Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
Here’s the updated CEMP Research, Innovation and Funding Bulletin.
To follow up any of these funding opportunities, or to talk about working with CEMP on research / innovation in other ways, please contact Julian McDougall or:
Media School – the CEMP Fellow in your academic group (Anna Feignbaum, Richard Wallis, Neal White or Ashley Woodfall)
Non Media School – Milena Bobeva (the CEL / CEMP Fellow)
The following opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:
EPSRC are acting as administrator for small awards through the Holmes Hines Memorial fund, to undertake activities related to science and engineering for which public funds are not available. There is no deadline and no standard application form; applications should be sent to the fund administrator.
NERC invite outline applications to a new four year programme on Environmental Microbiology and Human Health. The two topics for this first call are aquatic microbiology and bioaerosols. An outline proforma provided by NERC must be submitted by 24 March 2014. Also available from NERC is funding to undertaken knowledge exchange activities, through their Knowledge Exchange Fellowships. These allow the Fellow to undertake a programme of work of their own choosing, funding salary and the costs of the work programme. Deadline 6 May 2014.
Royal Society are offering a range of funding for those working in the natural sciences, including international exchange schemes with France, Taiwan, Ireland, Russia or China. Each of these offers £12000 for travel and subsistence for a British team to develop a new collaboration, with the same amount offered by the partner country. They also offer a standard international exchange programme, which offers up to £12000 for travel and subsistence for use in developing new collaborations with overseas colleagues. Various deadlines apply.
Royal Society are also offering funding for Industry Fellowships, which enable academics to work on a collaborative project with industry or vice versa, for up to two years. Deadline 27 March 2014.
Funding is available from the Wellcome Trust to undertake projects that enable the public to explore biomedical science and its impact on society and culture, through their People Awards. Up to £30000 is available, deadline 25 April 2014.
Arts and humanities researchers may be interested in the early career and standard fellowships offered by AHRC. No deadline applies, and the maximum funding available is £250000.
Please note that some funders specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKE Support Officer.
You can set up your own personalised alerts on ResearchProfessional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s RKE Officer in RKE Operations or see the recent post on this topic, which includes forthcoming training dates.
Following on from our well attended vist from the AHRC I am pleased to remind you that the British Academy will be visiting BU on the 19th of February and Leverhulme on the 19th of March – it is not too late to get yourself booked in….
Working on a variety of initiatives in R&KEO over the years, one element of development which we receive consistently excellent feedback, is the events we arrange where funders to come to BU and present their organisations funding priorities and advice on making an application. We have arranged for several funders to visit BU in 2014, and are re-advertising the next two in order for you to block out time in your diary now!
Our next Funder visit will be on Wednesday 19 February 2014, The British Academy will be visiting to discuss proposals they fund and share their tips on making an application. On Wednesday 19 March 2014, The Leverhulme Trust which funds all academic disciplines will be visiting to discuss their grants and give advice on making an application.
Spaces on both these events are limited due to the rooms available so booking is essential!
Grants Academy members can be guaranteed a space by emailing Dianne. Or by emailing Staff Development
The booking hyperlinks are:
This is taking place mainly over the lunchtime period so please feel free to bring your lunch with you
We look forward to seeing as many of you who can make it.
The UK’s first national festival of the humanities has been announced! Taking place between the 15th and 23rd November 2014, the ‘Being Human’ event aims to engage the public with the best humanities research in the UK. Funding is available to facilitate participation, with money available to host an event including room and equipment hire, consumables and travel. Events which could be supported include workshops, exhibitions and installations, performances, film screenings, virtual or hands-on activities, hackathons and debates; this list is not exhaustive so be inventive! More information is available at http://www.sas.ac.uk/support-research/being-human-festival and the deadline for funding applications is 14 March 2014.
RCUK have relaunched their web site: http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/
If you have a link to their old site then this may no longer work as RCUK have a limited number of redirects in place. This includes links to individual pages. If the RCUK is of interest to you, please visit their new site and save it to your favourites.
