Block Grant Partnerships: Capacity Building Route (BGP: CBs) are awards made to Research Organisations (ROs) for an allocation of postgraduate studentships in specific subject areas and schemes (i.e. Masters or Doctoral). The allocations are for 3 cohorts of students, commencing with students beginning their postgraduate study in the 2011-12 academic year.
The studentship places will be advertised by the RO on an annual basis (these may vary from year to year depending on their allocation). The organisation will shortlist candidates based on open competition. All students must meet our eligibility criteria (see Guide to Student Funding 2011). AHRC plays no part in the assessment and selection of students so if you are a student you need to contact the organisation directly to find out about their selection processes.
A list of organisations that have a BGP: CB awards is available, along with a summary of the total studentships offered under the BGP: CB awards by scheme and subject. The BGP: CB scheme replaces the Studentship Competition and was open to all ROs that do not hold a BGP award from the first round. It is intended to help organisations to build capacity and develop a case for a clear strategic approach for the next round of the Block Grant Partnerships Scheme in 2013, which will be open to all UK HEIs.
The closing date for receipt of BGP:CB proposals is 4pm on 13 January 2011. Organisations will be informed of the outcome of their proposal by letter, in April 2011.
Organisations must submit their proposal through the cross-council Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) System. The proposal form, with detailed helptext will be available from 17 August 2010. The BGP:CB Guide for Applicants below provides further detail on the application process and the information required. Please ensure you read this guidance before preparing a proposal.
BGP:CB Guide for Applicants(179kb pdf)
Postgraduate Funding Opportunities FAQs (78kb pdf)
Block Payments Mechanism FAQ (176kb pdf)
Guide to Student Funding 2011(471kb pdf)
Guide to Student Funding 2010 (pdf 329kb)
List of Organisations with BGP:CB Funding (40kb pdf)
Summary of total BGP CB studentships offered (by scheme and subject) (42kb excel)
Guide to Research Training Support Grant (78kb pdf)
Changes to AHRC Student Finisher Reports
In previous years, the AHRC has required all students in receipt of AHRC awards to submit a Student Finisher Report. The AHRC has taken the decision to no longer request Student Finisher Reports from Project Students and from students in receipt of BGP or BGP Capacity-Building awards. This applies to Project Students and BGP/BGP CB students who will finish their studies from 2010/2011 onwards. However, we will still be requiring a final report to be submitted for CDA awards.
Although the AHRC no longer require Student Finisher Reports for Project Students and BGP/BGP CB students, we will still need assurance that students are receiving appropriate, high-level support, and this will be monitored through visits and other reporting.
The Guide to Student Funding 2011 will be updated to include information about arrangements for monitoring of student support in place of the Student Finisher Reports. The new Guide will be available on our website shortly.
The AHRC work with the RCUK Shared Services Centre (SSC) to deliver all of our funding activities. All queries regarding eligibility for funding and applications in progress and also queries regarding current awards, should be directed to the SSC team dealing with your subject area using the contacts page.