Your work experience will help. Talk to your current boss to see if they think you could move subjects. If they believe your molecular biology is up to scratch, then there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to work in cancer research.

What field of research would you like to work in?

Your Masters degree in combination with your 2(ii) means that you are eligable to apply for most UK PhD studentships.

Competition for PhDs in ecology and conservation biology is high. If you're not getting replies from supervisors, write to the person named in the 'Enquiries To' part of the departmental information. Supervisors are often bombarded by so many speculative enquiries that they give up replying to them. A recent adition to FindAPhD may be of interest to you: RPS Ecoscope

For information on funding try the British Council web site for India. If you can't find projects in your subject area on FindAPhD this is for one of 3 reason:

ORS or Overseas Research Students Awards in most cases cover the difference between the tuition fee for a home (ie UK) postgraduate student and the rate charged by the institution to an international postgraduate student for the particular full-time research course being taken by the awardholder. Around 800 awards are made each year and between 60% and 70% of applicants are succesfull. You can get further details from the Universities UK web site.

Our busiest time is from November through to April, with Jan/Feb probably being the most active time. The advantage of FindAPhD is that many labs profile there research before grants are awarded. The sooner you start looking, the more likely you are to find the project you're after.

Yes. Because funding is greater in the sciences, FindAPhD is very much biased to these areas. You should use academic journals to find the names of potential supervisors. Write to those whose research interests most closely match your own.

The MRC's eligibility criteria can be found in the MRC Studentship Handbook. They clearly state that a 2ii + a relevant MSc is acceptable. It may be that the institutions you are applying to only take 2i's - they are perfectly at liberty to do this, but should not be misleading you about MRC policy. The same applies to most other UK funding and you should not let the funding body put you off applying. You could always email the supervisor before applying to ask if they will consider your qualifications. The British Heart Foundation is an independent charity and only accepts a 2i or above.

Your MSc should save the day and you will be eligible for studentships from most UK funding bodies. Depending on what you have been doing since your MSc your time away from research could count against you, so be prepared to brush up on your subject before any interviews.

Your qualifications are probably good enough to be acepted on a PhD programme in the UK. However unless you are a UK or EU citizen you will have dificulty obtaining funding.

Officially the answer would probably be no. In practice, if your PhD is related to the work you are doing now, the chances are some of it will feature in your thesis. If you're thinking that you can cut some time off your official PhD studies this way, then you'll probably be disappointed. However, a 4 or 5 month head start may mean that you are able to finish working in the lab with enough time to write up before your grant runs out (unlike most people who need to take advantage of the one year time limit for thesis submission that applies to many grants).

Only a small number of scholarships exist. Start by contacting the British Council in your home country for information on study in the UK.

Your MPharm is a good foundation for a broad range of subjects and you should not be discriminated against whether you stick to pharmaceutics, or move to related areas of chemistry or biology.

Most projects start around October. There will be some available for immediate start, that have not yet been filled. A number of studentships in MRC research institutes start in January. Keep looking. In the mean time try and get some work in a lab. It will help you decide if it's for you and will make a big difference when you start a PhD for real.