The following opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:
The AHRC is pleased to invite applications for an AHRC Commons Fellow to lead the strategic direction and development of the AHRC Commons. The Fellowship will run for three years and funding of up to £500k (on an fEC basis at 80%) is available for this time period. The Fellowship will fund between 40-60% of the Fellow’s time. The AHRC Strategy 2013-18 sets out the aims of the AHRC Commons as follows: ‘The AHRC Commons will be aimed at gathering together arts and humanities researchers alongside cognate bodies and international peers to develop joint initiatives, connect dispersed undertakings, provide for a discussion and build a shared case for the importance of arts and humanities research to national and international life.’ Closing date 10/03/14, with interviews in London on 07/04/14.
The British Academy is looking to extend its association with the very best academic research of the type of collaborative, infrastructural projects or research facilities, intended to produce fundamental works of scholarship, in most cases for the use of a variety of disciplines. It is expected that projects will benefit from the kitemark of academic recognition offered by Academy Research Project status, and from the long-term small-scale recurrent funding offered to projects within the portfolio. This call is restricted to applications from projects in the social sciences. Closing date 12/03/14.
The ESRC/PIC Masters Studentship Scheme in Population Studies encourages UK students having difficulty in obtaining funding for the further study of demography beyond undergraduate level. The aim of the scheme is to aid the recruitment & initial development of talented students in demography by contributing to student fees and maintenance costs. The ambition within the co-funding agreement is to actively increase the research capacity within Demography in the UK. The value of a scholarship in 2014 will be £15,000, to include tuition fees. Applications cannot be accepted directly from individual students. Please see the guidance on the website before discussing this with any students who may be thinking of applying. Closing date 30/06/14.
Through the MRC, the primary aim of this first joint call of JPIAMR is to combine the resources, infrastructures, and research strengths of multiple countries in order to overcome antibiotic resistance. The goal is to foster multinational translational research collaborations that can accomplish more than individual countries working independently, leading to improved control of bacterial infections. Submission deadline for pre-proposals – 14/03/14, Full proposals invitations – Late May 2014 and Submission deadline for full proposals 21/07/14.
The Royal Society is provided with a quota for The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme. This is for scientists in the UK who are at an early stage of their career and wish to conduct research in Japan. The scheme provides subsistence funding as well as a settling-in allowance, a return air ticket and insurance cover. The Japanese host institution may also apply for a research grant of up to ¥1.5 million per year. JSPS will provide funding for visits of between 12 months minimum and up to 24 months maximum. Closing date 27/02/14.
The TSB’s national Innovation Voucher scheme is designed to help businesses gain the knowledge they need to innovate and grow. The company applies for the voucher, which can help them to obtain expert advice from a knowledge supplier (e.g. BU) with whom they haven’t worked before, not to fund general business needs such as training or equipment. The TSB will pay up to £5,000. The closing date for the current round is 29/04/14.
The TSB is making an investment of up to £2m in feasibility studies to stimulate innovation across enabling technology areas: advanced materials; biosciences; electronics, sensors and photonics; and information and communications technology. All projects must be business-led, and this competition is open to small or micro companies only, working either singly or in collaboration with one other small or micro company. Projects can last up to four months, and total project costs must not exceed £33,000. Register by 05/03/14 and submit the full proposal by 12/03/14.
Round 6 of the TSB’s Smart awards is now open. Smart is a grant scheme which offers funding to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to engage in R&D projects in the strategically important areas of science, engineering and technology, from which successful new products, processes and services could emerge. Any UK SME undertaking research and development may apply. The batch assessment date for Round 6 of the current financial year 2013/14 is 27/03/14 at 12:00 noon.
The Wellcome Trust’s International Engagement Awards support public engagement projects and work that builds capacity for engagement with biomedical research in Sub-Saharan Africa, South-east Asia and South Asia. To apply for a grant of up to £30,000 for up to three years an Expression of Interest must be completed. The deadline for the full submission is 18/04/14.
Please note that some funders specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKE Support Officer.
You can set up your own personalised alerts on ResearchProfessional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s RKE Officer in RKE Operations or see the recent post on this topic, which includes forthcoming training dates.
Every BU academic has a Research Professional account which delivers weekly emails detailing funding opportunities in their broad subject area. To really make the most of your Research Professional account, you should tailor it further by establishing additional alerts based on your specific area of expertise.
