The Process

I’ve secured my placement, what do I need to do now?

  1. Fill out a Placement Description Form, outlining the main purpose of your placement and your key responsibilities. Include your costing information. Some sections will need to be completed by the host supervisor.
  2. Send the placement description to the GW4 DTP Hub (GW4BioMed@cardiff.ac.uk) for approval by the DTP Hub Director.
  3. If your placement is a private organisation [including pharma labs], you will need to obtain a legal agreement between your registered university and your placement organisation, who will need to approve it with their legal teams before it is signed.  This can take up to 6 months, so please ensure you factor this into your timescales.  It must be signed before you can start your placement.
  4. If your placement is in a UK or overseas university or research labs, you will need to complete the appropriate Visitors Form/Risk Assessment for your placement university, which ensures you are covered by Health and Safety and are added to the university insurance.  This may be your own university’s risk assessment form which usually needs to be signed by your supervisor or Head of School/Department.
  5. Please check with your placement host, regardless of sector, if there are any other contractual agreements to be put in place eg insurance, honorary contracts, Intellectual property, confidentiality etc not covered in the risk assessments or legal agreements.  Note:  Your university may have a
  6. If the placement is abroad, look through our ‘Taking your Broadening Horizons Placements Abroad’ section for advice and guidance.  This also outlines Travel and Health insurance considerations.
  7. Ensure that your contact details are updated with your university.  Exeter students please update your details on ExeHub.

Leave of Absence/Interruption to Studies

This placement is an integral and mandatory part of your studies, and therefore you are not required to take a Leave of Absence/Interruption to Studies, unless it is a paid placement. 

If you are asked to take an Interruption to Studies by your university, please get in touch with the DTP team in the first instance.   For Bristol, please contact fls-pgenquiries@bristol.ac.uk, FAO James, and he will support you with this.

Legal Agreements

NOTE:  We are  trying to set up MRC Broadening Horizons placement agreements with each of the GW4 universities but until these are agreed, please follow the guidelines below:

Legal agreements may be required for private organisations, including Pharma Labs and are a contract between your placement host and your registered university.  Some organisations will have specific documentation to be completed e.g. OSS.

For academic research lab placements, a legal agreement may not be required but there may be Visitor Forms/Risk Assessments specific to that placement to complete.

Your GW4 university may require a placement agreement in addition to the host’s paperwork.  As each GW4 university has its own requirements and processes, please check the information and contact below for your university.

Bath

The University of Bath currently do not require a legal agreement but do require you to complete a Risk Assessment and an Off Campus Activities Notification Form (See Risk Assessments below). 

If your placement host has their own formal paperwork for completion, you and your host should complete and sign the relevant sections and forward it to research-contracts@bath.ac.uk, copying in your supervisor.

Bristol

Placement agreements may be needed where there is no pre-agreed studentship agreement, where there are IP issues or where your supervision changes to the host. 

Cardiff

For placement agreements provided by the host, these should be signed off by the host and your School Director. 

Exeter

Contact Faculty of Health & Life Sciences (Exeter) PGR student support at: hls-exeter-pgrsupport@exeter.ac.uk.  You will be asked to complete a placement legal agreement and risk assessment (see below), in addition to any paperwork required by your host.

Risk Assessments

Bath

You should complete the Risk Assessment form found at this link and have this signed by your supervisor and noted within your department: https://www.bath.ac.uk/legal-information/risk-assessment/

You should also complete the Off-Campus Activities Notification form and return it to your Doctoral Programmes Administrator in the Doctoral College before you leave. This form will be shared with the University Security Office.

Bristol

Please find the Risk Assessment here: student-placements-gn.pdf. Your School are responsible for your Health and Safety, so this should go to your supervisor when completed and signed off with your placement host. There is further information at:  https://www.bristol.ac.uk/safety/staff/documents/

Cardiff

There is a generic Risk Assessment form at: Student placement risk assessments – Intranet – Cardiff University  This link also gives you further information on required insurance but further information can be obtained from: Insurance@cardiff.ac.uk

Contact the Departmental Safety Officer for your School

If you do not belong to these Schools, contact Safety@cardiff.ac.uk

Exeter

Contact Faculty of Health & Life Sciences (Exeter) PGR student support at: hls-exeter-pgrsupport@exeter.ac.uk. You will be asked to complete a General Risk Assessment form (see the Forms section of the website).

Funding during your Broadening Horizons placement

As you will remain a student during your placement, your stipend will continue as normal. You will also be able to access your RTSG to cover travel and accommodation costs.  Your host organisation may also help subsidise these costs.  All direct costs for the placement e.g. consumables should be met by the placement host organisation.

You can also apply for Flexible Funding in October and March, and we will accept ad- hoc applications outside those times if your application is time sensitive.  Please note there is a cap of £5,000 Flexible Funding during your PhD.

Please note that if your placement is paid, your stipend will be suspended for the three months as you cannot be paid twice for the same period.