I have an interview for a funded social science PhD next week. However, I do not have anyone nominated as my supervisor and have not discussed my proposed research with anyone at the university at all. Has anyone else applied for a PhD in this way? Will they ask me about who I would like to be my supervisor at the interview? What is the procedure for getting a supervisor if you apply in this way?

I am really confused about this and don’t want to say anything stupid at the interview about how the proposed PhD will be supervised so any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

XJR, do you still have access to the original ad for the studentship? There usually a name in those ads. In my case, I first found the supervisors and applied to funding after that. So it is completely a different situation than yours. But all I can say is it is your right to know what the supervisory arrangements are. Try to do some background research about the position, but if you can't find anything it is alright to ask at the interview.

Another thing you can do is to look at the web pages, where the research information of the University Department is held, and read the info about stuff running research groups. Try to get familiar with their names and make a note of the ones related to your subject. It will come handy at the interview.

These don't sound like stupid questions to me at all. Very reasonable and if it hasn't been made clear from the ad then exactly the sort of thing you should ask at the interview, because it shows you have been giving it some thought yourself. 404 is right though. Look on the department or research groups web-site and swot up abit on the staff memebers and what their areas are. Good luck.

If you don't have the advertisment, you can try to search for it in google (it usually is searchable by google longer than it is advertised). Next to the result, there is a link to google copy of the website, and copies are longer available than the actual advertisment website.
I hope it helps.