Research Professional have created several guides to help introduce users to ResearchProfessional. These can be downloaded here.
Quick Start Guide: Explains to users their first steps with the website, from creating an account to searching for content and setting up email alerts, all in the space of a single page.
User Guide: More detailed information covering all the key aspects of using ResearchProfessional.
Administrator Guide: A detailed description of the administrator functionality.
In addition to the above, there are a set of 2-3 minute videos online, designed to take a user through all the key features of ResearchProfessional. To access the videos, please use the following link: http://www.youtube.com/researchprofessional
Research Professional are running a series of online training broadcasts aimed at introducing users to the basics of creating and configuring their accounts on ResearchProfessional. They are holding monthly sessions, covering everything you need to get started with ResearchProfessional. The broadcast sessions will run for no more than 60 minutes, with the opportunity to ask questions via text chat. Each session will cover:
Each session will run between 10.00am and 11.00am (UK) on the fourth Tuesday of each month. You can register here for your preferred date:
These are free and comprehensive training sessions and so this is a good opportunity to get to grips with how Research Professional can work for you.
The new Faculty of Science and Technology has started the new year welcoming three new Erasmus students through the TECHNO 1 and 2 (Erasmus Mundus Partnership) and the Erasmus Practicals placements, respectively. Two of them are being hosted by Dr Genoveva Esteban, Conservation Ecology and Environmental Science Group: Hai Luu, from Tra Vinh University, Tra Vinh province in Vietnam has a Techno 2 studentship until mid June; Sara Giménez, from University Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, Spain, has a placement studentship for three months. Hai and Sara are working with Genoveva on unicellular organisms from freshwater habitats and from soils; these microscopic organisms can be used in the assessment and monitoring of water and soil quality. Hai says: “TECHNO project brought me a great opportunity to study in an advanced education environment. Also, I am really interested in research on single-celled organisms and hope to learn from Dr Genoveva Esteban’s experience”. Sara adds “This opportunity allows me to meet some fantastic people and get unique experiences, and on top of this I am getting fascinating scientific knowledge”.
The persons in charge of TECHNO 1 and TECHNO 2 at BU are Dr Demetra Andreou (Lecturer in Environmental Science), Dr Emilie Hardouin (Associate Lecturer in Conservation Genetics) and Mrs Heather Cashin (Senior Programme Administrator).
From left to right, Sara Giménez, Genoveva Esteban and Hai Luu at East Stoke Fen Nature Reserve near Wareham.
The following opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:
UK Funding:
The AHRC and the British Library have announced a call for collaborative proposals to explore the Academic Book of the Future in the context of open access publishing and the digital revolution with one award of £360,000. Closing date: 27/03/14
The AHRC Follow-on Funding for Impact and Engagement Scheme (FoF) provides funds to support innovative and creative engagements with new audiences and user communities which stimulate pathways to impact. Large awards of up to £100,000 are avialble and £30,000 for smaller projects. There is no closing date.
There is an open call for the BBSRC‘s follow-on Pathfinder scheme. This enables potential follow-on funding applicants to secure small amounts of funding to carry out preliminary commercial activities. Funding between £7,000 and £10,000 for six months is available.
The BBSRC’s Doctoral Training Partners provides PhD training in research areas relevant to our remit and strategic priority areas. They also provide a breadth of professional development training opportunities to enhance students’ capability and develop the world-class, highly skilled workforce the UK needs for its future. Closing date: 01/05/14
The BBSRC, in coll
aboration with the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have announced a joint call for collaborative projects in Animal Health & Disease and Veterinary Immune Reagents involving researchers from the US and UK. Clsoing date: 27/02/14
The British Academy, the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences, is currently inviting outstanding proposals for our 2015 conference programme. Proposals for conferences that will be pivotal events and of lasting significance in the field: a chance for leading and emerging scholars to examine current and future issues surrounding novel, dynamic, innovative and exciting subject areas in the humanities and social sciences are invited. Closing date 21/02/14
DFID and ESRC are continuing their strategic partnership with a dedicated research programme on ‘Education and development: Raising learning outcomes in education systems’. The ultimate aim is to provide policymakers and practitioners with concrete ideas on how to improve learning and understanding of how these will translate to their specific contexts and institutions, enabling more effective policies and interventions. Closing date: 25/03/14
The DoH and NIHR are requesting submissions relating to Self-harm and suicidal behaviours. Closing date: 03/06/14
The EPSRC ICT team would like to encourage researchers to pursue an immersive experience in other disciplines and user environments. Discipline Hopping Awards will provide short-term support to allow researchers from core ICT fields with other disciplines and/or user fields. The aim of this is to foster new interactions, bringing a multidisciplinary and user-driven focus to research. Alternatively, non ICT specialists can apply for funds to bring a technological perspective to their home discipline. No closing date has been given.
