Tagged / applying for grants

2025 Bid-generating sandpit: Interdisciplinary research towards sustainable development goals

Funded by the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network and organised by the Centre for the Study of Conflict, Emotion, and Social Justice, we are inviting applications for the:

2025 Bid-generating Sandpit: Interdisciplinary Research towards Sustainable Development Goals

26 – 27 March 2025

Bournemouth University, Executive Business Centre (TBC)

Participate in dynamic and interactive sessions to develop innovative research concepts addressing any of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), leading to funding bids across institutions and disciplines. Your goal is to form an interdisciplinary project team and build a funding proposal in only two days. You will then be allocated a mentor and have two online follow-up sessions to share your project progress and experiences.

We welcome early career (as you choose to define it) researchers, artists, practitioners or anyone with a general interest in sustainability and emerging interdisciplinary projects. You must be based at one of these universities: Bournemouth University, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff University, University of Exeter, University of Bath, Bath Spa University, University of Bristol, University of Gloucestershire, University of Plymouth, University of the West of England or University of Wales Trinity Saint David. You should be keen to work in a multidisciplinary team, and willing to commit to attending the full sandpit, on both days. No prior experience of research funding is required.

To secure your spot in the Sandpit, please complete and submit the following application by 6th February 2025 – note that all participants must commit to attending both full days in person: https://forms.office.com/e/AQiAsf5Wxn

The event is facilitated by Dr. Catalin Brylla and Dr. Lyle Skains, with advisors and mentors to be drawn from senior Bournemouth University staff based on participant disciplines and interests.  If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

London Universities Bid-generating Sandpit designed and facilitated by Catalin Brylla and Lyle Skains

30 early career academics from ten London universities came together on the 26-27 November at Greenwich University for a two-day interdisciplinary sandpit funded by The British Academy Early Career Researcher Network and facilitated by Dr. Catalin Brylla (Centre for the Study of Conflict, Emotion, and Social Justice) and Dr. Lyle Skains (Centre for Science, Health, and Data Communication Research). The participants specialised in a variety of disciplines such as psychology, anthropology, policy studies, performance, media, tourism, environmental sciences, architecture and law. They brought their interests in a sustainable world and society (as represented by the UN Sustainable Development Goals) to the sandpit for networking, team-building, funding and project development workshops, many of which were based on the successful and innovative NESTA-developed ‘Crucible’ programme (no longer online, but see the Welsh Crucible).
The success of the sandpit’s activities was highlighted by the culmination of four projects proposed to a panel of subject experts: Prof. Andrew Clark (lifecourse development), Prof. Gianluca Tozzi (industrial engineering), Prof. Jin Chan (entrepreneurship), Prof. Thomas Evans (psychology), Prof. Georgios Samakovitis (financial management), Dr Damian Poulter (psychology), Dr. Zheng Liu (operations management), Dr. Lyle Skains (arts practice and interdisciplinarity) and Dr. Catalin Brylla (media practice and stigma reduction). These experts provided mentorship and feedback on the projects as they developed toward funding proposals. Two sandpit follow-up sessions will also aid the participants in developing their funding proposals.
To receive news of further sandpits and development opportunities, join the BA ECRN.

Three grant applications rejected this month

international

The start of October has not been good for me in terms of grant applications.  On the first day of October the NIHR informed us that our application to the call for a research programme for social care was unsuccessful.  The reason given by the NIHR panel was that our proposal was not competitive enough, this was a BU-led proposal working with colleagues based in Dorset.

Four days later another application to the NIHR, this time to another different funding stream, was rejected by Global Health Research Programme Funding Committees. This second failed grant application was written by an international interdisciplinary team led by the Canterbury Christ Church University.  It was a follow-up of our successful study ‘The impact of federalisation on Nepal’s health system: a longitudinal analysis’, which was funded by the UK Health Systems Research Initiative, itself a collaboration of the MRC/FCDO/Wellcome Trust/ESRC; Grant ref. MR/T023554/1.

