I think it depends on the department - I received an email late last week from the admin staff at my university, rather than my supervisor. I hadn't been expecting to hear until this week but the news seems to be trickling out.

Just found out yesterday that I got the 1+3, absolutely delighted! I agree that doing a detailed proposal is the way to go, I had a lot of help from my department with this.

I totally sympathise, I'm in exactly the same position - it's maddening have to wait so long to find out and there seems to be almost no information available on past successes.

I'm being put forward for an ESRC Open Competition award this summer and was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to write a successful proposal - I realise it's very competitive so I need all the help I can get! I'm applying for a social science 1+3 award.

Yes you are - they say explicitly that UK citizenship is not sufficient, you are required to prove your physical presence in the UK.

I'm applying for ESRC PhD funding but am a bit worried about proving the 3 years UK residency requirement - I'm a UK citizen and by the time of the award starting will have been resident in the UK for 2 years, but before that I was working abroad for a year although for tax purposes was employed by the London office of my company and was officially considered a UK resident. Does anyone know what kind of proof is needed to show that this time was a 'temporary absence'?