The EPSRC is supporting eFuturesXD travel awards of up to £5,000 (100% fEC) to allow researchers from one ICT discipline a chance to spend a short time in a different institute or for two researchers to spend time in each other’s institutions (UK only). The same scheme is supporting facility awards, of up to £20,000, to use expensive characterisation facilities such as microscopy, fabrication of novel structures using clean rooms or manufacture of test chips using Europractice. There is also a staff award aimed principally at small teams of researchers from two or more disciplines who wish to carry out key experiments or measurements to confirm an initial hypothesis. This award is up to £60,000. Lastly, the meeting award provides up to £10,000 to facilitate the building of larger research consortia comprising researchers from a number of departments and institutions across the ICT portfolio. There are no specific closing dates.
The EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Medical Devices has a call for Feasibility Studies. The Centre is looking to fund research at Technology Readiness Levels from 1 to 3 that will aid the fundamental understanding and development of innovation in medical device manufacturing. The maximum award is £50,000.Closing date 28/03/14
The EPSRC, as part of Research Councils UK (RCUK) Energy Programme, in collaboration with the TSB, invites Expressions of Interest (EOI) from those wishing to bid under a new research initiative in low-carbon vehicle technologies and fuel infrastructure for road transport. Closing date 14/02/14
The EPSRC invites applications to support networks of researchers looking at Forecasting Environmental Change. The budget is up to £2 Million for this activity and anticipates funding up to four networks, which can include support for feasibility projects, for three years in the identified challenge areas. Closing date 16/04/14
The HEA and AHRC invite all HEA subscribing institutions in the UK to be part of the 2014 Symposia on Interculturalism and Translating Cultures. Applications must be submitted by 17/02/14
NERC have a consortium call, Unlocking the Potential for Groundwater for the Poor(UPGro). This £12m programme is an international programme funding interdisciplinary research, generating evidence and innovative tools to enable developing countries and their partners in sub-Saharan Africa to use groundwater in a sustainable way for the ultimate benefit of the poor. Closing date: 03/03/14
The Institute of Physics and Engineering are promoting their various annual prizes. For details of each prize and conditions, please see the IPEM webpage.
The Royal Society and the British Academy support the Newton International Fellowship. This scheme is for non-UK scientists who are at an early stage of their research career and wish to conduct research in the UK.The scheme provides the opportunity for the best early stage post-doctoral researchers from all over the world to work at UK research institutions for a period of two years. The scheme covers the broad range of the natural and social sciences and the humanities. Up to £126,000 will be awarded. Closing date: 10/03/14
The TSB and BBSRC are supporting the Agri-Tech Catalyst which offers funding to innovative businesses and researchers to develop solutions to global agricultural challenges. You must register by 04/06/14 and the closing date is 11/06/14.
Through the TSB, the Electric Days Out scheme seeks to encourage the uptake of and awareness around electric vehicles within Northern Ireland. Both NITB and NIEA wish to see an increase in the number of visits to their various locations throughout Northern Ireland through sustainable transport means. A briefing event is planned for 07/02/14. Applications must be submitted by 28/02/14
ges totalling up to £450k to develop innovative measures that will improve the energy performance of traditional and historic buildings. Closing date: 28/02/14Education and Neuroscience is a new £6 million funding scheme, launched by the Wellcome Trust and the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) in January 2014. This one-off scheme aims to develop, evaluate and communicate the impact of education interventions grounded in neuroscience research. Successful proposals will build on the existing evidence about effective teaching and learning practices, and explain how these practices could be made more effective or efficient using evidence from neuroscience. Closing date: 06/05/14
Please note that some funders specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKE Support Officer.
