At the start of Year 2, you submit a detailed 6-page research proposal describing the doctoral research plan. This is reviewed by both one of the Programme Directorate and an expert in the field; the content, goals and feasibility are discussed in an oral session, or "viva".
Almost all doctoral research projects are industrially-derived and sponsored, and have joint industrial-academic supervision. The remainder are industrially-linked but academically-derived doctoral projects that support fundamental research that might not yet attract industrial sponsorship but may set the groundwork for novel future avenues of development and application; students taking these projects will be required to complete a 3-month internship with an industrial partner.
Examples of some of the DPhil projects in the CDT are available here.