Nosher... What's it on? I am an academic, but can only really give advice on arts subjects. I know sciences are very different. If you're a scientist, you want someone like Tamum, who's a great source of info.
However, in very general terms, I'd think about the following...
- How mobile are you? (If you have family ties in a particular place would you be prepared to move as a family to go to where the best supervision is, for example?)
Based on the answer to 1. try one of the following:
If you are tied to a particular area
- Contact all the relevant departments in your local institutions. Definition of 'local' could vary depending on the subject again. A lab-based subject might involve you being there all day every day, so you'd need to be closer. With an arts subject you could get away with working at home quite a lot and going maybe once a week/fortnight/month (depending on commitments) so you could live up to, say, 100 miles away and still cope.
If you are completely mobile
- Try to find out which are the 'best' departments for your particular subject. This is not the best moment, because all RAE ratings are now 6 years out-of-date (2001, next one about to happen), but it does give an indication. Try to find out who the established experts are in your field... Who is publishing really interesting stuff? Who do you feel is 'on your wavelength'? Also, what kind of institution are they in? I hate to say it, but bigger more prestigious institutions have more money and are more likely to offer scholarships, decent funding for conference attendance and so on.
Then...
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Once you have identified a few possible places where you might want to study, contact them informally. IME it's much better to do this than to bounce right in with a proposal already written (again, in my subject area at least). It's really useful to talk through your ideas with a prospective supervisor. Not only will they (if they are worth their salt...) be able to give you good advice on how to firm up your proposal, on what is/isn't do-able etc., but also YOU can get a sense of what they are like and how enthusiastic they are about your proposal. If they seem bored by it at this stage... don't go there! You can do this by email in the first instance, to avoid the danger of saying the wrong thing (though I bet you don't...).
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Once you have found (a) the right place and (b) the right person, then work on the proposal. What you need for the proposal will depend on the individual institution. IME institutions are less fussy about what the proposal looks like, as long as they feel that it's a valid and workable idea. Usually they are willing to help you to adapt the proposal accordingly. But funding bodies are a very different kettle of fish, and you'll need to get as much advice as possible about what sort of things to write (I can advise re. AHRC, but no others).
Will you be applying for funding in the New Year to start this time in 2008, or can you fund yourself (in which case you should be able to start whenever... at least, that's possible in my institution)?
Now is probably not the best time to contact people, as a lot of people are away at the moment. I'd leave it till mid-October (unless you're hoping to start immediately, in which case, go for it!) so that people have time to come back from their hols/conference/whatever, get their classes organised, get the new undergraduates through the door and then be ready to think about new postgrads. (If you're applying to Oxford or Cambridge, move the dates back by a couple of weeks... flippin' part-timers!)
Hope this helps. Will stop now, because anything else I can write will be too subject-specific. Have faith in yourself and go for it!