
• Specific training opportunities
• Existence of relevant programmes or similar research
projects at your chosen university
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(10A.8) Dissemination plans (no more than 200words).
• Examples of publication and forms of „impact‟:
thesis, conference papers, articles, databases,
software tools, websites, podcasts, etc.
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(12) Bibliography (no more than 2 pages)
• List any works mentioned in previous sections, andprovisional indication of reading you expect to undertake
(15) Ethics • Check with research office if you believe your topic may
require ethical approval (does it involve research
interviews, etc.?)
• Section MUST BE SIGNED by Head of Department either
„Yes‟ or „No‟.
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The Reference
• Choose an academic referee who is familiar with
your work – e.g. your current supervisor, or MA
course lecturer, or a final-year tutor
• Discuss your draft proposal with her or him well in
advance of deadline
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Remember!
• Get your reference organised early• Keep checking FAQs on IRCHSS website
• Section 15 must be signed by Head of Department
• Section 16 must be signed by Supervisor andsigned/stamped by Vice-President for Research.(Fiona Burns in the Research Office is the contact for
Vice President for Research signature/stamp).• „Formal Statement of Research Environment‟ must besigned by Head of Department
• Electronic and postal submission