Our ePhD concierge process

(aka How to help craft a strong application in the first place)

Universities are complex organisations and writing a research proposal presumes some familiarity with the literature. We have developed a concierge process to help experienced founders have a stronger application. Our working group members are [email protected] (Transdisciplinary School), [email protected] (Business School), [email protected] (UTS Startups), [email protected] (Graduate Research School)

  1. Contact us (e.g. LinkedIn or email)
  2. Within our Working Group, we’ll record your interest in our database
  3. Point you to our evolving guidance and summary of the Terms and Conditions for the Entrepreneurial PhD https://bit.ly/UTSephd
  4. Help you understand the traditional and ePhD process (flowchart on the previous page, plus this one)
  5. Provide examples of successful PhD proposals (note, these are traditional PhD proposals, not ePhD)
  6. Provide examples of successful NTRO- or Practice-based PhDs
  7. Provide guidelines for academic writing. E.g. Literature reviews should do more than summarise one paper at a time and could be better structured as an argument that synthesises the literature. This is a decent guide on literature reviews: https://www.newcastle.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/827726/Literature-Reviews.pdf
  8. Help brainstorm a rough draft for the proposal.
    1. Try our brand new ePhD Research Proposal template!
    2. This might start with
      1. 2-4 short ideas, one paragraph each
      2. A half-page overview
      3. A longer document, whitepaper or summary of their work
      4. Helping prompt ChatGPT to brainstorm the literature review, research question and methodology.
  9. Download key articles and email them candidates based on that brainstorming
  10. Iterate 1-2 more times on the proposal. Don’t plagiarise from ChatGPT 🙂
  11. Explore appropriate model of supervision with candidates
    1. Required: UTS supervisors (2 or more)
    2. Optional: Additional supervisors across UTS, other universities and/or outside academia (PhD qualifications recommended, but not required).
    3. Supervisor roles: Actively involved or mainly there for procedural support, while subject matter or methodological supervision is via a broader panel
  12. Help find supervisors:
    1. Explore https://profiles.uts.edu.au/
    2. Use our networks, incl reaching out to each faculty’s HDR Coordinator and Associate Dean Research.
    3. Help contact appropriate supervisors, possibly including working with GRS to educate those supervisors about the ePhD

The above is to get you a strong first draft of your proposal with which to attract a supervisor.

Once you have established contact with a supervisor who is interested in your topic, your methods, and a model of supervision that works for you, then you’ll likely iterate on the proposal one or two more times with their (and many others’) guidance and subject matter expertise.

Assuming you do NOT need a scholarship (still free for you, just w/o living expense allowance), then the next steps are to: