The ACCE DTP is committed to recruiting extraordinary future scientists regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, faith or religious belief, pregnancy or maternity, parental or caring responsibilities or career pathway to date. We understand that a student’s potential can be shown in many ways and we strive to recruit students from all backgrounds, and support them on their scientific journey.
We have designed our application systems to identify candidates who are likely to be successful in research regardless of what opportunities may have been available to them prior to their application.
Each year ACCE funds at least 20 studentships, although the precise number may vary from year to year. Financial details of the funding we provide may be found here.
This video explains the ACCE application process and how to apply.
Choosing a project
Click on the relevant ACCE academic partner below to see our available projects. You may apply for any projects which fit with your research interests. As some projects have many more applicants than others, we encourage you to consider applying for more than one project within ACCE to maximise your chances of being interviewed. However, you can only be put forward for interview shortlisting for one project. If you are shortlisted for more than one project we will ask you to choose which one you wish to be interviewed for.
Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH)
Before you apply
Please ensure you are eligible for an ACCE studentship before applying. Details on eligibility can be found here.
We strongly recommend that you get in touch with the supervisors of your chosen project before you apply, to discuss the project further. You can simply email the primary supervisor (first listed name) by finding them on their institutional webpages, or contacting them via clicking on their link on the FindaPhD.com advert.
We strongly recommend you read the selection criteria used to assess applications before writing your application, to ensure your application includes the relevant information we are looking for, and to give you the best chance of your application being selected for interview. Our selection criteria can be found here.
Making an application
Applications to ACCE are made directly to the institution you are applying for. You need to look at the guidelines for applicants for each University or Department hosting the PhD as they may vary. These can be found through the links to each of our acaedmic partners above, and at the bottom of this page.
Your application should include:
- a CV
- details of two referees
- a personal statement which must be completed using this proforma
ACCE personal statement proforma
The ACCE personal statement proforma is used in place of a standard personal statement or cover letter to standardise this part of the application and minimise the difference between those who are given support and those who are not.
There is much advice available on preparing a CV for a PhD application, such as at FindAPhD.com and DiscoverPhDs.com. Your CV should be around 1-2 pages long depending on how much experience you have, and you should include any experience which is relevant to the project you are applying to or demonstrates the skills you will require to complete it.
The two referees you provide details for must include at least one academic reference. If you are unable to provide an academic reference you can ask your old department to provide a statement confirming your attendance and performance based on your records. If you are applying for a position with your current (or past) supervisors it is not advisable to use them as a referee, as this creates a conflict of interest. If in doubt your chosen supervisor can provide guidance on the most suitable referee to include. References are used only to highlight issues that may prevent you from being successful, and are not considered when assessing your application.
For guidance on what qualities we are looking for in potential students from your personal statement proforma and CV, please see our What We’re Looking For page, where the selection criteria used to assess your application are available.
Please also see our Frequently Asked Questions document here. This document includes tips on how to address the questions in the proforma.
Click on the relevant ACCE academic partner for details of how to apply to each institution.
accedtp.ac.uk 