IRCSET

cunnins4

Howdy folks,

How difficult is the IRCSET funding to get? I'm hopefully undertaking a PHd in October and my supervisor's suggested applying for this.

Got a first last year, a 2.2 the year before and a 2.1 in first year. A first is certainly my intention this year, but I can't be overly sure of course!

Has anyone got any recommendations/experience to improve my chances?

Cheers!

Red Alert

They appear to make the decision (for round 1 anyway) based on people's 2nd year performance, their personal statement and their referee's report. From what I saw it's advantageous also to pick your referees carefully (one is probably going to be your new supervisor). Also they seem to want almost unrealistic aims in personal statements - if you think your work would eventually be worthy of a nobel prize then say it. Just some things I picked up after putting in an unsuccessful application a couple of years ago - good luck!

Climate Expert

Choose a good supervisor and a good project. Bull**** in your statment. I would say your third year results are more important than second years for obvious reasons.

paraicr

I got IRCSET funding about 5 years ago now, and at that time i'd say there was less applicants.
I'd say a 2:1 is the absolute minimum (they won't state this publicly, but anyone i know that got it had consistent 1:1)

A lot will depend on the referees statement. My main referee talked me up bigtime. (its obviously a big deal for a supervisor to get an ircset student so it was in his interest to BS).

Also you should talk up the importance of your research area and the diversity of your project. Mine was in Civil eng, which i'd imagine was fairly rare back then since jobs were easily got.

Personal statement is a load of waffle really, but emphasise your interest and commitment to research.

I'd put the breakdown roughly as follows:
Grades 40%
Referees 20%
Project 30%
Personal Statement 10%

bassman22

Here is the proper breakdown:

Assessors consider all four elements of the application and allocate scores
as follows:
• Academic Qualifications (Maximum 30 points)
• Personal Statement (Maximum 30 points)
• Project Proposal (Maximum 10 points)
• Supervisor and Referees’ report (Maximum 30 points)
Results of the competition will be published to the IRCSET website in mid-April. All eligible
applicants to the competition will receive feedback on their application.

pisslips

Ahhhh....the effort, they really pick an inconvenient time...could they not just process it in the summer?

El Siglo

I just saw this thread a minute ago, I too am looking to do a Phd and the lecturer has suggested a topic already. I don't have an MSc but would it help that I came top of the class in 2nd year geography at UCD and they are giving me a medal for it and just received €1000 third year scholarship from the UCD president? I mean does that kind of stuff look good to IRCSET, even without a postgrad under my belt?

cunnins4

El Siglo wrote: »

I just saw this thread a minute ago, I too am looking to do a Phd and the lecturer has suggested a topic already. I don't have an MSc but would it help that I came top of the class in 2nd year geography at UCD and they are giving me a medal for it and just received €1000 third year scholarship from the UCD president? I mean does that kind of stuff look good to IRCSET, even without a postgrad under my belt?

I've no idea, but if you don't, I certainly won't. What're your 3rd and 4th year grades like?

From what I've gathered it's all about the personal statement and supervisor's comments.

StudentC

El Siglo wrote: »

I just saw this thread a minute ago, I too am looking to do a Phd and the lecturer has suggested a topic already. I don't have an MSc but would it help that I came top of the class in 2nd year geography at UCD and they are giving me a medal for it and just received €1000 third year scholarship from the UCD president? I mean does that kind of stuff look good to IRCSET, even without a postgrad under my belt?

That stuff definitely would help, put it down on the application form and highlight it in the personal statement if you feel it's one of your stronger things to show off.

From my experience, it seems that the grades and the good references are a necessity to get you in the door, and then maybe the personal statement separates out people after that? FWIW, I stressed in my personal statement that I understood what taking on a PhD meant, how crap it might be, and that I wanted to do it because I enjoy research, not because I couldn't get a job or couldn't think what else to do.

Also, if geography is your area, should you not be looking more at IRCHSS funding? I don't know, I just remember from looking at the lists that the majority of IRCSET funding seemed to go towards more mathematical and chemical sciences, with siome biological.

El Siglo

You see my lecturer is big into IRCSET because it's a physical geography research topic that I'm looking into; "Contaminant Cycling in a floodplain...." so none of the usual hairy fairy type of stuff that people normally do in human geography, it involves a fair bit of geochemistry, Remote Sensing, using a core sediment analyser (there's only 13 of them in the world) etc... Yeh my results have been pretty high, it's a three year course but the degree is split 50-50 over the last two years and I'm averaging out at a first each semester.

Cheers for that info folks, hope I can get my application accepted by this crowd now!;) Good luck to the rest of ye!

Jubbin

I'm 41 and about to apply for IRCset funding - I've been having kids and working part time last 6 years. My MSc was completed in 1995. I'm self employed and do short term contracts for lots of different engineers etc but many have never met me. i get info in post do a site visit and submit report a few days later. My last academic ref would be from 15 years ago. I work alone except for two people who I sometimes work with neither have PHDs ...what will I do for refernces ...any suggestions?

lumpwood

Not for IRCSET as afaik. You need a supervisor and two other referees.