You can set up your own personalised alerts on ResearchProfessional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s RKE Officer in RKE Operations or see the recent post on this topic.
At the end of our week focusing on AHRC, perhaps you are inspired and now want to see what opportunities are currently available….?
Please check the AHRC’s listing for the most up to date information and specific closing dates and times for grants. The following are correct at the time of posting:
The AHRC also supports other funding schemes:
You can read about BU’s success within the Faculty of Science and Technology and the Media School, and with the Block Grant Partnership. You can also read an overview of the AHRC visit to BU on 20/1/14 and tips for submssion.
Please refer to previous posts on how to apply and make use of the AHRC’s own Research Funding Guide.
You can search for opportunities on the AHRC website, but why not set up your own alerts in Research Professional so that you receive personalised emails regarding AHRC funding? You can, of course, set up tailored alerts for any other funders that meet your research needs.
You can also check the updates on the Research Blog for funding opportinities from major funders. This is normally posted by RKE each week.
Please keep in touch with your RKE Operations Support Officer and seek their advice early in the application process. We all look forward to seeing an increase in AHRC bid submissions in the future!
By Alex and Eva
Following yesterday’s Blog post on the Faculty of Science and Technology’s success, we would like to focus today on The Media’s success with AHRC. Over the last few years The Media School have a 44% success rate from 25 projects submitted with 11 funded.
So how can we replicate The Media School success?
Once again, Eva and I got on the bus to Talbot Campus and interviewed successful AHRC grant holder Dr. Bronwen Thomas to find out more…
What was your project about?
We have had two projects funded by the AHRC, the first was a research development award, and the current project supports a research network. Both look at the impact of digitisation on readers and reading.
How is it going?
It’s going well, the network is growing and our monthly blogs have helped to keep the discussion going between our scheduled meetings. We had a very successful public engagement event before Christmas, and we are currently planning a symposium to be held here at BU in June.
What do you want to achieve?
The main outcome for our project would be that the network remains active after the period of funding and that it helps support collaborative projects, including publications, involving our members.
What gave you the edge, do you think?
The fact that our research area is of key strategic importance to the funder, and that we were able to respond speedily and effectively to the call.
In hindsight, what would you do differently, what advice would you give to others?
The funding calls we applied for were limited in terms of the amounts available. The downside of this is that the PI ends up doing quite a lot of admin and planning work, leaving less time for scholarly research. So anything that could be done to reduce this burden would be helpful.
Also any other comments/tips from your experience that is worth noting.
We have been successful responding to specific calls under the highlight themes. Under the current system, this may become more difficult, as typically there are only a couple of months between the announcement and the deadline, but there does appear to be ongoing funding for the highlighted themes, so they are well worth looking at. It is important to demonstrate that your research is collaborative, cross-disciplinary and with genuine rather than tokenistic public engagement. But it’s also about showing that you can manage projects, that you are likely to work well together as a team, and that the proposed research and outcomes are doable.
For other hints and tips you should check out Dr Anna Feigenbaum posts on International, Interdisciplinary, Innovative: the AHRC brings grant bidding advice to BU.
~Don’t miss tomorrow’s edition, when we find out more about studentship block grants.
Spring is around the corner and with it the deadline for the British Academy Small Grants scheme on 15th April.
BU has a less than 10% success rate with proposals being funded by the British Academy Small Grants Scheme. Therefore, we strongly encourage anyone that is thinking of submitting to the scheme to use the RPRS service. In a nutshell, this will ensure you receive two sets of feedback in order to help you refine your proposal before it is submitted to maximise your chances of success. If you are planning to use the RPRS, please contact Rebecca Edwards as soon as possible.
