Placements

Placements for ACCE2 DTP students (students starting on programme in 2024/25 and earlier)

The ACCE DTP placements scheme provides an opportunity and financial help for our students to undertake a 1-3 month placement during their PhD. Students on programme can apply for a placement at any time – students usually undertake placements in the 2nd or 3rd year of their PhD.

The placement aims to provide work experience with organisations that may otherwise be unable to take on an intern. Such experience is important both to help you understand the context of your research and to expose you to the range of career opportunities available to you after you graduate. Your placement will offer significant added value to your doctoral programme which could not be achieve in your home institution. Examples of different types of placements include:

  • Conducting surveys, analysing data and producing reports; Investigating efficiency and cost-saving activity;
  • Managing, delivering a particular service for a certain period;
  • Joining specific teams to assist in the delivery of their activities and projects;
  • Teaching – in schools, using the Researchers in Residence scheme, or through other mechanisms;
  • Policy – developing policy or working in a related setting, such as a government department, local authority, non-departmental public body, professional association, charity, research funder or medical organisation;
  • Media – a wide variety of roles are possible here that help students understand the wider societal context of their research. Such placements could include working in science communication roles or other roles in a press office, science publishing company, zoo, museum or botanic garden, etc.

Where you choose to do a placement will be dependent on your career aspirations and the skills you want to develop. You can do a placement with a range of public research organisations (non-academic), NGOs, small-medium enterprises and other private organisations, charities, trusts, local councils, companies etc. Universities can be eligible as placement providers, as long as the project undertaken does not contribute directly to your PhD work. You can see the organisations we have already worked with here.

ACCE support for placements

  • Your stipend will be extended for the duration of the placement beyond the 3.5 years of your PhD studentship.
  • Cost of travel to/from the location of the placement.
  • Cost of accommodation if necessary.
  • Other occasional expenses, limited to local travel and travel insurance.
  • The maximum claimable budget for travel, accommodation, and other occasional expenses should not exceed £1,500 for UK based placements (£500 additional London allowance for placements in London and London Metropolitan Region) and £3,500 for Overseas placements.

Placements for ACCE+ DLA students (students starting on programme in 2025/26 and later)

ACCE+ offers students the opportunity to undertake placements. Placements undertaken should not involve working on the PhD project. The placements may be related to the project in theme, and the outputs of the placements may be informed by the PhD project work. Similarly, skills placements may result in newly acquired skills that can be applied to the PhD project, but work conducted during the placement itself should not feature in the final PhD thesis.

There are two types of placement in ACCE+:


● Bridge placement. This is a compulsory placement for all students (minimum one month) that creates bridges between academic research and public engagement. These placements should produce a tangible outcome, e.g. large-scale outreach events; policy briefing note; or a commercialisation plan.
Your CASE placement can count as your bridge placement if you are undertaking a CASE studentship.


● Skills placement*. This is an optional placement for students (one to two months) and can follow one of two pathways:
o CV enhancement: students gain skills beyond their PhD area, enhancing interdisciplinarity and
employability. Placements generate a discrete outcome of strategic relevance to the placement host
partner;
o PhD skills placement: this is training within another research group, developing skills required to
pursue exciting novel research directions arising as studentships progress.

The total placement time for students is a maximum of three months.


*For international students, there may be some restrictions on completing optional skills placements. Please contact your local ACCE+ lead for further information.


Students undertaking any placement (maximum three months as noted above) will receive additional stipend and tuition fee support up to the three-month maximum. Students may also apply for additional funds, for example for travel and accommodation costs whilst on placement; where possible ACCE+ encourages placement hosts to contribute to these incidental costs.