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)
• A Joint Student-PI Trinity Research Doctorate Award
• The School of Education’s Trinity Research Doctorate Award, further details of which are provided below

The School of Education’s Trinity Research Doctorate Award

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

Value of the Award

The Award 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 Award. 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. 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;
3. Submit all of the required scholarship materials as part of their programme application;
4. Must indicate in their programme application that they wish to be considered for the Award.
5. Must apply by the deadline of March 16^th 2025. 

Application process

1. To apply for the School of Education PhD Scholarship, candidates must submit a fully completed application for a place on the PhD programme as a full-time student. In applying, students indicate they wish to apply for the School of Education PhD Scholarship.  This application must be submitted by March 16^th 2025.
2. As part of their application to the full-time structured PhD programme,  a candidate’s 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 Research Proposal of no more than 4,000-words. 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 wordcounts (references included).
3. Scholarship applications must be submitted as one single PDF document. Submissions in the form of multiple documents will not be considered. 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 (i) information provided in the CV, (ii) the Personal Statement, and (iii) 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 (i) demonstrated expertise or potential in the area, (ii) the proposed methodology or approach, (iii) demonstrated originality, (iv) the societal relevance, and (v) the quality of writing.
5. Please note that taking into account that excellence is influenced by context, favourable consideration is 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 2014, i.e. gender, religion, age, civil status, family status, disability, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, membership of the Traveller community. These also have a bearing on how the ‘societal relevance’ of the research is evaluated.
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. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide feedback on unsuccessful applications.

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