My PhD Journey - Alma

The word ‘PhD' by itself sounds expensive, since there are many costs associated with conducting research and completing a PhD. Funding is available for students to apply; however, not many students know where to even look for PhD projects and/or scholarships. 

I will always remember the time that I started applying for funded PhD projects. I started joining different Facebook groups in my field of study or related fields. From there, I started noticing many fully funded PhD programs offered around the world. From a different PhD program offer advertised, I found the amazing website: Find a PhD. This then became my primary source for PhD projects. 

On the Find a PhD website, you can type your field of study or something related and then look at the many PhDs offered by many UK institutions and around the world, but mainly UK institutions. After finding the correct one, I checked the available funding and my eligibility. Some funded PhD projects are offered only to UK students, others are open to everyone, including international students, and others are not funded. If the offer is only for UK students, you can still email the scholarship committee and/or your supervisor to see if you still qualify and can apply.  It is worth the shot! 

It was always a decision to apply to an unfunded one or try to get the funded one and hopefully get it. There are fully funded PhD where everything is covered, while others are partially funded, like a bursary, and you still need to pay for things. All of these you can clarify with your supervisor before accepting, or while you are in the early stages of considering applying and have just contacted your future supervisor.   

On the other hand, the PGRD webpages explain the main steps for applicants, including who is eligible, how many schemes you can apply to, and whether you need a confirmed PhD offer before applying. Usually, you need to meet the academic and residency requirements for each scheme, so be sure to check the criteria closely first. Most schemes let you submit more than one application if you follow the rules but check the limits for your programme. Often, you do not need to have a confirmed PhD place to apply. However, you will usually need to show that you are actively seeking a supervisor or have chosen a research area. The PGRD webpages give clear instructions for each step to help you with your application. 

There is no limit on how many scholarships you can apply to, just make sure to read the full criteria since some target specific audiences. There are grants available for fieldwork, training in a specific lab, and more; however, having a chat with fellow PhD students, your supervisor, mentors, or a postdoc is a good way to find the funding that is available. By exploring these options early and seeking advice, you will be in a much better position to secure the funding that will support your PhD career. 

A Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) is a UKRI-funded doctoral programme that provides structured PhD training to address science-related problems that benefit society. For example, NERC is a CDT, who funds specific DTPs (Doctoral Training Partnerships), such as the one I have been awarded, YES-DTN. The Yorkshire Environmental Sciences Doctoral Training Network (YES DTN) is a collaboration of four academic schools across the University of Leeds and the Wolfson Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratories of the University of York. YES-DTN offers a range of professional and technical training and PhD projects, led by experts in the field and case partners. All of these, which focus on specific research themes (CDT) or broader themes (DTP), are part of a cohort and are funded for 4 years. 

Being part of one is excellent; however, advantages and disadvantages can come with it, but it depends on what you want from your PhD. Main advantages are that you are part of a strong cohort where you can feel less isolated, create a peer support network, and help with collaboration. Additionally, they offer structured, high-quality training, including workshops, professional development, and specialist methods training. The main advantage is that the funding is secure, covering a generous stipend, research costs, full tuition, and sometimes fieldwork budgets.  Potential downsides of being awarded CDTs or DTPs include structured training that takes time, project definition that can feel fuzzy, and navigating multiple layers, such as programme and department requirements and supervisor expectations. All of these can feel overwhelmed; however, I believe that there are more advantages to being part of this than disadvantages. 

The question I always get is how to carve out my own research area within the programme, and I have a couple of tips for the first year of PhD studies. The first 3 months are the most difficult, since you start to adapt to being more independent, try to attend training sessions from the programme, the university, and your own school, and at the same time, read a lot about your project and start writing a literature review. In this period, you must identify missing links in your research or methodological gaps and work closely with your supervisor. Your project is usually or becomes very interdisciplinary, so you can work with external partners or people in your cohort to publish in the future and/or collaborate. The CDT and DTP offer many training courses, some mandatory and others optional. It is important to pick the ones that will really help you, or if you want to improve a specific skill. Finally, planning a timeline for the entire year and the rest of the year is very helpful, as it helps you recognize where to start different tasks and when to finish each one. 

Final thoughts are that even though a PhD can be difficult to complete, each partnership, school, and university offers a lot of support that will help you during these PhD years. Help is everywhere! 

It was always a decision to apply to an unfunded one or try to get the funded one and hopefully get it. There are fully funded PhD where everything is covered, while others are partially funded, like a bursary, and you still need to pay for things. All of these you can clarify with your supervisor before accepting, or while you are in the early stages of considering applying and have just contacted your future supervisor.   

When I see the word “rejection,” I always remember a phrase a friend told me: “Sometimes rejection is really redirection.” This phrase can have many meanings, and I will give you some examples here. When you get a rejection from something that you wanted, of course, you can be sad or disappointed about not getting the funding, scholarship, position, etc., but the important thing is what you are going to do next. Talking PhD-wise, getting a rejection is always hard and even hurtful, but it is important to find out why. Was this rejection because I missed something in my academic profile? Was I missing specific skills and requirements for the program? Was the decision mainly due to the volume of applicants? What happened? All of these, and to some extent, can be answered by the interviewing or scholarship committee that you applied to by asking them for feedback. 

The feedback you can get depends on the situation and the committee. You can still ask them to send you any feedback on your CV or interview so you can improve for future opportunities. Rejection can feel like the end of the world, but it is not; it can also mean that you probably are not the best fit for the opportunity you were applying for. Whether you get any feedback or not, this cannot stop you from continuing to build your CV or improving your application. 

Before coming to Leeds, I had my PhD applications rejected for a couple of proposed fully funded PhD projects. Even though there was no more energy left in me to get more rejections, I still tried to get feedback and keep building my CV. I had a full-time job in the USA that I really liked, but it wasn't in my field of study. However, I contacted a friend in my field in Mexico and asked whether there were any volunteer opportunities. From these kinds of situations, I got to volunteer in my field in another country and gained many practical skills that strengthen my CV for job applications and future PhD projects. As a result, before coming to Leeds, I had 2 fully funded PhD offers and 2 job offers in case I wanted to go into industry in my field.  

Lastly, I remember that after years of trying to get into a fully funded PhD project, I considered doing it, but self-funded. It is not impossible to complete a self-funded PhD, but there are many factors to consider, including tuition, fieldwork, lab analyses, travel, conferences, and more. Besides money, it is important to determine whether your project is suitable for self-funded research or requires significant financial backing. With all these options on the table, maybe self-funding is possible for your project, or maybe it is not the right option; it all depends on your project. You can also ask future supervisors for advice on being self-funded. I am sure that if you were to join a university, you could still apply for scholarships, grants, and other financial aid to help cover the cost of your studies. The most important thing to remember is not to be afraid to ask questions or seek advice from future supervisors and scholarship/sponsorship committees to strengthen your application and keep applying. When one door closes, another one opens.