Category / Guidance

How to become an integral part of ESRC’s strategy and peer review

Guidance

The ESRC are looking to appoint new members to its committees and grant assessment panels.  Find out below how you can get involved.

ESRC committee appointments 2015

ESRC have recently undertaken a review of their current structure of committees to ensure that they are well placed to deliver the commitments outlined in their Strategic Plan 2015.

As a result of these changes they are inviting applications from suitably experienced persons to be members of their renewed and modified Research Committee and their Capability Committee.

The new committees will enable them to deliver:

  • enhanced horizon scanning to identify their focused priorities and opportunities for innovation – within social science and boundaries of other science areas
  • more integrated thinking and advice about priorities, across all areas of activity
  • better use of evidence in decision making
  • improved administrative efficiency.

For further information on the vacancies, please see the vacancy specification. For questions or queries that are not covered in the vacancy specification, please email: committeerecruitment@esrc.ac.uk

Application forms, with a short curriculum vitae (no longer than two A4 pages) and a supporting statement from a suitable referee, should be submitted to committeerecruitment@esrc.ac.uk no later than 17.00 on 24 April 2015.

An induction day for new members is planned for 9 July 2015, and applicants are requested to hold this date in their diaries pending the outcome of the recruitment process.

Grants Assessment Panel (GAP) recruitment

ESRC are currently recruiting for GAP members, as well as a chair for Panel A.

Closing date for all applications is 17.00 on 8 May 2015.

Research Professional – all you need to know

Guidance

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.  The Funding Development Team Officers can assist you with this, if required.

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:

  • Self registration and logging in
  • Building searches
  • Setting personalised alerts
  • Saving and bookmarking items
  • Subscribing to news alerts
  • Configuring your personal profile

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:

28th April 2015

29th May 2015

23rd June 2015

28th July 2015

25th August 2015

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.

ESRC Changes to Research Grants funding thresholds

Funding opportunities, Guidance

ESRC are introducing changes to the funding thresholds for their Research Grants scheme. They currently accept applications between £200,000 and £2 million. Under the new arrangements the lower threshold will rise to £350,000 and the upper threshold will be reduced to £1 million at Full Economic Costs. These changes will come into effect from 1 July 2015. Current thresholds will continue to operate for any application submitted up to 30 June 2015.

To find out more about why these changes have been introduced, click here.

The ESRC has not withdrawn from the funding of projects under £350,000. They remain committed to schemes with projects below this threshold, such as the Secondary Data Analysis Initiative, the Transformative Research scheme, and – for Early Career Researchers – their Future Research Leaders scheme, where there is no lower limit on funding. All these schemes are essentially responsive mode, like the Research Grants Scheme.

They also remain committed to the funding of longer, larger responsive grants. They intend to introduce an annual open competition for grants between £1 million and £2.5 million and are currently considering how this will operate alongside our existing Centres and the Large Grants Competition.

They anticipate that these changes will reduce the volume of applications they receive through the Research Grants scheme. This will increase overall success rates for those who do apply as well as reducing the peer review requirements they need to place on the social science community.

If you are thinking of applying to the ESRC then please contact the Funding Development Team.

ESRC have updated their Research Data policy

Funding opportunities, Guidance

The ESRC has updated its research data policy .

The key points are:

  • it is the grant holder’s responsibility to incorporate data management as an integral part of the research project, and
  • data must be made available for re-use or archiving with the ESRC data service providers within three months of the end of the grant.

Please click on the link above for further information.

Academic induction to research and knowledge exchange at BU

Guidance

The Research and Knowledge Exchange Office (RKEO) invite all ‘new to BU’ academics to an induction.  The purpose of the induction is to inform you of the following:

  • how we can support you when planning your research career;
  • how to apply for funding (the policies and processes around costs and approvals);
  • how to manage your successful research applications (including ethics, governance, risks and finance);
  • how we can support you on impact, public engagement, outputs and open access, case studies, and a whole lot more.

The first induction will be held on 14th April 2015 on the 4th floor of Melbury House.  The format of the day is as follows:

9.00-9.30 – Coffee/tea and cake will be available on arrival

9.30 – RKEO academic induction

11.30 – Opportunity for one to one interaction with RKEO staff

12.00 – Close

There will also be literature and information packs available.

If you would like to attend the induction then please contact Charmain Lyons, clyons@bournemouth.ac.uk for an official invitation.  We will directly contacted those who have started at BU in the last three months.

