UKEMS PhD Support for COVID-19 Disruption

UKEMS is aware of the problems faced by many PhD students due to the Covid-19 lockdown. Many students have lost valuable laboratory time and are having to extend their PhD candidatures to catch up. In some cases, students are not receiving funding to cover their living expenses for this extended period of time. This problem is particularly acute for those students approaching the end of their PhDs. UKEMS would like to help such students who are UKEMS members and whose research is in line with the scientific remit of UKEMS, to complete their PhD studies.

We are specifically interested in supporting PhD students who were in their final (laboratory based) year during the COVID-19 lockdown. Please provide the dates of normal registration (start and end- not including unfunded write up periods). The intention of this scheme is to support students who have lost time in the laboratory (or equivalent) due to the COVID 19 lockdown (March to September 2020), and who have not received any extension to their stipend to cover any extension.We are offering to provide one-off payments to financially support these 3rd year PhD students with living costs. UKEMS will provide up to £2000 for each student. A maximum of 10 bursaries will be available.

To be eligible, the student should be:
1. A PhD student (other postgraduate degrees are not eligible).
2. Be in their final (3rd) year of their PhD (maximum candidature of Sept 2021).
3. Have been a member of UKEMS since before the Covid-19 outbreak.
4. Have no other forms of costed extension (funder provided or University provided). We will get confirmation of this from the supervisors.
5. Not be employed in full time work at the time of application.

If more students apply for these bursaries than the budget allows, then the UKEMS committee will assess which applications are successful. Additional criteria may be used, such as whether the applicant has been a regular attendee at UKEMS (or related sub group) meetings. The decisions of the UKEMS committee are final with regard to eligibility and no appeals will be available against UKEMS committee decisions.

Deadline for applications is end of October 2020. UKEMS will announce successful applications before end of 2020.

Further rounds for such bursaries in 2021 (for students finishing in 2022) are being considered by UKEMS.

UKEMS_COVID PhD Support Oct 2020 Application Form: Download

Applications should be forwarded to the UKEMS Secretary and UKEMS Treasurer by the end of October. Please use the email title ‘UKEMS COVID PhD Support’ when sending applications.