Irish Research Council - Progress Reports

smurac86

I was just wondering if anyone had heard anything from IRC regarding progress reports for postgraduate scholarships. Think there's supposed to be two - one in January and one in June/July.....

Historia

Hi, I rang the IRC on Friday about the progress reports and I was told that they are behind schedule this year and that they should email all award holders in the next fortnight.

k_tos

Will be starting funding in October and curious as to how this plays out- do you have to account for how you've spent the stipend?

I was under the impression (from a previous IRCHSS presentation I attended) that you get your cheque from your institution and away you go in terms of how you decide to spend it- yet T&C's for this year's state:


8.3 It will be the responsibility of the Scholar to make sure that all progress reports are submitted on time. The timely submission of these reports is a condition of the continuation of the Scholarship. The format for these reports is available from the Council, and will include but will not be limited to:

8.3.1 Financial update;

All and any ideas on "financial update" in terms of its scope and what they will be looking for, most welcome???:)

Ravelleman

The financial update would surely relate to expenses, which you can claim back from the IRC up to a limit of of €2,250 if justified.

How you spend a stipend is up to you.

k_tos

Ravelleman wrote: »

The financial update would surely relate to expenses, which you can claim back from the IRC up to a limit of of €2,250 if justified.

How you spend a stipend is up to you.

Ya, the logical side of my brain thought exactly that- the paranoid gremlin on the other convinced me of the opposite.

Historia

Just wondering has anyone heard anything regarding the IRC postgraduate progress reports for July to December 2013? They seem very late given that they give you at least a month to six weeks to fill them out and then they take at least another month for the IRC to process them. Does that mean the next stipend won't be paid til mid-May at the earliest??

k_tos

when did you get your award? Mine started this Oct- expecting the email any day now.

Why would the report affect your stipend? Is it not paid monthly by your institution? I'd imagine the funds would be forwarded either way with issues being raised on an individual basis following the reports?

the alternative seems v messy.

Historia

I'm in the last year of my award - got it three years ago. The way its worked in the past is they have not sent the money from the IRC to the institution until the progress report (and supervisor's report) has been received and verified.

TFin

Hi,
I was in contact with IRC, they said reports will be issued 'in due course'. Got in contact with grad studies department in college, specifically with the scholarship coordinator and they said payments will be issued to us in early April even though no progress reports issued. I was also panicking, but this put my mind at ease, so maybe you should contact your grad studies scholarship rep?

Historia

That's great thanks! I will do that. Hopefully its the same scenario here.

smurac86

Wondering if anyone has gotten next schoarship installment yet? I'm on the bones of my arse at the moment so hopin its soon......

Historia

I know how that is! I got onto our (at UCC) Graduate Studies Department last week to confirm we were being paid without progress reports and they said they are expecting the payment as usual in early April (likely to be this this Friday apparently). So then it just all depends how long it takes them to process the payment....

Historia

Anyone hear any news regarding payment yet??

smurac86

Still nothing.....rang my postgrad office a week ago...they said they hadn't heard from IRC yet....Hopin to hear this week...

Ravelleman

Here we go.

smurac86

any update?

Historia

I literally have just received an email from the Fees Office at UCC saying they received the money from the IRC this morning and are currently in the process of transferring it to the award holders!

Ravelleman

smurac86 wrote: »

any update?

The email went out yesterday.

smurac86

Did anyone actually get paid yet....was sure it would have been in my account this morning but no joy!!! :mad::mad::mad:

Historia

No the money hasn't gone through yet. I thought it would be there this morning myself.

smurac86

You really do have to wonder how it takes so long once the university have the funding to transfer it to students........I've worked in a similar department where there were external transfers to employees and it really shouldn't take this long!!!!!!!!

Historia

I'm just hoping it gets processed before Easter.....

k_tos

would the bigger question here not be what happens at the end of this month?

There is a case to be made that the reports have no bearing on payments until an issue is raised with a particular Scholar.

The reports are being sent in by the 9th, assuming their Committee won't consider them until the week after next that gives them a week or so to clear the payments; presumably far too short notice to make payment by the end of the month.

Moreover, in order for the 16,000 to be paid in full, a payment would have to be made end of May unless they double-up in June which appears to be unlikely..