We hope you can make it and look forward to seeing you.

Regards,

The RKEO team

UNCLASSIFIED

Publishing, REF Subjects, Research assessment

Picture the scene… it’s 2016 the 1st April 2016 to be precise and you’ve had an article you have been working on for the past 6 months accepted by your first choice journal – well done you – you spend the next 3 months eagerly waiting to read your hard work in print. When it finally it is published you are ecstatic, it is well  received by your colleagues, peers, journalists and the public – your research is out there and making a real impact to society, you couldn’t have imagined a better reception. Well done you again!

Now fast-forward to submission of the next REF where you enthusiastically submit your lovingly crafted, well received, well cited article for submission with the full expectation that it will certainly be assessed as a 4* publication but then the bomb drops… the article is “UNCLASSIFIED”. Why I hear you cry?! Well back in 2016 when your article was accepted you did not make it open access – simple.

HEFCEs decision on non-compliance of their Open Access Policy really couldn’t be clearer in this aspect:

“Any output submitted to the post-2014 REF that falls within the scope of this policy but does not meet its requirements or exceptions will be treated as non-compliant. Non-compliant outputs will be given an unclassified score and will not be assessed in the REF.”

We have 12 months to get ready for to comply with HEFCEs Open Access policy and we have to start now. Only the author and the publisher know when an article is accepted and this is the key point for the policy. So, if you want to have the full benefit of all your hard work, then make sure that when an article is accepted by a publisher you upload it to BRIAN – simple.

For further information on how to you go about making your outputs open access, please see the guidance here. Email openaccess@bournemouth.ac.uk with queries or attend one of our Open Access Workshops over the next few months.

Further information on HEFCEs policy can be found here

MRC removes PhD eligibility criteria for fellowships and launches career framework

Funding opportunities, Guidance

Until now, the period within which someone could apply for an MRC fellowship has been different for different fellowships. The restrictions will be removed on 18 March, coincident with the launch of the career framework.

The MRC Interactive Career Framework was constructed following broad consultation with medical research groups and a review of medical research careers comprising interviews with nearly 400 non-clinical medical researchers, the MRC said. 

The interviews were conducted with MRC award winners, and focused on the ten to 20 years following their receipt of funding. One finding of the review was that 44 per cent of interviewees finished their PhD “with either no idea or only a general idea of what they wanted to do next”, the MRC said. In addition, 60 per cent said they had not received enough careers advice. 

The removal of the restriction on when researchers can apply for a fellowship was an outcome of the review. “Many of those who contributed to the review spoke of the lack of flexibility in making research career choices resulting from the fact that researchers have only a certain number of years after their PhD in which to apply for fellowships, after which point they’re ineligible,” the MRC said. 

The MRC is seeking feedback on the framework, which it says will be developed further with additional career routes, case studies and tools.

If you are applying to the research councils soon, please note Je-S unavailability

Funding opportunities, Guidance

Please note that the Je-S system (the research councils e-submission site) will be unavailable from 16:00 GMT on Thursday 16th April 2015 until 08.30 GMT on Wednesday 22nd April 2015.  Further details are available on the Je-S Login page.

This is a significant amount of down time and so please bear this in mind if you are writing an application for funding to the research councils.

AHRC Advisory Board vacancies

Funding opportunities, Guidance

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) is seeking expressions of interest from suitably experienced individuals in the academic and non-academic sectors to join the Advisory Board in 2015.

AHRC funds research and post graduate training across a wide disciplinary remit as well as facilitating opportunities for researchers to engage in international, knowledge exchange, partnerships and public policy activities. It is a non-departmental government body sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and is governed by the Council, which is responsible for the overarching strategic direction of the organisation.

The role of the Advisory Board is to advise AHRC Council and Executive on the development and implementation of strategic approaches to funding which reflect the challenges and opportunities arising for the arts and humanities research and those that engage with it.

The Board is looking particularly for expertise in the following areas:

  • Classics and/or Archaeology
  • Design
  • Digital Humanities
  • Performing Arts
  • Music
  • Theology
  • Modern Languages
  • Voluntary Sector

Please see the Terms of Reference for the Advisory Board (PDF 35KB, opens in a new window) and the Role and Person Specification (PDF 90KB, opens in a new window), which outline the skills and experience AHRC require for potential Board members.

