AHRC - International Placement Scheme

The Call aims to:

• provide ECRs, doctoral level research assistants and AHRC/ESRC*- funded doctoral students, with dedicated access to the internationally renowned collections/ programmes/ expertise held at the eight IPS institutions; 
• enhance the depth, range and quality of research activities conducted by scholars;
• create opportunities for networking with other international scholars at those institutions.

4. Eligibility

For full details of eligibility, please see pages 3-4 of the International Placement Guidance document.

To highlight:

• Applicants must be either PhD students or doctoral level research assistants or ECR’s. 
• PhD Students must be AHRC-funded students (ESRC funded students are only eligible for the Library of Congress).
• PhD students are only eligible to apply in the funded period of their award (not their writing-up year).
• No additional time will be added to the doctoral award end date to compensate for time spent on the IPS award. PhD students must enter the grant reference of their current grant in the ‘Grant Reference’ section of the application form. 
• AHRC applicants must be applying to undertake primary research in an AHRC subject area for all hosts; ESRC applicants are only eligible to apply to LoC and as such must be applying to undertake primary research in an ESRC subject area. 
• The project will be assessed on how well it demonstrates relevance to the applicant’s PhD. Therefore the proposed research activities and outputs for the project should complement or feed into the applicant’s PhD directly.
• Applications are welcomed from full or part time candidates, during the IPS placement fellows will be expected to dedicate full time hours to the placement. 

5. Host-specific eligibility

If a host has any individual requirements it will be listed in the bullet points below:

• NIHU: Applicants to National Institute of Japanese Literature (NIJL) and National Museum of Japanese History (NMJH) require applicants to speak and understand Japanese to an advanced level. For all other NIHU institutes, a knowledge of basic (conversational) Japanese is useful, but not compulsory. 
• STA: Knowledge of basic (conversational) Mandarin is recommended for allapplicants. 
• Smithsonian: Applicants must select a contact at the Smithsonian Institutions who will act as an advisor should the application be successful. Please use this template in order to contact Smithsonian.
• Smithsonian: Applicants will also need to register on Smithsonian’s online system called. SOLAA. Please do not start this process until prompted by the AHRC coordinator

6. Guidance on Costs and Project Timescales

For full details of placement timescales for each host institution, please see page 5 of the International Placement Guidance document.

7. Application Process and Format

Permission from University

Before applying, candidates must ensure that their UK RO /supervisor/Head of Department/mentor will be content to release them for the placement should their application be successful.

Contact with Host Institution

Applicants must identify and research the institution’s collections, fully familiarising themselves with the collections and how they are relevant to their own research. Please see the websites for each individual institution above as a starting point to investigate the collections. Following this, candidates are able to contact the relevant IPS institution in order to discuss their potential application and for information about the collections.

For some placement institutions contact is mandatory, for others this is optional. Details can be found on page 4 and page 8 of the International Placement Guidance document.

Any contact should be made as soon as possible before the AHRC application deadline of 6th Feb 2020.

Submit an Application Form  

Early Career Researchers

Please follow the information listed in the International Placement Guidance document and Je-S Guidance document and submit your application via the Je-S system. The deadline to submit an application on Je-S is Feb 6th 2020 - 4pm

AHRC and ESRC funded students

Students should read the International Placement Guidance and Je-S Guidance Document and email the following information to the Postgraduate Research Student Office pgawards@ed.ac.uk by the application deadline - Jan 30th 2020.

The Postgraduate Research Student Office will use the details below to submit your application to Je-S on your behalf. The AHRC will not accept applications submitted by students directly. 

• Name and UUN
• IPS Project Details 
• Project Summary (Maximum 1,000 characters including spaces)
• Applicant Statement (Maximum 4,000 characters including spaces)
• The AHRC reference number if you previously made an unsuccessful IPS application
• Referee details
• Supervisor statement of support for the placement (Maximum 4,000 characters including spaces)
• Proposal classification
• 2 page academic CV
• 2nd supervisor letter of support (only if applying for the Huntingdon Library)

8. Assessment Process and Criteria

The full call timetable is listed on page 6 of the International Placement Guidance document

During the assessment process the following criteria will be considered:

