Research Awards and Scholarships

Full-time doctoral students may apply for the scholarships below to support their research:

• The Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Programme currently offered by the Irish Research Council
• The China Scholarship Council awards (available to applicants from China)
• The Government of Ireland International Education Scholarships Programme (1 year’s funding only for non-EEA students) offered by the Higher Education Authority
• The Trinity College Dublin PhD scholarship, further details of which are provided below

Trinity’s School of Education PhD Scholarship

The School of Education invites applications from prospective new full-time students for the School’s Trinity PhD Scholarship. Continuing students are not eligible.

Value of the Award

The Scholarship includes full EU or non-EU fees and an annual stipend of €25,000, each payable for up to 4 years.

Eligibility

Both EU and non-EU students are eligible to apply for the Scholarship. In order to be eligible for consideration, applicants must meet the criteria below. Applicants must:

1. Meet all of the entry requirements for PhD applicants;
2. Be in receipt of a formal offer from the School of Education for a place on the PhD programme, to commence their studies the following September;
3. Have identified a member of the School of Education’s academic staff who has agreed to act as supervisor and who is eligible to act in this capacity;
4. Submit a formal scholarship application to Trinity’s School of Education.

Application process

1. Candidates must first submit an application for a place on the PhD programme as a full-time student by March 16^th. Applicants who submit an application after this date will not progress to the next stages of the scholarship application process.
2. Following a review of PhD applications received prior to the deadline above, offers will be issued to prospective students. Applicants holding a formal offer of a place on the PhD programme may apply for the PhD Scholarship.
3. In order to apply, a separate Scholarship application must be submitted. This application will comprise many of the same documents already submitted as part of the programme application.
4. The Scholarship application must include:
   1. A full CV, including details of results and academic performance to date, awards, and any prior experience in professional, research and voluntary capacities;
   2. A 750-word Personal Statement;
   3. Two Academic References from lecturers who have taught/supervised the candidate. These can be from the proposed supervisor(s) if applicable;
   4. A 6,000-word Research Proposal. The proposal should include an outline of the research questions, if applicable, a discussion of the relationship to the existing literature, a description of the proposed methodology/approach and sampling procedures, a discussion of the originality and societal relevance of the proposed research. Note that a tolerance of 10% only is available for the word counts.
5. Scholarship applications must be submitted as one single PDF document to phdrsrch@tcd.ie by April 31^st, with the subject line ‘PhD Scholarship Application’.
6. Submissions in the form of multiple documents will not be considered.
7. Applications received after the deadline or sent elsewhere will not be considered.

Evaluation process

1. Applications will be evaluated by the School of Education Scholarship Committee.
2. The evaluation criteria will consider the excellence of the candidate (50%) and the excellence of the proposed research (50%).
3. The excellence of the candidate will be assessed based on the information provided in the CV, the Personal Statement, and the Academic References. Candidates will be evaluated based on their academic performance, their prior professional, research and voluntary experience, their potential for postgraduate research, their references, and their demonstrated need.
4. The excellence of the research proposal will be evaluated based on demonstrated expertise in the area, the proposed methodology or approach, demonstrated originality, the societal relevance, and the quality of writing.
5. Please note that taking into account that excellence is influenced by context, favourable consideration may be given to applicants on the basis of the nine protected grounds in the Equal Status Act 2000–2018 and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014e. gender, religion, age, civil status, family status, disability, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, membership of the Traveller community.
6. Shortlisted applicants may be invited to interview (including a presentation on the proposed research) as part of the application process.
7. Applications will be reviewed in the form in which they are submitted. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure that all relevant materials and information are included in their application, and that they are submitted on time.

Result

Applicants will be notified of the result of the competition by email once the evaluation process has concluded.