If you are interested in becoming a member of the Board please submit an Expression of Interest form (Word 37KB, opens in a new window) (no longer than 500 words) outlining (in no more than 500 words) how you meet the criteria required, together with a short CV (no longer than 2 sides of A4) and the Equal Opportunities form (Word 41KB, opens in a new window) (which is not seen by the panel) to Rose Easton (r.easton@ahrc.ac.uk) by the deadline of 4pm on 20 April 2015.

Interviews will take place at Medical Research Council, Kemble St, London on 14 May 2015.

AHRC will seek to ensure a healthy balance of institutional and regional representation on the Board. AHRC is committed to openness and transparency of process and to provide equal opportunities to all, irrespective of age, gender, race, disability, marital status, religion, sexual orientation, transgender and working patterns.

If you have any question concerning the vacancies, please contact Rose Easton on 01793 416014 or email r.easton@ahrc.ac.uk.

EPSRC revises its Strategic Plan

Guidance

EPSRC’s Strategic Plan 2015 sets out the direction of their policy for at least the next five years.

This up-dated Strategic Plan has been developed following input from their partners and communities. It recognises external influences including the international research landscape, global economic situation and government strategies. EPSRC have said that it will allow them to continue to deliver the world-leading science and engineering research and skills to sustain UK innovation.

Changes to MRC strategic skills priorities

Funding opportunities, Guidance

Following completion of a review of MRC’s strategic skills priorities, the revised priority list has now been published on their website along with a report of the skills survey outcomes.

The review has brought a refocus of the early career Skills Development Fellowships (previously Strategic Skills Fellowships) and will support training in two main areas:

– Development of Quantitative Expertise: covering mathematics, statistics, computation and informatics applicable to any biomedical or health related data sources, from molecular to population level.

– Development of Expertise at the Social Science interface: with a focus on areas of health economics and/or mixed methods research.

Applicants can either be seeking to move from a quantitative/economics/mixed methods background to biomedical research or can have a background in biomedical sciences and be seeking to develop skills in one of the priority areas.  All proposals must include development of new expertise and skills in the areas described above.  Eligible applicants would normally be in the early years of post-doctoral research or seeking a clear change of discipline to one of the priority areas.  Pre-doctoral applicants or those ready to transition to independence will be redirected to other MRC support mechanisms.

The next deadline for this competition is 16th June 2015.  For further details, deadlines and how to apply, please visit the pages here: http://www.mrc.ac.uk/skills-careers/fellowships/skills-development-fellowships/ .  If you have any specific MRC queries, please contact the team at fellows@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk

If you wish to apply to this scheme then please contact the RKEO Funding Development Team in the first instance.

Changes to ESRC Standard Grants

Funding opportunities, Guidance

ESRC are introducing changes to the funding thresholds for their Standard Grants scheme. They currently accept applications between £200,000 and £2 million. Under the new arrangements the lower threshold will rise to £350,000 and the upper threshold will be reduced to £1 million at Full Economic Costs. These changes will come into effect from 1 July 2015. Current thresholds will continue to operate for any application submitted up to 30 June 2015.

The changes are a response to the pattern of demand that is being placed on the standard grants scheme by the social science community. The average value of a standard grant application has steadily increased and is now close to £500,000, so they have adjusted the centre of gravity of the scheme to reflect applicant behaviour.

The changes are also a response to feedback from their Grant Assessment Panels who have found it increasingly difficult to assess and compare the value of applications ranging from £200,000 to £2 million, where there is variable level of detail on project design, costs and deliverables. This issue has become more acute as the number of grant applications over £1 million has steadily increased over the last two years. Narrowing the funding range of the scheme will help to maintain the robustness of the assessment process, ensuring all applications get a fair hearing.

They anticipate that these changes will reduce the volume of applications they receive through the Standard Grants scheme and will increase overall success rates for those who do apply as well as reducing the peer review requirements they need to place on the social science community.

In making these changes they remain committed to the funding of longer, larger responsive grants. They intend to introduce an annual open competition for grants between £1 million and £2.5 million and are currently considering how this will operate alongside their existing Centres and Large Grants Competition.

If you are intending to apply to the ESRC standard grant scheme then please contact the RKEO Funding Development Team in the first instance.

Research Professional – all you need to know

Guidance

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.  The Funding Development Team Officers can assist you with this, if required.

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:

  • Self registration and logging in
  • Building searches
  • Setting personalised alerts
  • Saving and bookmarking items
  • Subscribing to news alerts
  • Configuring your personal profile

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:

24th March 2015

28th April 2015

29th May 2015

23rd June 2015

28th July 2015

25th August 2015

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.