British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship application

[Piginapickle]

I'm classically overthinking one of the questions. In the section Previous Research the guide says 'please give a description of research already undertaken, normally referring to the doctoral thesis, max 600 words'. Are they expecting me to describe my entire thesis or just the part of my thesis that specifically relates to the topic I am putting forward? I've looked everywhere for an answer or an example of a completed application form but no luck so far. Any help would be very gratefully received!

Summarise your thesis work but emphasise impact, techniques or methodology which you would be continuing in the postdoc, and big yourself up

eg ‘my thesis focused on x. To study this I used y and z methods in which I developed significant expertise. I will develop this here…
the main output of my thesis was a book on topic c which focused on the key arguments… this has been reviewed in ….

Summarise whole thesis, blowing trumpet.

Are they expecting me to describe my entire thesis or just the part of my thesis that specifically relates to the topic I am putting forward?

Surely you wrote an abstract of your PhD? Summarise your argument, (don't describe it):
what is your hypothesis?
What research methods did you use to work with your hypothesis?
What body of primary source materials did you analyse?
What were your findings?

Focus on argument and analysis.

You need to show how your postdoc proposal develops from your PhD, or uses your PhD as a springboard, so that you show that you're equipped to do the new research, but you're not simply repeating (or writing your PhD into a book).

How are you being advised? You only get one go at a BA postdoc, so if you can't summarise the argument of your PhD, leave it a year ... It's hugely competitive, for a start.

If you're unsure, drop an email to the research funding team there and ask (email will be in the application guide). They're lovely!

They want you to summarise the thesis, bringing out what is original and exciting about it. Just like you’d do in a cover letter for any academic job.

Ask your supervisor and/or the uni research support team to look over the application for you. It’s essential to get feedback and guidance on these applications, especially if you haven’t done them before.

You should be writing the application in consultation with the department who will host you, and the named mentor with whom you want to work. They should be a useful source of advice.