I have actually written a Biology PhD proposal to discuss with a potential supervisor, and have been given a green light. However, the application procedure now asks for a "letter of application and a 1 page description of the project". Any suggestions on what to include in (what I presume?) is essentially a cover letter and the one page description would be hugely appreciated, my current proposal is in a classic format and currently four pages long, so would take quite a bit of whittling down!

Thanks in advance

Hi there - yes I would think a cover letter (highlighting how motivated and suited you are for the project:-)) and a one-pager for the project description is what they want. Just wondering, is this the university asking for this or a funding agency? I am asking because the university might be less strict about the length of the project description, I mean, if you'll only have a discussion with your potential supervisor (and other people in the department) about this, maybe you do not need to go to the lengths of cutting your text. If that is the case, maybe you can double check with your supervisor how strict the 1-page length is and save yourself some time. If however, it seems like a strict guideline, you'd better stick to it and make it one page long. Remember to keep the key points of your proposal, and be happy to leave out details and/or background to the proposal (nevertheless emphasising why your proposed work will fill a gap/be original/is timely etc). You can always point out in your cover letter that you are happy to provide more detail (on x,y,z) if required. Good luck with the application.