If you think it will take one month, tell them it will take two?
If this is their only criticism of you, you don't have too much to worry about!

Wow! I wish I knew even half of those techniques... I'm sure you'll find something!

My uni says I should aim to submit 3 months before the funding ends... that's 2 3/4 years... what a joke! As if that's gonna happen with a lab-based PhD!

You know they do actually look at CVs they have 'on file' sometimes! My friend just got a new job in this way and she applied for the position over a year ago, so it does happen! Keep at it!

It definitely sounds like you have a case here. You need to check your postgraduate handbook/uni rules and don't sign anything you don't agree with! Go and see the person responsible for pastoral care straight away as they should be able to give you impartial advice.

Also, from what you've written it doesn't sound like they are following the rules here. If you are only in your second year, you still have plenty of time to generate results, so you need to get your supervisor to agree a plan that is feasible for you to complete to generate the results, not something you can't complete so they will kick you off the PhD,

Sounds like there is more to the story though...

You can't be awarded a PhD without a sponsoring institution.

I would say not. Normally people would just buy their supervisor a present like a bottle of wine or something. If you had met the family before because he brought them along to university functions or something, that would be a bit different, but still unusual.

Good luck. I hope it works out for you. Remember though: sometimes you need to know when to surrender in a fight. Somethings are not worth dying over.

Sounds like they mean just having an idea of the layout or how things are generally done before doing research yourself to ensure that you use the most relevant methodology.

Don't you have any friends/colleagues that can assist? Failing that, the head of your department should be able to help or at least point you in the right direction.

Need a little context?

Is it a pass with major corrections or a revise and resubmit? Do you have to have another viva?

Enzyme, I'm going to be honest and direct with you.

The easiest way to find out if this PI wants to take you as a PhD student is to ASK HIM. That's the only way you are going to get a straight answer.

Sometimes enthusiasm is not enough. You need to have the technical and personal skills required to do a PhD. Ask your PI whether he thinks you are capable of doing a PhD and whether he will take you on.

It also seems like you are struggling to read situations effectively and therefore you arrive at incorrect conclusions. Again, you will need to ask people directly to ensure you understand things properly because otherwise you are going to have difficulties during your PhD if you start doing something that was not intended due to miscommunication.

Self confidence is an important factor to master in order to have a successful and enjoyable PhD. Even those of us with a lot of belief in ourselves can become downhearted when we don't get the results we want. You have to work on overcoming this early on in any PhD that you do. Take classes and read books on the subject.

He is right about failure. You will fail to achieve something you wanted many, many times in your PhD. You need to be able to deal with this and learn from it.

Since when did speaking to academics and listening their opinions become a bad idea? Sounds like a type of research to me. Why would you consider the opinions of someone actually working in the field you are interested in to be irrelevant?

Also, just because something is stated on a job application does not make it true. Do you think a candidate is not going to be hired because they don't have one of the 'essential' skills mentioned, even the interviewer likes them and perhaps their know their referee? This world is still about how you present yourself and who you know.

Essential skills listed are often intentionally ambiguous anyway. What, for example, is classed as 'substantial experience in teaching'?

Seems to mean equipment and travel, not paying lab hire/electric, staff or journal submissions.

Stipend means someone's pay, so I would say travel would be included if you needed to get to the Amazon to do some research, but you couldn't pay your staff their salary from this grant.