Jubbin

I have a supervisor who is enthusiastic about my proposal but he can't be a referee too for IRCSET

El Siglo

Jubbin wrote: »

I have a supervisor who is enthusiastic about my proposal but he can't be a referee too for IRCSET

Perhaps there are two others in the department that could act as referees? Talk to your supervisor, arrange to meet to other lecturers (through your supervisor of course), give them your cv and copies of some of the work you've done and see if they'll be referees for you then.

token56

Having gone through the process last year I can tell you ever bit of the application is extremely important given the standard that is coming in. For example the second call last year there were a total of 589 eligible applicants. The highest mark achieved was 95.5 and the lowest total score that was awarded funding was 87. Also given that there is only one call this year, it is likely there will probably be even more applicants and the standard can be expected to be just as high if not higher. I'm not trying to scare anyone but just point out the standard of application that is expected.

Edit: Also just to say that there were only 32 awards given out last year for the second call so the standard of scoring for those successful would have been a bit higher because of this. I'm not sure exactly how many are going to be given out for this call, but it should be a good bit more than 32 so this will help people obviously.

My advice is that every section is important. Academic Career, really you will more than likely you will need a 1.1 and also be one of the best in your class. There isn't a great amount you can do here only put down what results you have, but if you achieved any awards throughout the years because of your results put it down of course.

Personal Statement, it can be a bit bullsh*ty, but you need to make sure you cover all the points in the guidelines and possibly more. If there is someone in your college or department who is very familiar with IRCSET and the process get them to help you out and advise you on this.

Referees and Supervisor statement: This is equally as important as the above two sections but you a bit more limited in what you can do for it. All you can do is emphasis to your referees and supervisor how important their statements are, and ask them to make them personal for you and not some generic statement they might use.

Project Outline: It may be worth the least amount of marks, but every mark will be important and this is the part you should be doing the best in. Again there are guidelines for this part, make sure you give them what they are asking for. Discuss this section with your supervisor too and maybe anybody else who is familiar with the process if possible.

I would also strongly advise if there is a possibility of a company you or your supervisor know of who would possibly fund part of your research, apply for the enterprise partnership scheme too and have a talk with that company about it. Even if you dont have the score to get it straight out you can still get it through this if the company is interested. This is not guaranteed either but it does increase your chances a small bit.

Anyway best of luck to all who are applying.

mac09

token56 wrote: »

Having gone through the process last year I can tell you ever bit of the application is extremely important given the standard that is coming in. For example the second call last year there were a total of 589 eligible applicants. The highest mark achieved was 95.5 and the lowest total score that was awarded funding was 87. Also given that there is only one call this year, it is likely there will probably be even more applicants and the standard can be expected to be just as high if not higher. I'm not trying to scare anyone but just point out the standard of application that is expected.

My advice is that every section is important. Academic Career, really you will more than likely you will need a 1.1 and also be one of the best in your class. There isn't a great amount you can do here only put down what results you have, but if you achieved any awards throughout the years because of your results put it down of course.

Personal Statement, it can be a bit bullsh*ty, but you need to make sure you cover all the points in the guidelines and possibly more. If there is someone in your college or department who is very familiar with IRCSET and the process get them to help you out and advise you on this.

Referees and Supervisor statement: This is equally as important as the above two sections but you a bit more limited in what you can do for it. All you can do is emphasis to your referees and supervisor how important their statements are, and ask them to make them personal for you and not some generic statement they might use.

Project Outline: It may be worth the least amount of marks, but every mark will be important and this is the part you should be doing the best in. Again there are guidelines for this part, make sure you give them what they are asking for. Discuss this section with your supervisor too and maybe anybody else who is familiar with the process if possible.

I would also strongly advise if there is a possibility of a company you or your supervisor know of who would possibly fund part of your research, apply for the enterprise partnership scheme too and have a talk with that company about it. Even if you dont have the score to get it straight out you can still get it through this if the company is interested. This is not guaranteed either but it does increase your chances a small bit.

Anyway best of luck to all who are applying.

Curious to know were you successful last year?

token56

Unfortunately I didn't get it straight out, but I am hopefully getting it through the enterprise partnership scheme. It has just taken a while to sort things out between the company and IRCSET, but last indications were it will be going ahead, so technically maybe.

Also I probably should have mentioned this but keep in mind for the second call last year there were only 32 awards for purely IRCSET given out of almost 600 so it was a bit more difficult. I'm not exactly sure how many will be given out this year, but it should be alot more than 32 I think so that should certainly help people. I'll go back and edit to mention this, sorry.

Anyway again best of luck to all who apply.

People are saying 'all your results', do ye mean for each and every subject?? Or just your grades for all years?