For LISS students whose funding commenced October 2024 or later (DTP2):

LISS DTP2 students are expected to complete a three month (13 week) placement during their PhD. All studentships commencing after October 2024 include three months’ funding intended to support this placement period. Any students who do not complete a three month placement within the first three years of their PhD will have their studentships shortened by three months accordingly.

Research in Practise is a core component for all ESRC-funded LISS DTP students, with placements forming a key aspect of Research in Practice. Placements enable students to develop a sharper sense of the wider relevance of their research as well as professional and transferrable workplace skills in line with the LISS DTP Development Needs Analysis that students complete annually.  Placements may also build expertise in knowledge co-generation, where research questions, analytical frameworks and knowledge exchange processes are co-designed with academic and practitioner input.

Placements

There are various ways that placements can be developed, including:

• Externally advertised placements: LISS DTP will advertise placement opportunities. These can be with major UK government departments, UKRI schemes, and we will also develop placements with external organisations.
• Devise your own placement: Develop your own placement through contacts that you or your supervisory team have, or with an organisation that is working in an area that is of interest.
• Research Assistant Internships:  LISS DTP advertises research projects at one of the three LISS institutions each year. This gives students the opportunity to work on academic research project.

Placement requirements

• Placements should focus on a discreet project, challenge or research question that is distinct from the PhD research. It should have a clear programme of activity which will develop the students’ transferrable skills and ability to apply their research skills in different contexts.
• Students should discuss placement plans with their supervisor, and it should be informed by the training and skills gaps identified in the Development Needs Analysis for DTP2 students.

Duration of placements:

• Placements are expected to be three months (13 weeks)
• Placements can be full time or part time and can be taken as a block or spread over a number of months on a part-time basis, e.g. one or two days a week.
• Placements can be physical, virtual or hybrid.
• You can also split the placement between two organisations, e.g. one placement of 7 weeks and one placement of 6 weeks.
• If your placement is shorter than 13 weeks (or you do not undertake one at all) your funding end date and thesis submission deadline will be adjusted accordingly.

Placement timing:

• Placements should not be held within the first few months of the PhD and should not take place during a masters period.
• Placements taking place in the final year of the studentship must be commence before the end date of the award (prior to the extension period being implemented).

Masters students:

• No extension is available for placements undertaken before the PhD portion of the studentship.
• Some of the Masters degrees that 1+3 students undertake have an in-built internship or similar collaboration with an external partner.  1+3 students and their supervisors may also develop such collaborations on an ad hoc basis, for example, in the summer period between Masters and doctoral degrees.
• If you are interested in undertaking an internship during your Masters degree programme that is not already in-built into your programme, please consult with your supervisor and the LISS DTP Deputy Director, Training & Cohort Development.

Funding:

• All studentships commencing after October 2024 include three months’ funding intended to support this placement period. Any students who do not complete a three month placement within the first three years of their PhD will have their studentships shortened by three months accordingly.
• You will be expected to make use of your stipend payments to cover normal travel and accommodation costs.
• Students can also apply for additional funding support (up to £1000) to assist with other costs incurred during the placements. Details should be entered into the application form.

Externally Funded Placements:

• If you are offered a full-time paid placement, secondment, or consultancy, you will most likely need to suspend your studentship for its duration. A suspension involves stopping your studentship payments for the duration of the placement, and also delays your submission deadline. Please note that an externally funded placement does not count towards the ESRC core component placement and may impact your funding end date and required submission deadline.
• There is no rigid limit of the duration of time you may suspend for in this case, but the duration must be of sufficiently short duration that you and your supervisory team are confident it will not significantly disrupt your progress.
• A suspension to undertake paid work must be justified as being relevant to your thesis or research training and career development. Suspension of studies requests cannot be considered on the grounds of financial hardship.
• Full time ESRC funded students are allowed to undertake a small amount of paid work during their studentship, but this should not amount to more than 6hrs a week.

