We are a growing group, always on the lookout for talented, fun, colleagues.
We advertise available fully funded positions through KCL and findaphd.com; you will also see adverts, etc, via Andrew’s Twitter feed (@andrewjsurman).
If you're interested to pursue research studentships (PhD, MRes, MSci projects), summer studentships, postdoctoral fellowships, year abroad/Erasmus studies, or other independent sources of funding, we very much welcome hearing from you. Please get in contact with Andrew directly.
To fund this, there are a number of different opportunities available, and we have some experience in supporting candidates to obtain funding to join us. For PhD studentships, KCL's International PhD funding list is a good start, but not exhaustive; if you are not from the UK, many countries' research organisations fund PhD study abroad, so it can be worth checking locally. Postdoc fellowships change available change frequently; beyond 'the usual suspects' (EPSRC, Royal Society, Newton International, Marie Curie, Leverhulme, NATO), we'd suggest you check up-to-date online lists, and sources specific to the UK and - if you're not from the UK - your own country.
If you are writing to Andrew seeking support for an application for funding, it would help if you include the following information:
A current CV, and outline of your relevant skills and knowledge.
An outline of why you're interested in joining our lab specifically, and the skills and knowledge you'd like to develop here.
Your nationality, since sadly many funding opportunities depend on candidate nationality e.g. Chinese Government (CSC) funding, Japanese government funding, Mexican government (CONAHCYT) funding, Commonwealth funding, etc. We welcome all kinds of new colleagues: this question is to make sure are lab members are financially supported.
Your eligibility for the course/position. For example, if you'd like to apply for a PhD, please state clearly how you fulfil each of KCL's Entry Requirements.
Whether you have identified potential sources of funding/scholarships already, and any details – candidate eligibility, deadlines, eligible research areas, etc. (This really helps! If you have identified funding, please let us know what it pays for, and the amount assigned for subsistence: this isn't to make things difficult, but to make sure plans are realistic.)
When you would like to be able to join us.
An acknowledgement that you've read this guide (Andrew receives many impersonal/'cut and paste' emails, not specific to our group. He can't answer them all, but will endeavour to get back to everyone engaging specifically with our group.)
Asking all this is not meant to present a barrier: we want more exciting new colleagues to join us, and are happy to support appropriate applications. Please bear in mind that supporting applications for funding often takes a lot of work (e.g. to write project proposals) and sometimes requires university administration involvement (which is centrally-run, and can take some weeks). Please don’t be offended if we're not always able to do it: we can't support every application. And please do get in touch in plenty of time before a deadline! (Andrew's too old these days to be up all night before a deadline)