Supervisor Eligibility
Introduction
The ESRC will audit SGSSS to check that all first supervisors are research active social scientists within a Unit of Assessment for which an institution has eligibility.
The following questions (see below) allow us to determine eligibility and SGSSS will audit the information provided carefully. We will remove an application if criteria are not met. Note a second supervisor need not meet our full criteria assuming the first supervisor does. Second supervisors may work within any of the SGSSS 16 partner HEIs. You can find full information about our partner universities online here.
To be eligible to be first supervisor in any SGSSS competition, supervisors must
- Meet any institutional requirements of first supervisors that are not covered below. Contact your HEI Admin lead for this information
- Have undergone supervisor training within your institution within the last 5 years
- Hold a research and teaching or research only contract expected to last for the duration of the proposed PhD project
- Work in a department/school/subject area that is administratively aligned to an eligible UoA for your Higher Education Institution
- Be a research active Social Scientist with output (papers and/or research funding) that is aligned to your unit of assessment
In order to audit supervisor eligibility, as part of the application process, we ask all first supervisors to provide details of a paper or funded research project that adopts a social science perspective.
Eligibility rules around numbers of applications per supervisor
We allow a supervisor to make ONE application in each of our three supervisor lead competitions (Steers competition, Open Collaborative competition and the Skills Development Scotland Collaborative competition). This rule applies to any position within a supervisory team.
Within the steers competition, given the potential for overlap between the Advanced Quantitative Methods and Datasets steers, we do allow an application to be considered in both of these steers but we expect applicants to make a clear case for alignment to the steer criteria.
We will not accept applications to the student-led open competition that are based on an application submitted to a supervisor-led competition. For any questions, please email us at team@sgsss.ac.uk
Guidance on this page was updated 12 September 2024.
Workflow Questions asked within SGSSS Apply
Question only for Student-Led Open Competition – I acknowledge that I have been in contact with the applicant and have agreed to be their first supervisor.
Questions for all competitions:
- I acknowledge I meet any institutional requirements of first supervisors that may not be covered in the other questions. If I am unsure of what they may be, I acknowledge I will contact my HEI Admin Lead for this information.
- I have undergone supervisor training within my institution within the last 5 years
- If “no”, evidence of training will need to be provided prior to an award letter being issued, if successful.
- If yes, next question: I hold a research and teaching contract or a research-only contract expected to last for the duration of the proposed PhD project
- If no – You are not eligible to be a first supervisor but are eligible to be 2nd/3rd supervisor. Please email team@sgsss.ac.uk if you have any questions
- If yes, next question: I work in a department/school/subject area that is administratively aligned to an eligible UoA for my Higher Education Institution
- If no – You are not eligible to be a first supervisor but are eligible to be 2nd/3rd supervisor. Please email team@sgsss.ac.uk if you have any questions
- If yes, we will ask you to confirm the UoA (Unit of Assessment) that the department/school/subject area you work in is administratively aligned
- Lastly, we will ask you to confirm:
- Have you ever served as PI of a research project funded by ESRC, Nuffield or another funder of Social Science research? Please indicate the agency below and the title of the project. (fill-in-the-blank)
- Give the reference for one paper where you are a first or co-author, that involves social science research and is aligned in a disciplinary sense to your selected UoA (fill-in-the-blank)
