Ultimately, you want to pick something that interests you. Try to think of a question to address or a topic to explore where you think there might be something interesting to say, and go from there.

It would be useful to speak to academics and audiences who might know your area - they can help you identify and refine a project and a research question.

Yes, we're trialling the offer a number of projects devised by academics within the Faculty, linked to their research - if you'd like to apply for the URSS with one of these, click on this link and get in touch with the relevant person to see if they can supervise you.

There are a few things you can do:

• Speak directly to a staff member you already know who you might want to work with. If you don't know them, send them an email nonetheless and ask if they'd be interested in supporting a project
• Look at staff profiles, and see if any of them have indicated that they are supervising URSS projects
• If you want to work in the Faculty of Arts, check out our (non-exhaustive) supervisor database

There are four main categories for markers - the quality of the proposal itself, the reach and impact of your project, the personal and/or career impact for you, and the value of money. The mark schemes that the assessors will use are available here, and it is worth checking your application against them before submitting it.

Yes, PGR students are considered suitable supervisors for a URSS project, given their research experience. The same processes occur if you want a PGR to supervise you - determine that they are interested and have the time to be able to help, and then work with them both in assembling the application and beyond!

That's great to hear! Firstly, it's a matter of finding a supervisee - you could approach a student directly if you have a student in mind, advertise your availability on your staff profile page, and/or email the DSEP team to have your name and interests added to the Arts URSS supervisor database.

There is no standard answer to this. You will likely spend a couple of hours supporting your supervisee during the application process, and then the bulk of the project is undertaken by the student over summer. As with any supervisory relation, it is incumbent on both supervisor and supervisee to determine how they work together.

As academics, you're very familiar with the processes of conducting research and developing projects, so you certainly have the requisite skills, whether or not your interests align directly with a proposed project.

There are resources available from the URSS team, dealing with topics such as ethical approval - email URSS@warwick.ac.uk, and those can be sent your way.

Fundamentally, though, if you really feel that you're unable to supervise a particular project, you're probably not the right supervisor, and there's nothing wrong with that. Think about whether you know colleagues who are more aligned with the proposal, take a look at our supervisor database, or email the DSEP team at ArtsDSEP@warwick.ac.uk, and we'll try and help figure out a more suitable match.