A level playing field? Understanding diversity in the British sports media‌

Wednesday 13 November 2024

The CDA Studentship Committee meet to moderate and agree the outcome of the CDA competition.

The top ranked 13 applications will be awarded. Normally, the remaining applications form a Reserve List in ranked order.

Monday 18 November 2024
CDA competition results announced

NBC administrators at Newcastle notify all applicants of the outcome, copying in the administrator at relevant NBC partner institution.

NBC Administrators at Newcastle update the NBC website and advertise successful projects on the NBC website only. Further advertising is devolved to local schools/departments/subject areas.

Supervisors and partner organisations begin their recruitment campaigns. Local schools/departments can choose their own deadlines for the internal receipt of Expressions of Interest and any supporting documentation required, (bearing in mind the deadline for sending details of the selected candidate to NBC), and are encouraged to use NBC marking criteria for selection.

Friday 21 March 2025, by 16:00

Deadline for the submission of CDA Candidate Details forms to the NBC.

(The CDA Candidate Details form will be available here once finalised. Please note it will be available in Word .doc format only following feedback from participants in previous competitions.)

CDA projects and candidates are not reassessed, but will be ratified by the Studentships Committee. A formal studentship offer will be issued by the student’s host institution in line with the dates of the open Studentship Competition, which are to be finalised.

Supervisors instruct their successful CDA student applicant to submit a standard postgraduate application form to their host institution.

Tuesday 8 April 2025 

Meeting of the NBC Studentships Committee.

Studentship offer letters will be issued to the successful CDA candidates by the relevant department in the student's home institution shortly following the committee.

Supervisors of successful projects are expected to undertake a recruitment process, rather than nominate a student at the point of application to the CDA competition. 

Successful projects and an accompanying Candidate Specification will be advertised on these pages following the announcement of the results of the competition, from Monday 18 November 2024. If you wish to make any changes to the Candidate Specification (e.g. the deadline for the Expression of Interest), please contact northernbridge.admin@newcastle.ac.uk.

Northern Bridge Consortium cannot fund any further advertising. This is devolved to supervisors and projects leads, individual schools and departments, and the non-HE partner organisations, who are welcome to promote their award via their own networks, etc.

Project leads can choose their own deadlines for the internal receipt of Expressions of Interest and can request any supporting documentation they require, such as references. When short-listing and selecting applicants for interview, please refer to the Northern Bridge Consortium's marking and assessment criteria for applicants: Applicant Assessment Aide

Once you have selected the successful student applicant:

1) Details should be sent to northernbridge.admin@newcastle.ac.uk by a date to be confirmed (usually March), using the CDA Candidate Details form‌. Please attach a copy of the candidate's CV - maximum 2-pages. There is no requirement to send references or evidence of qualifications (though you may request these as part of your selection process).

2) The selected candidate should also complete an Equal Opportunities Monitoring form and send this themselves to northernbridge.admin@newcastle.ac.uk by a date to be confirmed. The data will only be used for general statistical and monitoring purposes. The form will be viewed by the Education Assistant Manager (Northern Bridge Consortium DTP) only. The data collected are anonymised and are processed and held separately.

3) You can informally advise the candidate of their award.

4) If they have not done so already, please remind the candidate that they must submit a postgraduate application form to their host institution's Postgraduate Admissions Service. Collaborative Doctoral Studentship Awards are conditional upon the successful candidate receiving a formal unconditional offer to study the appropriate PhD programme by their host University, and on the student's subsequent registration.

5) Successful projects and their selected candidates are not reassessed, but those awards will be ratified by the Studentships Committee. 

6) Candidates will receive a formal studentship offer from their host institution following the Studentships Committee. (Please note, the candidate's offer of a place on a doctoral programme will be managed separately by the host university's Postgraduate Admissions Service.)

For further information about these Collaborative Doctoral Awards (Staff-led), and to submit an Expression of Interest, student applicants will be required to review the "CDA Candidate Specification" on their project of interest and to contact the named lead by the stated date. Applicants may be required to submit accompanying documentation, which will be detailed in the specification, and to be interviewed.

Please note that the successful projects will be announced no sooner than Monday 18 November 2024, and will be available to view from that date, and not before. 

Student applicants who are successfully recruited to a project are still required to meet the AHRC's eligibility criteria and to submit a postgraduate application form to their host university. This should be done as soon as they are informally notified by the project leads that they have been successful, and no later than a date to be confirmed.

Please note that Collaborative Doctoral Studentship Awards are conditional upon the successful student receiving a formal unconditional offer to study the appropriate PhD programme by their host University’s Postgraduate Admissions Service, and on the student's subsequent registration. 

Please submit any queries to your local contact at the institution you are based. We'll list FAQs here as we receive them.

How are the applications assessed?

We ask applicants to state the proposal's primary subject area. Applications are assessed by a Cross-institutional Review Panel comprising the academic Subject Area Leads in each NBC partner institution, so an application in Archaeology for example would be jointly assessed by the Archaeology Subject Leads at Newcastle, Durham and Queen's University Belfast. A panel chair is responsible for recording the agreed marks and comments, and returning them to the NBCDTP. The assessment results are collated by the NBCDTP administrator at Newcastle, then moderated by a committee comprising the Northern Bridge Academic Directors from each partner institution to ensure consistency of marking, etc. The final results are then ranked.

What is the value of the award?

• Tuition fees paid at a rate equivalent to the Home UK fee. Successful international candidates should be prepared to fund the difference between the Home and International tuition fee rate by alternative means. Under no circumstances can this be funded by the NBC. An applicant’s host institution may offer an additional scholarship to the value of this difference, but this is not guaranteed. Applicants should check with their host institution for further guidance. 

• A minimum stipend per year for living costs, which is paid in regular instalments. Awards increase every year, typically with inflation. As an indicator, the level for 2024/2025 is £19,237. CDA award-holders will receive an additional £600 per annum to help fund collaboration with the non-HE partner (for travel, accommodation, etc.). Alternatively, if the student opts to locate near their partner organisation, the additional £600 can be used for travel to and from their host institution for supervisory meetings and library/research visits. Please note, however, we cannot fund any mandatory attendance required by the host institution, such as university-run research training. 

• Award-holders are eligible to apply to a fund reserved to support primary research costs to include, for example, conference attendance, fieldwork, language training, overseas research visits and placements with a non-academic partner. 

• Please note award-holders will not have a personal research account on which to draw.
• The duration of the award is 3.5 years full-time, or 7 years part-time.

Are there any terms and conditions preventing people already working for the partner organisation (as staff or volunteers) to apply for the staff-led CDA when it is advertised?

Staff or volunteers can apply, however they could not be appointed without evidence of no conflict of interest that could compromise completion of the PhD or any of the parties involved.