Your potential new supervisor is responsible for finding funding from UK research councils, as you will not be entitled to apply yourself. If they do not feel that the project is suitable for research council funding, then your options are quite limited. You should speak frankly to your potential supervisor to find out what the opportunities for funding are. It is certainly too late to get research council funding for a project starting in October unless it is a departmental quota award (these will also probably all have been allocated by now).

Rather than taking a masters degree you might want to consider working in a relevant research environment for a year. You can search for Masters degrees on our siter site - www.FindAMasters.com. Look for one with a strong research component.

A general rule of thumb in choosing a PhD place, if all other things are equal, is to move to a different university. This will expose you to different influences and should make you a more rounded researcher. If you do your PhD in Manchester it will show future employers that you were prepared to relocate to do your PhD - if you stay in the same place it can look like you just wanted to carry on living the student life you'd got used to. To be honest though, as long as you're choosing the PhD project because you're interested in it and you like the research group it will make little difference.

Both universities are in the top flight of UK institutions. Check the RAE rating of each department to see which has the best rating. As a Sheffield student you will already know that it is the best city in the UK and (as well as being the home of FindAPhD) is particularly sunny today. The decision is yours.

If your project has been funded by the Toyota Foundation I would assume that it includes living expences. Do you have any more details?

Ecology is a very popular subject for PhD research. It is most used seach term on FindAPhD and compared to medically related topics is very poorly funded (ie there's less studentships), so competition will be intense. Because demand is high careers in ecology tend not to be very well paid, so if you're worried about earning less now a career in ecology may not be the best idea.

If you haven't worked in ecology since graduation and have no record of relevant volutary work then finding a place may be difficult (even finding a low paid job may not be that easy). If you're not prepared to give up your job try getting some relevant volutary work. You may find that the most important thing you need is a good academic reference and the only way to get that is to be woring in the field.

Your tutor will give you a reference, with a predicted grade based on their opinion of you, combined with your previous results. If they are not prepared to predict the required 2(i), then you'll just have to find someone who will, or delay applying untill after your finals.

If you already have a PhD and want to do more research you should be looking for a job as a research engineer, either in industry or academia. It will be possible to change your specialty during your career. Doing a PhD gives you expert knowledge in a certain field and a peice of paper to prove you are capable of such high level research. You do not need to prove that again and any research job will slowly turn you you into an expert in whatever field it relates to.

There is no point approaching UK research councils directly, as they do not deal with applications direct from students. There are some links on the funding page of this site which relate to Australia and you may also be able to approach relevant charities.

In the UK you need an english language qualification (usually TOFEL or IELTS). You do not need a GRE, but your qualifications need to be assesed as being equivalent to at least a UK 2(i) degree. See our PhD's Explained section for details.

This forum is for any questions or discussions related to postgraduate education, including the functioning and relative merits of education systems in other countries. Space on here is not valuable, it is limitless (well almost) - we edit the forum to move those less interesting questions to the General section or delete them where we feel they are inappropriate. So please, come one, come all - ask, discuss and argue away.

Having said that, with reference to some of the points made in this thread, we would prefer it if people read through the Funding and PhDs Explained sections of the site before asking for advice here. These sections have been written and continue to be updated as a result of researching answers for this forum - mostly so FindAPhD can be as informative as possible, but partly so we don't have to type the same answers into this forum every day.

We do our best to encourage supervisors to update their projects on the site. To be fair to them many of them are faced with the task of finding a good student, before they are allowed to compete for funding with their colleagues. The reason that funding often appears to be a great mystery to potential PhD students is that there is very little standardisation in the system and funding allocation, even from the same Research Council, can vary from department to department. At the start of a year many more academics are hoping to receive a PhD studentship than ever get one.

Projects disappear from FindAPhD once the closing date has been reached. Those who choose to advertise as 'Applications accepted All Year Round' will stay visible all the time. To save wasting time, write to enquire what the current status is - you can still attach a CV, but you shouldn't need to produce a different CV for each application.

The Department of Instrumentation and Analytical Science at UMIST has a very good reputation. They are rated highly for both research and teaching (RAE=5).

However your current problems seem to be related to your personal relations with your current research group. Your should follow Bicycle Repair Man's advice and talk to your supervisor, your PhD advisors or your departmental postgraduate tutor before making any decisions. If you do decide to go, spend some time visiting UMIST to see if you'll get on with the research team there.

Information and links on PhD funding for study in Australia can be found in the funding section of this site.

You can find labs which work in this area on this site (visit the search section). Before you do this visit the Funding section of this site, to find links and information on what funding may be available to you.

Your first priority should be to find an academic who works on the topic you are interested in. You will not be able to find an industrial sponsor for your project without academic help. Even then, unless your research proposal has a direct commercial relevance to them they are unlikely to back it. If you cannot fund yourself, then you may be better delaying the start of your PhD until the next academic year. In the mean time try to get some relevant work experience.