Ready to Begin Your Project
The Graduate Research School manages the admission of postgraduate research students. It supports applicants through the full recruitment cycle from initial enquiry stage, through to application, registration, and induction. Furthermore, it manages the annual assessment, thesis submission and examination processed for all research students.
The Lead Applicant for the funded programme should contact the Graduate Research School phd@tudublin.ie or visit Research Degree Admission and Registrations for details on the processes in place to carry out the recruitment and follow-on registration.
Recruitment of graduate students for funded programmes is through public advertisement. All vacancies are posted on the TU Dublin website.
TU Dublin also accepts applications for admission and registration to postgraduate research degrees that are not associated with a funding or scholarship programmes. In such cases, an applicant is required to complete and submit an Expression of Interest Form to the Graduate Research School. More information is available at Graduate Research School Prospective Students
All prospective students must meet the entry requirements for their proposed programme of study. They will need to submit transcripts of the results of their academic qualifications and English proficiency test score (if applicable) to verify that they meet the requirements.
The entry requirements, and the Academic and English language requirements are described in the Graduate Research Regulations.
Funding agencies notify the lead applicants directly about the outcome of their funding application. You should log on to the research information management system (PURE) and record the funding decision. This will then trigger several email notifications to the lead applicant and start the process for setting up a new project prior to recruitment of personnel to conduct the research.
Funders issue Letters of Offer or Contracts, or both, which contain the terms and conditions for the funding or grant. The grant acceptance is almost always signed off by the VP Research & Innovation following a review of the terms and conditions. The Post-Award Office facilitates this process. They can be contacted at postaward@tudublin.ie
Funding agencies have different procedures and requirements when it comes to accepting research funding. Successful applicants should inform the Post-Award Office of their funding success and they can advise on what the next steps are and help them prepare for acceptance of the funding.
Should the research grant be for a PhD or an MPhil degree programme then the Graduate Research School guidelines should be followed.
If the project which has been awarded funding involves a collaboration with external partners, a partnership or consortium agreement and/or contract will be required.
The process can take some time to take place, depending on the complexity of the award documentation, the number of partners in a consortium or group. Types of agreements include:
- Research Agreement
- Contract for Services
- Consortium Agreements
- Intellectual Property (IP) Agreements
Several versions of the document(s) may be reviewed before agreement is reached. All documents will require sign-off by TU Dublin and their partners.
All contracts must be signed by the authorised legal signatory in TU Dublin. The Post-Award Office will organise this on behalf of the lead applicant or Principal Investigator. A PI signature is not legally binding and may delay the process.
Successful applicants should contact the Post-Award Office at postaward@tudublin.ie for advice on what agreements and contracts need to be put in place before moving towards recruiting a researcher, and the procedures to follow in seeking sign-off and approval.
If you need to recruit staff to a conduct the research project, the dedicated team for researcher recruitment in Human Resources will help guide you through the steps that need to be completed. Note that your project will need to be set up on the finance platform before you can raise an SRF which is an official request to recruit a new staff member.
To find out more contact the HR Business Manager for Research: declan.odonovan@tudublin.ie or rosemary.okafor@tudublin.ie
All policies and procedures are on the HR website Policies & Forms | TU Dublin
TU Dublin operates an online recruitment system and all applications must be submitted via this system, full information is available here..
TU Dublin was granted the ‘HR Excellence in Research’ award earlier this year, indicating that our institution’s HR practices are aligned with those of the European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for Recruitment of Researchers
Research vacancies are listed on the University Vacancies site.
If you have plans to recruit research degree students contact the Graduate Research School phd@tudublin.ie or visit Research Degree Admission and Registrations
At TU Dublin, you will develop as a creative, critical and independent researcher and in line with Ireland’s National Framework for Doctoral Education, you will have opportunities to develop and practice a range of key transversal skills, including research skills, ethics and social understanding, communication skills, personal development and career management. Our graduates are engaged, enterprising, enquiring and experts in their chosen subject discipline, competencies that they apply in industry and the professions, providing solutions to global challenges and making demonstrable contributions to society and the economy.
Please see all information for Prospective Students.
All researchers at TU Dublin have a duty to conduct their research and innovation activities according to good research practice as outlined in the Code of Conduct for Ensuring Excellence in Research Integrity Consideration of the ethical dimension is an essential step to achieve the high standards required by good research practice and by the University.
As the academic community of TU Dublin engages in highly diverse research and innovation activities, a two-stage approach is used to identify those projects that may be suitable for an expedited review via a self-assessment process and those which require a full review by a Research Ethics Committee. This self-assessment will support researchers who are uncertain about the specific requirements for their project.
If the self-assessment does not identify ethical issues or contravene University policies, the researcher will receive an immediate response via email which can be used as evidence of approval for internal processes (e.g Project set-up).
If one or more ethical issues are identified, the researcher will be directed to complete a full ethics application for review by a Research Ethics Committee and will receive some customised advice aligned with the ethical issues noted in their self-assessment.
The online self-assessment tool is available at Research and Innovation Self-Assessment and should be completed by all researchers who proposed to engage in research and innovation activity.
For researchers who are already aware that there will be a requirement for a full submission and review by a Research Ethics Committee, they may make a full application at Research Ethics Application. The University Research Ethics Committee meets every 2-3 weeks and submissions must be received at least seven days before a meeting to be considered at the following meeting. The finalised calendar of meeting dates for the 2023-2024 academic year will be issued shortly.
For advice in relation to your project please contact the University Research Ethics Committee at researchethics@tudublin.ie.
Research Finance will check and approve final budgets on all newly funded projects in advance of project start up. Your successful research project will be set up with its own code on Unit 4 - the finance software platform.
The initial contact with them should take place via the Post-Award Office, and thereafter then you can contact them at researchfinance@tudublin.ie