Hi everyone,

I am in the process of applying for my PhD (Sept 2008) and have been followed these forums for a while now - very useful. I had a question to which I couldnt find an answer myself so hopefully someone could help me here.

I'm an EU student and I seem to have missed most of the funding deadlines. Financially I am OK for the first year of my PhD, therefore I was wondering if its possible to apply for funding for my 2nd/3rd years? Is this permitted? Does this usually happen?

Hi, I'm not sure about all funding bodies, but I know some usually only fund complete programmes. I've know people secure funding in their second and third years, but this has been from departmental/university money, rather than from external bodies. So yes it is possible, but sources may be limited.

Hi kronkodile,

Thanks for your reply, I'll contact my school and see what they say about it.

you can apply to ESRC while in your first year, for funding for years 2-4. don't know if that applies to other RCs. some departments won't let you apply for ESRC if you are already in your first year, but from the part of the ESRC it is possible. as an EU student you would qualifiy for a "fees only" reward. again a reason why some departments would prefer UK students above you, as they would simply get more money, overall.

my uni has it's own funding for full 3-year PhDs. you can't apply to that if already enrolled.
you can apply for year-to-year uni funds. they will usually not go very far though and you never know if you'll keep getting it next year.
the IFUW funds PhDs that are beyond the beginning stage. the welcome trust does not - apply before you start or all is lost.
myself, i started self-funded, got some school funding for the second year fees and finally some significant money from my home country research foundation for the next 16 months - then i'll have to see again.
so if you start unfunded and go from there, you're likely to be spending a lot of time on funding applications, living of a patchwork of funding and there will likely be times when you're out of money. but it's doable.

Thanks shani that was very helpful