To Apply: 

All placements must be approved by LISS DTP.  To apply, please complete the Placement Application form which includes a section for supervisor, host and Director of Graduate Studies statements of support. Please note:

• The deadline for placement applications is the first working Monday of January, April, June and October each year. The outcome will be communicated to you within two weeks of the deadline.Applications must be received at least 3 months BEFORE the start date of the Placement, whether externally funded, or LISS DTP funded.
• Applications for the Research Assistant Internships will be reviewed on a rolling basis.  Although the 3 month notice period does not apply, students are encouraged to seek supervisor approval and put arrangements in place several weeks before the commencement of the placement.
• If you have not received notification of outcomes within two weeks of the application review date, contact liss-dtp@kcl.ac.uk.
• Queen Mary and Imperial students should contact their institutional LISS administrators (see Key Contacts table) about approved additional funding or any delays to payments or reimbursements.
• You will be expected to complete a placement/internship report form (together with your supervisor and host) at the end of your placement. This should outline how the experience has enhanced your understanding of wider significance of your research, your personal and professional skills and/or your understanding of knowledge co-generation. We encourage you to develop other means of dissemination of your experience, e.g. a short film, blog post, to both the LISS DTP and a broader audience.
• You should also check if the host organisation has any indemnity or insurance requirements: your Careers Service will be able to advise on Host Agreements.

Overseas Institutional Visit application form

The purpose of the OIV scheme is to support and encourage the international engagement of ESRC funded students.  The scheme funds an extension to the studentship of up to 13 weeks, plus some travel and subsistence costs, budget dependent (In the region of £1000).

Funds should be used to provide financial support and time for students to:

• undertake additional specialist research training not available in the UK

• develop language skills

• establish research links that will be beneficial to their current or future academic career

• disseminate early research career findings

• attend and participate in seminars where directly relevant to their research.

Restrictions and Eligibility

• Applications must be student-led

• Visits must be related to the completion of the student’s PhD and should not commence within the first three months of the studentship period. Visits taking place in the final year of the studentship must be completed at least three months before the end date of the award and prior to the extension period being implemented.

• Applicants must be from award holders in the +3.5 component of their studentship. Students in the initial masters year of a 1+3.5 award are not eligible.

• The purpose of the visits funded must not be for overseas fieldwork as this is supported through other mechanisms, but an OIV can be scheduled immediately before or after a period of fieldwork to save on travel costs.

• Visits can last for up to a maximum of 13 weeks.

• Visits must involve visiting a Higher Education institution, or an organisation with a substantive research office outside of the UK.

• Visits must not be undertaken if the Foreign and Commonwealth Office advises against visiting the country concerned.

To Apply:

Complete the application form available above.

Applications must be approved at least 3 months BEFORE the start date of the OIV. OIV applications will be reviewed on the first working Monday of January, April, June and October each year.  

Decisions may take up to 2 weeks to announce, depending on volume of applications and it may take a further 2 weeks to arrange payment or reimbursement. 

Note for KCL students: link for KCL students about how to book travel and the travel policy https://internal.kcl.ac.uk/about/ps/procurement/travel-services-and-events/travel.

Note for Queen Mary students: The Queen Mary Travel and Expenses policy states that all travel and accommodation must be booked via KeyTravel. Please go to the KeyTravel website: https://www.keytravel.com/uk for a quote to accompany your application and email it to the QMUL LISS Administrator a.kamara@qmul.ac.uk who will arrange the purchase of your travel/accommodation using the LISS budget code and raise a Purchase order number which you send to KeyTravel to confirm your booking.

Please see: Queen Mary Finance Guide for LISS Students for information.

If you have not received notification of outcomes within two weeks of the application review date, please contact liss-dtp@kcl.ac.uk .  Queen Mary and Imperial students should contact their institutional LISS administrators (see Key Contacts table) about delays to payments or reimbursements.  King’s students should contact liss-dtp@kcl.ac.uk

Students will be expected to submit a report outlining the achievements of their OIV at the end of the visit before the additional stipend payments that comprise the extension will be approved.

Language Training Extension application form 

Up to 12 months additional support may be considered if a student needs to acquire or develop working ability with a language in order to carry out fieldwork (including UK fieldwork) or other parts of their research; this is over and above the funded length of the studentship. Students following a pre-described Masters course are not eligible to apply during this training.  Any anticipated language training should have been mentioned in the student’s application and project summary or be discussed with the Deputy Director, Training as soon as possible upon commencing the studentship. 

Language training extensions beyond six months will only be allowed if the student needs to spend an extended period of time overseas in order to obtain these language skills.  If the student has already undertaken a pre-described Masters course, it is expected that some progress with language acquisition will have been made and therefore it is not expected that extensions beyond six months will be made.  Extensions for language training do not automatically attract overseas fieldwork costs.   
Overseas fieldwork costs should only be considered alongside an extension where it is not possible to learn the language outside of the fieldwork site. 

Please see Annex 1 p. 30 of ESRC PGR Funding Guide  for guidance on groupings of languages.