Timescales
Here is the new CEMP bulletin Jan 2014
Following the call for expressions of interest in November, CEMP have awarded five fellowships for a two year period to Milena Bobeva (Centre for Excellence in Learning), Anna Feigenbaum (Media School), Richard Wallis (Media School), Neal White (Media School) and Ashley Woodfall (Media School). The reciprocal arrangement with CEL is that Milena joins us as a fellow in CEMP and CEMP will lead on a CEL project to tie together educational research across BU. This input will really add value to CEMP and support us in delivering our strategy and forging collaborations across the Media School and BU.
Colleagues who wish to follow up an opportunity in the bulletin or have proposals for educational / pedagogic research which CEMP can support, please contact Julian McDougall or any of the CEMP Fellows.
On January 20, 2014 Bournemouth University played host to a lunchtime visit from the AHRC. The funding advice seminar covered general information about the Arts & Humanities Research Council, as well as tips and advice on AHRC bid writing here at from BU. In the lead up to the AHRC visit, the BU Research Blog offered a great round up of key facts and figures. Reiterated at the event were the AHRC’s commitments to:
The AHRC offers research grants, fellowship grants, network grants and a special international stream. Across all funding lines, international collaboration was stressed, as were innovation, interdisciplinary work and making a clear case that your planned output matches the target audience for your research agenda.
Our AHRC visitors also highlighted their focus on developing management and leadership skills for Early Career Researchers. If you are out of your PhD for less than 8 years or in an academic post for less than 6 years, you are eligible to apply for their ECR streams. While ECRs go through the same grant process, the success rate is higher, as the ‘bar’ for a fundable project rests below their standard streams.
The Pivotal Peer Review
The AHRC reps also gave valuable insight on the evaluation process. Every proposal is ranked on a 1-6 scale by a group of up to four peer reviewers, selected from their list of 1,000 senior academics. If your proposal includes technical components, such as developing a digital archive, it will additionally be reviewed by someone who knows the technologies you’re engaging.
If your proposal scores a 4 our higher by the majority of reviewers, you’ll make the second round. Here you’ll have a chance to respond to reviewer feedback and clarification questions. “Don’t underestimate the importance of this response,” we were told. The clarity and directness of your PI response can make your application a success.
Also illuminating the evaluation process, the reps from AHRC attempted to demystify the term “impact.” In recent years the notion of ‘impact’ has caused much controversy – especially in the arts and humanities. “Impact is not just economic,” they assured us. Influencing quality of life, public service, policy and creative output also count as impact. To figure out how to articulate the impact of your research, they advised us to “simply ask yourself who, what and how” people benefit from your research.
The AHRC reps also said to keep an eye out for highlight notices that feature key strategic research themes. These themes–currently, Care for the Future, Digital Transformations, Science in Culture, and Translating Cultures—are intentionally broad and intended to offer space for a wide range of research subjects and activities.
Improving our Bids at BU
Bringing their advice home, to end the seminar, the AHRC reps offered some excellent tips for improving our bid writing here at BU.
Added to this are a couple reflections I had from my perspective as an Early Career lecturer in the Media School, a CEMP fellow and Fusion Fund committee member:
By Eva and Alex
Following yesterday’s Blog post on the AHRC – a success for BU, we would like to focus on the Faculty of Science and Technology’s success with AHRC. Over the last few years the Faculty of Science and Technology’s have a 45% success rate from 20 projects submitted with 9 funded.
So how did we achieve this success you ask? Well we took to the offices of Christchurch House to interview successful AHRC grant holders Dr. Mark Matlby and Dr. Emma Jenkins to find out…
Mark Maltby
What was your project about?
Cultural and Scientific Perceptions of Human-Chicken Interactions : It’s part of the Science in Culture Call. The project aims to unite scholars from different disciplines, members of the public, interest groups and schoolchildren through the study of human exploitation of chickens, an under-researched species that has the potential to provide new insights about the past, present and future of human society and their relationships with animals.
How is it going?
It began on January 6th – so early days!
What do you want to achieve?
One of the main aims is to get researchers from different disciplines to work together constructively and exchange knowledge and expertise in pursuit of a common research goal.
What gave you the edge, do you think?
Being positive/enthusiastic in statements in the application and in response to reviewers’ comments.. Working with colleagues from other institutions who have successfully gained and carried out research grants. Their expertise in writing the Case for Support, Objectives etc was invaluable.
