Subject:                Re: TLRP Research Training Fellowships Competition 2002-03

           ESRC TEACHING AND LEARNING PROGRAMME RESEARCH 
                        TRAINING FELLOWSHIPS
     Notice of Forthcoming Call under the 2002/03 Competition 

The ESRC’s Teaching and Learning Programme will shortly be inviting 
outline applications for a third wave of Research Training Fellowship Awards 
attached to the research projects / networks currently being funded under 
Phases I and II of the Programme or the Programme’s Research Capacity 
Building Network. It is currently anticipated that the closing date for 
outline applications will be Monday 4 November 2002. 

Full details of the competition, including relevant application forms, will 
be available from the ESRC website from early September.

This fellowship scheme is being funded by the Department for Education 
and Skills (DfES) as a part of its contribution to the Teaching and Learning 
Programme and has been developed in collaboration with the British 
Educational Research Association. Funding has been provided to support 
up to 5 fellows under this third wave to start in the summer / autumn of 
2003. 

The fellowships are targeted at serving educational practitioners (e.g. school 
teachers/ heads, FE principals / lecturers / managers, LEA or other policy 
advisors, professional trainers etc) who wish to study for a research doctorate 
whilst also continuing in their current post / profession. The fellowships 
offer:
Upto 28 months f.t.e. buy-out for fellows from their current 
professional post, plus related research costs and part-time tuition fees 
(more information on this will be provided in the further details 
available in September). Considerable flexibility is provided to enable the 
fellow to use this buy-out to complete an accelerated part-time PhD 
programme whilst also continuing with their current professional career. 
Anopportunity to actively participate in, and contribute to, the UK’s 
largest co-ordinated research Programme on teaching and learning issues 
with a strong commitment to research quality, improving the outcomes 
for learners, building research capacity and user engagement and 
partnership.
Thechance to work with some of the leading research teams in the 
country, and their other non-academic partners, and to conduct research 
linked to one of the major, innovative and high quality research projects 
currently being conducted under the Programme.
Enhancedtraining and support for fellows to supplement that 
provided by a high-quality, ESRC-recognised, PhD programme.

Applicants should have a minimum of three years post-graduate experience as 
an educational professional and be in a full-time permanent post or hold a 
fixed term /rolling appointment of more than 3 years duration. They should 
be at a stage in their professional career development where they would 
benefit significantly from successfully completing a PhD programme and 
could make a significant contribution to the Programme. Successful 
candidates will be expected to:
develop,and carry-through to successful completion, a full proposal for 
a clearly specified, high-quality research project that will add significant 
value to an existing project under the Programme and make an 
important contribution to the achievement of the Programme’s overall 
objectives; some support will be made available to shortlisted applicants 
in the development of their full research proposals.
becommitted to brokering linkages between research and practice, 
havethe capacity to make a significant impact upon relevant policy 
and/or practice communities and exert leverage on the community of 
which they are a part;
displayenthusiasm for developing their research skills and a 
commitment to undertaking a broad research training programme;
bewilling to actively participate in the research project / network to 
which they are attached as well as in the Programme as a whole. 

Fellowship applications must be submitted in conjunction with one of the 
current Phase I or II project / network teams under the Programme or the 
TLRP Research Capacity Building Network (see Programme’s website at 
{ HYPERLINK http://www.tlrp.org }http://www.tlrp.org for details of current research) and one member of the 
project / network team must be prepared to act as the fellow’s mentor / 
supervisor. 

Further details on the competition and application forms will be available 
from the ESRC website in early September.