If not, then it appears payment must go through until an issue is raised on an individual basis?

dmn1

Hi Guys,

Anyone got an update on these reports? I submitted mine, so did supervisor; heard nothing back. Not even a confirmation of receipt.

Any idea about payment this month? They seem to be leaving it awfully late if this month's payment is conditional on the funds being cleared by the council?

Thanks

Historia

As far as I know they send the scholarship in two halves to the instituition, so one half was sent in April and the next half will be sent in July (at least that's what happened before Christmas). So this month should be fine, it would the July payment that could be delayed (but it shouldn't be).

No one I know has received any confirmation but this is fairly normal (I have received IRC for the past three years and only got a confirmation once that they received the report).

dmn1

Thanks! End of this week isn't as daunting now!

Historia wrote: »

l (I have received IRC for the past three years and only got a confirmation once that they received the report).

Do you mean when they've cleared you to stay on the scholarship itself? I wasn't expecting a confirmation email in terms of "thanks, we acknowledge receipt of the reports" but my supervisor is a bit of a scatter brain and was getting paranoid!

Thanks again

Historia

No problem! I have generally only received an email months later saying that everything was satisfactory and that the money was being paid to the instituition.

Historia

Just wondering has anyone heard anything re: payment yet of the last quarter of the stipend?

k_tos

Historia wrote: »

Just wondering has anyone heard anything re: payment yet of the last quarter of the stipend?

Not a whimper- am actually worried they'll have an issue with mine; postgrad office not have any info?>

Historia

I spoke to the Fees Office who administer it and they could only tell me that they expected it at some stage in July but couldn't be specific.

smurac86

Any update on this? Was expecting it some day this week but. ..

Historia

I rang today and its scheduled to be transferred on Friday apparently

k_tos

Historia wrote: »

I rang today and its scheduled to be transferred on Friday apparently

Hey historia; You get paid today? Issue with mine it seems:(

Historia

I did. The money cleared on Monday for me. I did hear there was some issues if you are BOI this week for some reason.

k_tos

Historia wrote: »

I did. The money cleared on Monday for me. I did hear there was some issues if you are BOI this week for some reason.

Thanks alot! I rang Finance, and it seems I've been hit by the BOI, the electronic payment was made by UCC. Just a bit ancy as I've had no update on the report yet, and have had an issue securing a replacement research visit; the logical side of my head said the IRC would raise questions before cutting the payment but ya never know!

Thanks again

candle_wax

Hi guys,
Sorry to hijack this thread I just have a question for those of you with IRC funding (I got it this year).

Has your research changed much from your original application? Back in January I had something in mind, but it had evolved between then and me getting the conditional award in June. The fundamentals are pretty much the same, but slightly different research questions, focus, and different methods.
I'm just wondering is this normal, or do I need to stick firmly to what I laid out in my application?
I know in the T&C it says something like "substantial" changes must be approved, or something, which is understandable, as obviously I got funding for X project. But I'm just wondering how free I am to develop on my original application?

Any insight would be much appreciated. Many thanks.

k_tos

candle_wax wrote: »

Hi guys,
Sorry to hijack this thread I just have a question for those of you with IRC funding (I got it this year).

Has your research changed much from your original application? Back in January I had something in mind, but it had evolved between then and me getting the conditional award in June. The fundamentals are pretty much the same, but slightly different research questions, focus, and different methods.
I'm just wondering is this normal, or do I need to stick firmly to what I laid out in my application?
I know in the T&C it says something like "substantial" changes must be approved, or something, which is understandable, as obviously I got funding for X project. But I'm just wondering how free I am to develop on my original application?

Any insight would be much appreciated. Many thanks.

as you say, it depends on how substantive the alterations are- messing with the methodology and the research questions would appear to be a red flag issue. My advice would be; don't shoot yourself in the foot..

candle_wax

k_tos wrote: »

as you say, it depends on how substantive the alterations are- messing with the methodology and the research questions would appear to be a red flag issue. My advice would be; don't shoot yourself in the foot..

Thanks for that, and I completely understand.

Just, to be honest, when I applied to the IRC I genuinely never thought I'd get the funding, so didn't think twice about meandering down a slightly different path in the interim. I'm still just in my first year so I don't have any concrete work done beyond lit review chapters, so I can hopefully revert back to my January "plan" without too much hassle.

Thanks again