In hindsight, what would you do differently, what advice would you give to others?
Despite our best efforts, we were tight to the deadline for application. What took more time than I expected was getting the cost estimates sorted. Particularly if you are applying with partners, allow enough time for members of other institutions to react.
Any other comments from your experience that are worth noting.
We certainly benefitted from having an interview rehearsal. Learn to write very concisely as word limits are challengingly limited.
Emma Jenkins
What was your project about
The project is concerned with developing a method to help us understand more about how Neolithic sites in southwest Asia (c 11,700-7800 cal BP) were used. This is an important period in human history which saw the advent of sedentism, agriculture, and ultimately the rise of complex societies. It is also, however, one of the most poorly understood. This is partly due to the problems associated with site recognition and partly because of the lack of preservation of many forms of evidence, particularly biological. As a result, many Neolithic sites are comprised of a series of structures, the function of which is difficult, if not impossible, to interpret. Therefore, it is critical that we maximise the information that can be acquired from these sites.
Our project uses recent advances in archaeological scientific techniques, namely phytolith (bodies of silica that form in and around plant cells)and geochemical analysis (traces of chemicals in soils resulting from human induced activities and waste, e.g. phosphorous, calcium and manganese) in a novel way. We will conduct a large scale combined analysis of phytoliths and geochemical elements from ethnographic sites to determine if certain activity areas, for example middens, hearths and floors, have particular phytolith and geochemical signatures that can help us recognise these same areas archaeologically.
How is it going
We have recruited two excellent new team members who will start with us in March and April and are busy making plans for our field season in April in Jordan. However, we have also hit problem number one but I am a firm believer in looking for solutions rather than focusing on the problem!
What do you want to achieve?
On the academic front I want to have a successful field season in Jordan, leading to the collection of a good range of samples which will enable us to produce worthwhile and valid results. The aim is to publish these as peer reviewed journal papers. The ultimate aim is for us to apply for further funding to pursue related research areas.
We also plan to produce two 10 minute documentaries. The first will show how scientific methods can be used in archaeology which I can use in my STEM Ambassador and general outreach work. The second is focused on documenting and presenting a sympathetic portrayal of traditional ways of life in Jordan and the relationship between people and a challenging but beautiful and ancient environment and landscape. The latter film is particularly pertinent because the traditional lifeways in Jordan are fast disappearing as a result of western influence.
What gave you the edge, do you think?
I think there were a number of factors which led to this project being funded. Perhaps the most important was the team of people. All of us had a proven track record in our discipline and a history of working in Jordan. Even though this was awarded to me as an Early Career Grant, my collaborators hold senior positions within their institutions and have a strong publication record relating to the project research areas. We had done pilot studies involving phytoliths and geochemical analysis on ethnographic sites in Jordan which demonstrated that the method had potential. Another strength was the fact that I had run (or co-run) projects in Jordan previously so could demonstrate project management skills. Last, but definitely not least, I think Martin Pickard from Grantcraft helped a lot in the layout and design of the proposal which improved it enormously.
In hindsight, what would you do differently, what advice would you give to others?
I over thought the impact part of the project (the documentaries) and originally made them too specific and complicated. We have since changed their focus and this makes them much more in line with the academic aims.
As for my advice-don’t have two babies while trying to write a grant application in a timely fashion!
No seriously,
Also any other comments from your experience that are worth noting.
Designing the project was a really worthwhile experience and led to me finding fantastic team members whom I hope to work with in the future.
~Don’t miss tomorrow’s edition, when we hit the streets of Weymouth house for the Media School story on their fantastic success with the AHRC.
The following opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:
The AHRC and BBC Radio 3 are looking for applications for the New Generation Thinkers of 2014. Up to sixty successful applicants will have a chance to develop their programme-making ideas with experienced BBC producers at a series of dedicated workshops and, of these up to ten will become Radio 3’s resident New Generation Thinkers. They will benefit from a unique opportunity to develop their own programmes for BBC Radio 3 and a chance to regularly appear on air. The closing date is 06/02/14.
The Alzheimer’s Society is offering PhD Studentships and Doctoral Training Centre grants, both with a closing date of 17/04/14. Planning ahead, the calls for Clincal Training Fellowships and Postdoctoral Fellowships will open in May/June 2014.
