Faculty of Arts PhD Fieldwork Grant Scheme at University of Melbourne 2023

Objective:

This grant is for fieldwork support to Faculty of Arts Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) graduate researchers, in which the primary data for the PhD thesis can be collected only in a field location (for example, a fundable project may require access to particular communities, physical landscapes, indigenous languages, archaeological sites, or oral histories).

Eligibility for the Faculty of Arts PhD Fieldwork Grant Scheme:

• Applicants must be PhD graduate researchers enrolled in the Faculty of Arts or MA graduate researcher who has been given provisional approval to convert to PhD at confirmation.
• Candidates should be post-confirmation or within three months of their expected confirmation date (note: funding awarded before confirmation will be provisional upon successful confirmation or for travel to take place after confirmation).
• Students must be able to demonstrate that the primary data collection for their PhD requires fieldwork methodology. Assessment of applications for fieldwork support will be based not on the discipline, but on the methodology involved.
• Applicants should be undertaking fieldwork for a single period of three months or more duration, or for several periods that together total three months or more. Each trip must be elements of the same fieldwork plan, essential to the PhD research, and flagged in the original application.
• Candidates must submit an initial application to the PhD Fieldwork scheme within two years (equivalent full-time) of commencement – applications for subsequent/follow-up trips can be submitted after this point.
• Applicants should be able to present a reasonable and justifiable budget and have school support for 25% of the total budget requested. Their school Funding will be the source of this contribution.

Selection criteria:

• A description of the thesis project and the fieldwork methodology demonstrates how it meets the criteria throughout this page.
• A detailed timetable for fieldwork travel (including a timetable of expenditure).
• A budget:
• • Evidence of sources of quotations budgeted items (ie. airfares and the source of other costs requested, etc.)
  • A detailed case must be made for why accommodation or research assistance costs should be supported
• A letter from your principal supervisor outlining:
• • How does your methodology meet the guidelines above of what constitutes fieldwork
  • That the proposed fieldwork is essential and integral to the project
  • That the fieldwork program was or will be identified as an integral part of the application for confirmation of PhD candidature, or concurrently with an application for conversion from Masters to confirmed PhD candidature.