Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) awards
Body
Applications for 2025/26 are now closed.
The University of Edinburgh is part of a consortium of ten Higher Education institutions which has been awarded funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to support postgraduate doctoral studentships and training through the Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities (SGSAH).
Where a PhD project falls within a SGSAH subject remit, the School of Social and Political Science is able to consider limited nominations for SGSAH PhD funding. The full list of SGSAH subjects can be found from page 13 on the SGSAH AHRC Competition Guidance 2025. Here is further information about subjects which cross AHRC and ESRC remits and could be considered if the PhD subject is offered within the School.
- Award details
The award will cover the PhD tuition fee and a stipend at the UKRI level (currently £19,237 in 2024/25) for up to 3.5 years full-time study (pro-rata for part-time study).
- Eligibility criteria
Candidates will normally hold a relevant First Class Honours degree (such as BA, BMus, BSc or LLB) and preferably a similar calibre of Master’s degree. PhD students within the eligible subject areas who are currently in their first year of study are eligible to apply.
Awards are available to Home fee applicants and limited awards available for International applicants. Please check the full UKRI eligibility criteria here.
To qualify for Home status an applicant must: Be a UK National (meeting residency requirements), or have settled status, or have pre-settled status AND meet residency requirement (3 years residency in the UK/EEA/Gibraltar/Switzerland immediately before the start of the PhD) or have indefinite leave to enter or remain.
In accordance with UKRI and AHRC policy, permissable positive action is being applied to the 2025 SGSAH DTP Open Studentships. For the 2025 competition, SGSAH is making available at least 3 ring-fenced studentships for applicants from UK Black and Minority (BAME) communities. These 3 ring-fenced studentships represent a minimum recruitment, with no maximum.
Further information on eligibility and residency criteria can be found in the How to Apply section on the SGSAH website.
- Application process and staged closing dates
Stage 1
Applicants are encouraged to register interest for the AHRC DTP studentship with the SPS Postgraduate Research Team (pgresearch.sps@ed.ac.uk) by Thursday 14 November 2024. Please email your full name and advise your interest in the SGSAH AHRC Open Competition.
This will allow us to track the progress of your PhD application alongside your AHRC DTP studentship application and ensure these are processed in time for consideration within the tight selection timescale.To apply for the AHRC DTP Studentship, you must first apply for admission for an eligible PhD programme of study in the School (start date September 2025). You must make your PhD programme application through the EUCLID online application system to the University in full by Thursday 21 November 2024. Please ensure that all supporting documentation (eg research proposal, references, transcripts etc) are uploaded with your application. Incomplete applications may not be considered. Once you have received your University Username (UUN eg s1234567) following your PhD application, please email the SPS Postgraduate Research Team (pgresearch.sps@ed.ac.uk) to provide this.
AHRC DTP studentship applications that do not have a matching PhD programme application will not be considered. You do not need a PhD offer before applying for the AHRC DTP Studentship but you must have made a PhD application. If you are currently a first year PhD student at the University, please see Stage 2.
Stage 2
Applicants must then complete and submit the SGSAH studentship application form by email to the SPS Postgraduate Research Team (pgresearch.sps@ed.ac.uk) by no later than Thursday 21 November 2024 (23:59 GMT). Applications received after this will not be considered.
Please refer to the AHRC DTP studentship application guidance and complete each section of the application form as instructed. AHRC DTP Studentship application form for ECA and full guidance are attached here:
Please note that the Institutional Statement and Nominating Member of Staff details are not required at this stage.
Stage 3
The SPS Selection Panel will meet in early December 2024 to select applications to go forward to the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Science (CAHSS) for nomination to SGSAH.
The SGSAH marking criteria for AHRC DTP Studentships will be used by the SPS Selection Panel. The Panel will rank the applications in relation to the criteria outlined in the AHRC DTP guidance document (see link above).
Applicants will be notified by the end of December if they have been selected by the School and College to go forward to the SGSAH AHRC studentship selection panels.
Stage 4
If selected by SPS and the College, you and your potential PhD supervisor will be requested to develop the AHRC studentship application form and draft the Institutional Statement. The AHRC studentship application must be submitted as an online version through the SGSAH Portal. Opening and closing times will be added soon.
The SGSAH Panels will then consider the applications as per the review process outlined on their website. Final results will be announced by the SGSAH by the end of April 2025.
- Online Information Sessions
Prospective applicants:
The Dean of Postgraduate Research hosted an online information session for prospective SGSAH applicants at 10am-11am BST 15th October 2024. The recording of this session can be accessed below:
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Nominees:
The online information session for nominees will be held at 10am-11am GMT on 19th December 2024.
https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/fb4a33e3bd664f90abc579fde096dd88
- Contact
Please contact the SPS Postgraduate Research Team (pgresearch.sps@ed.ac.uk) if you have any questions about the application process.