For those researching in the fields of biotechnology and biological sciences, the BBSRC is offering a number of grants. These are Strategic longer and larger grants (sLoLas), which closes on 09/04/14, Responsive-mode grants up to £2m, Industrial Partnership awards, Stand-alone LINK awards to encourage collaboration with industry, the New Investigator scheme to assist early years researchers and a joint call from BBSRC – Brazil (FAPESP) , promoting international collaboration. All but the first call have a deadline for submission of 29/04/14.
The ESRC and Scottish Government invite proposals for What Works Scotland (WWS). The aim of WWS is to deepen the impact of the emergent Scottish approach to public service delivery and reform, by evaluating evidence in delivery of that approach. The closing date for this £3.75m award is 06/03/14. The bidder workshop takes place on 14/01/14.
Do you or one of your Early Years Researchers deserve to be nominated for an award? Philip Leverhulme Prizes recognise the achievement of early career researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising. The prize scheme makes up to thirty awards of £100,000 a year, across a range of academic disciplines. The 2014 round opens on 06/01/14 and closes to nominations on 14/05/14
Do you have an innovative approach that could return life to the UK high street? If so, the Technology Strategy Board is offering up to £8m in an SBRI competition to encourage new ways of attracting people back to UK high streets, in their Re-imagining the high street call. If you wish to apply, you must register by 26/02/14 and the closing date is 05/03/14.
The Wellcome Trust is offering Translation Awards to develop innovative and ground breaking new technologies in the biomedical area. The closing date for Concept Note is 25/04/14 and the preliminary deadline 15/06/14, with final presentations in January 2015
Please note that some funders specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKE Support Officer.
You can set up your own personalised alerts on ResearchProfessional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s RKE Officer in RKE Operations or see the recent post on this topic.
Attention!! Funder visits – many of you may have missed this Blog post sent by Corrina at the end of November 2013 however it is not too late to get yourself booked in….
Working on a variety of initiatives in R&KEO over the years, one element of development which we receive consistently excellent feedback, is the events we arrange where funders to come to BU and present their organisations funding priorities and advice on making an application. We have arranged for several funders to visit BU in 2014, and are re-advertising the first three in order for you to block out time in your diary now!
On Monday 20 January 2014, the AHRC will be visiting to discuss their research priorities, calls and their top tips for making a submission. On Wednesday 19 February 2014, The British Academy will be visiting to discuss proposals they fund and share their tips on making an application. On Wednesday 19 March 2014, The Leverhulme Trust which funds all academic disciplines will be visiting to discuss their grants and give advice on making an application.
Spaces on all these events are limited due to the rooms available so booking is essential! Grants Academy members can be guaranteed a space by emailing Dianne. The booking hyperlinks are:
Every BU academic has a Research Professional account which delivers weekly emails detailing funding opportunities in their broad subject area. To really make the most of your Research Professional account, you should tailor it further by establishing additional alerts based on your specific area of expertise.
Research Professional have created several guides to help introduce users to ResearchProfessional. These can be downloaded here.
Quick Start Guide: Explains to users their first steps with the website, from creating an account to searching for content and setting up email alerts, all in the space of a single page.
User Guide: More detailed information covering all the key aspects of using ResearchProfessional.
Administrator Guide: A detailed description of the administrator functionality.
In addition to the above, there are a set of 2-3 minute videos online, designed to take a user through all the key features of ResearchProfessional. To access the videos, please use the following link: http://www.youtube.com/researchprofessional
Research Professional are running a series of online training broadcasts aimed at introducing users to the basics of creating and configuring their accounts on ResearchProfessional. They are holding monthly sessions, covering everything you need to get started with ResearchProfessional. The broadcast sessions will run for no more than 60 minutes, with the opportunity to ask questions via text chat. Each session will cover:
Each session will run between 10.00am and 11.00am (UK) on the fourth Tuesday of each month. You can register here for your preferred date:
These are free and comprehensive training sessions and so this is a good opportunity to get to grips with how Research Professional can work for you.
BU staff can login below:
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