PLEASE NOTE: QUADRAT has requirement for a proportion of projects to be CASE supported. For this round we will therefore be prioritising at least two appointable candidates attached to projects with a guaranteed CASE partner, per school.

Lead Supervisors who were awarded a QUADRAT studentship in the last round (October 2023 cohort) are not excluded from leading a project in this round.

In order to submit an eligible proposal, please adhere to the below information:

• Proposals must be submitted by the Lead Supervisor.
• Supervisors must be PI’s grade 7 and above. Lead Supervisor’s must hold a minimum of 0.5FTE contract at one of the partner schools.
• You may only submit one application as Lead Supervisor. There are no limits as co-supervisor.
• All projects must be supervised by at least 3 supervisors across the 2 partner institutions:
  • The ‘host institution’ will be that of the Principal Supervisor,
  • The secondary supervisor should be based at the partner institution,
  • The third supervisor should be based at the host institution and should be prepared to become lead supervisor in case of a leave of absence/sickness,
  • Additional internal or external supervisors can also be named,
  • Please see our academic profiles for developing collaborations, or get in contact with quadrat@abdn.ac.uk or school contacts for suggestions or to be put in touch with relevant colleagues.
• Proposals must clearly fit both the NERC Science remit and at least one of the QUADRAT Research Themes (Biodiversity, Earth Systems and Environmental Science). If this is not clear in your proposal you will be asked for clarification.
• Be creative! We strongly encourage innovative and/or cross-disciplinary proposals.
• Proposals will be reviewed by a panel of QUADRAT board members to ensure all projects fit the brief,
  • If your proposal does not, you will be contacted and given the opportunity to revise your proposal.

You may find it useful to view the funded project titles of our cohort 1, 2, 3 and 4 QUADRAT students

A minimum of 25% of all QUADRAT studentships across the duration of the DTP must be CASE supported. Please consider working with a CASE partner where applicable. A list of existing partners and supporters can be found in the below tabs – you are not limited to this list, new partners can be added. Please contact quadrat@abdn.ac.uk with any questions.

Please contact quadrat-admissions@abdn.ac.uk for a copy of the submission form.

Please submit your completed form to quadrat-admissions@abdn.ac.uk no later than 14.00 on Tuesday 14 November 2023. 

Please complete all *mandatory fields and adhere to the restricted wordcount. Late and/or incomplete applications will not be accepted except in exceptional circumstances. 

Below are a selection of key trends within each theme. Proposals are not limited to these, they are only intended as a guide: 

Projects will be advertised through a custom findaPhD.com webpage and on the QUADRAT DTP website. You will be asked to submit a brief student-focused project summary for findaPhD.com. This advert plus any additional relevant information will be advertised on the QUADRAT website, where projects will be laid out in a similar format to our blog.

Projects will also be advertised on institutional and school social media accounts and will be circulated to relevant students within each school. Targeted marketing campaigns will also be coordinated through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Please support this process by using your own connections and social media to advertise your project as widely as possible. We recommend adding a FindAPhD custom page link to your email signature.

You will be contacted with more information regarding the application process prior to your project being advertised. Please contact quadrat-admissions@abdn.ac.uk if you have any questions.

You will be asked to supply an eye-catching image to represent your project on the QUADRAT website.

Please be aware that these dates are provisional and they may vary slightly.