PGR project approval
Learn more about how to complete the PhD project approval process.
What is project approval?
All doctoral candidates on PhD courses must have their project approved to complete their research. Project approval sets the scope of your doctoral project, outlining the aims and goals, the methodology and research requirements (such as ethics and resources), and the time frame.
You can look at the project approval form on the PGR Dashboard before you submit it. You’ll find the form under Milestones on your dashboard homepage. You will also see the deadline for your Project Approval submission on your PGR Dashboard timeline: this is the date by which you should have had your meeting and submitted the final version of your documents.
You will have a meeting with your supervisory team and your Independent Assessor, who will be another academic in your School, where you will make a short presentation on your project and engage in a discussion of your submission. The Independent Assessor will offer comments and suggestions, and decide if your project is suitable for continued doctoral study.
Once you've submitted your application, it is discussed with a review panel and is then submitted to the School Research Degrees Committee (SRDC), together with the panel’s report. This committee comprises members of the academic staff who are experienced in supervising and examining research degrees and have a good feel for what makes a successful research project.
What should be submitted?
Your proposal should be no more than 2000 words, not including references, and include:
- Your aim and goals
- Methodology
- Research requirements e.g. ethics and resources
- Your timeframe (remember to factor in annual leave)
- Proposed plan of work – including literature context, relationship to previous research work and a data management plan. You may want to include a GANTT chart for this section
- Your potential research impact and possibility for dissemination.
Each doctoral project is different, so there’s no singular template or guide for candidates. every proposal will be unique to the project and the researcher.
However, the Doctoral School offers training to help you build your application and make the most out of your project approval. Make sure that you have joined the Doctoral Training, Education and Development Teams to learn more.
Full overview of the process can be found in the Research Degrees Handbook.
Understanding Ethical Approval
You don't need to have your Ethical Approval before you submit your Project Approval, but your proposal should identify if your research might require it in the future.
Your supervisory team will able to guide you through the Ethics process, which is submitted on Worktribe, and you can review these guidance documents provided by Research Operations which have been created to help researchers understand the need for ethics and the NTU process. You can find more information about the Ethical Approval process on the Research Operations site.