• the extent to which the proposed research fits the collections identified in the application; 
• the extent to which the fellowship and collections to be consulted would ‘add value’ to their research (especially if the collections are unique or rare); applicants may suggest how their fellowship may be of value to the IPS institution;
• the extent to which the fellowship would be an effective use of the applicant’s time - applicants may include a timetable; 
• the extent to which the application identifies personal development opportunities through networking with other research scholars. This might include the presentation of on-going work or immediate or longer term collaborativeopportunities; 
• if the intended research is to be practice-led, the applicant’s own practice must be an integral part of the application and the creative/performative aspects of the research must be made explicit. The applicant must explain how practice is an integral part of the project and not just the outcome;
• where appropriate, the applicant must demonstrate that they have the necessary expertise required to undertake the proposed research, for example, language proficiency if the applicant wishes to research works written/spoken in a language other than English.

Applications will be peer reviewed by relevant experts at the placement institution and then moderated by AHRC.

Details of the grading scale used for IPS can be found on our website here.

9. Communicating Funding Decisions

Funding decisions will be communicated to the persons who were selected as ‘grant holders’ on the application form. Current students will be notified of successful decisions by the Postgraduate Research Student Office.

The email will provide successful applicants with further information about their placement and will ask successful applicants to confirm their start and end dates of their placement. Applicants will have 10 working days to confirm this. Failure to do so will result in AHRC using the dates originally selected in the application and applicants will be required to contact the host institution directly to discuss any changes.

Around 30 days from the first successful notification the UK research organisation will receive an official confirmation letter from the AHRC confirming the dates and funding amount, this should be made available to the student or ECR. Finally you will receive documentation from your placement institution; further details of this will be provided if your application is successful.  

10. General Information, Scheme Requirements and Post Award Reporting

If successful, IPS Fellows are responsible for booking travel and accommodation (including any travel insurance) and securing appropriate visa arrangements themselves. Local accommodation is available close to each host institution, further information regarding accommodation options will be provided if you are successful.

The offer letter issued by AHRC and the paperwork from individual placement institutions will be enough to secure your visa, and your UK Research Organisation may be able to assist you in making a visa application. Applicants are advised to start the visa application process as early as possible.

On completion of the IPS fellowship, the AHRC will contact applicants asking them to submit feedback on their placement. AHRC may also contact Fellows in the future to understand more about the impact the award has had on their career.

IPS Fellows do not need to submit receipts for living expenses, visas or flight costs following the end of the award. If there has been any underspend on the travel and visa costs this money can be transferred to spend on living costs without any requirement for permission from AHRC. However if IPS Fellows do not spend all of the funds allotted to them from the award (e.g. if the Fellow does not stay for the whole award period) the Research Organisation should return any unspent funds at reconciliation (applicants should discuss this process with their Research Organisation directly).

All recipients of Research Council funding are required to enter the details of their outputs and impacts through the researchfish® system. Students are only required to enter details in researchfish® from the third year of their PhD onwards; Early Career Researchers are required to enter details from the first year of their main research grant. Invitation emails will be sent to award holders at the point at which they are required to start using researchfish®. More details regarding researchfish® are available on the UKRI website.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

AHRC welcomes applications from all eligible students and is committed to providing equal opportunities to our research community. AHRC will cover any additional eligible costs incurred during the fellowship due to disability needs, under the usual Research Council DSA claim process. 

It is the responsibility of the Research Organization to consider the specific disability needs of the Fellow during the placement and any plans that need to be made to put the necessary support in place. We recommend Disability Advisors or Officers are engaged in the process to advise on the support required and to discuss any arrangements that need to be made. Where applicable, they would also provide any support that the Fellow needs in liaising with the host organisation in this respect. AHRC expect the Disability Adviser or Officer to have a key advisory role in the DSA process and in providing assurance that DSA funds are being used appropriately.

11. Contact Information

Please contact AHRC enquiries if you have any queries (available Monday to Friday 8:30-5:00): Email: enquiries@ahrc.ukri.org or phone: 01793 416 060

For queries on creating Je-S accounts and completing and submitting the Je-S application form please initially refer to the Completing the Je-S Application Form guidance, should you require further assistance please contact the Je-S Helpdesk on 01793 444164 or jeshelp@je-s.ukri.org who are available Monday to Friday.

AHRC International Placement Guidance 2020 (400.17 KB PDF)

AHRC International Placement Je-S Guidance 2020 (238.77 KB PDF)