To rub salt in the wounds, an international funding body, a joint initiative of the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR; France), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; Germany), the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC; UK) and the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC; Canada). The secretariat emailed us a few days ago than our application was not short-listed in this very competitive call, where 90% of applications were rejected.

Some of these proposals can, and will be, revamped and resubmitted to other funding bodies.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

2025 Bid Generating Sandpit Invitation to Participate

Illustration of a lightbulb with a group of people inside around a circular table, with computers and papers. They are clearly working together.
Funded by the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network and organised by the Centre for the Study of Conflict, Emotion, and Social Justice, we are inviting applications for the:
2025 Bid-generating Sandpit: Interdisciplinary Research towards Sustainable Development Goals
26 – 27 March 2025
Bournemouth University, Executive Business Centre (TBC)
Participate in dynamic and interactive sessions to develop innovative research concepts addressing any of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), leading to funding bids across institutions and disciplines. Your goal is to form an interdisciplinary project team and build a funding proposal in only two days. You will then be allocated a mentor and have two online follow-up sessions to share your project progress and experiences.
We welcome early career (as you choose to define it) researchers, artists, practitioners or anyone with a general interest in sustainability and emerging interdisciplinary projects. You must be based at one of the South West Cluster Universities (which includes Bournemouth University). You should be keen to work in a multidisciplinary team, and willing to commit to attending the full sandpit, on both days. No prior experience of research funding is required.
To secure your spot in the Sandpit, please complete and submit the following application by 29 November 2024 – note that all participants must commit to attending both full days in person:
The event is facilitated by Dr. Catalin Brylla and Dr. Lyle Skains, with advisors and mentors to be drawn from senior Bournemouth University staff based on participant disciplines and interests.
If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Looking to cook up new research related to Media and Social Justice? Join us!

innovation

Apply to participate here! More details below.

Media Industries and Social Justice Sandpit

Co-organised by the Media Production department and CESJ (the Centre for the Study of Conflict, Emotion and Social Justice).

19th and 20th July, 2023 (venue TBC)

This two-day sandpit creates a dynamic approach to the development of concepts for innovative projects and funding bids. By the end of both days, the participants will form interdisciplinary project teams and generate proposals (including pinpointing external partners) for funded projects on media and social justice issues. See more details in the programme outline.

The event will involve participants from across BU, who are interested in, or already doing research on, social justice issues. It will establish an interdisciplinary dialogue, enhance the scope for public engagement or knowledge transfer, increase the potential for impact, improve the chances for successful bids, and establish cross-institutional networks as seedbeds for future projects.

The sandpit will culminate in project pitches to a panel of senior staff (see below) for constructive feedback and for allocating a bid-writing mentor. After the event, the teams will be offered mentorship to support writing the full funding application.

Sandpit Programme Outline

Sandpit Programme Outline

Who should participate:

We welcome any BU-based junior to mid-career researcher, artist, practitioner or anyone with a general interest in media and social justice. You should be keen to work in a multidisciplinary team, and willing to commit to attending the full sandpit, on both days. No prior experience of research funding is required.

How to participate:

To secure your spot in the Sandpit, please complete and submit the following application – note that all participants must commit to attending both full days:

APPLY HERE BY 23rd JUNE: https://forms.office.com/r/Ezix4LkcL0

The event will be facilitated by Dr. Catalin Brylla and Dr. Lyle Skains, and the pitching panel and mentors will include Prof. Richard Berger, Prof. Candida Yates, Prof. Christa van Raalte, Dr. Sue Sudbury, Dr. Christopher Pullen, and Dr. Karl Rawstrone.

If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact Catalin at cbrylla@bournemouth.ac.uk, or Lyle at lskains@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Online training workshop: Impact and funding applications

Training

Impact and Funding Applications Training: Wednesday 16th February 15:30-16:30 Online

How to write about impact in your funding bids

Writing about impact in a grant application can be challenging. However, a strong description of the benefits you hope your project will have on society and the economy, and the means you will take to get there, can make all the difference between getting funded or not.

Book your place now on the online training session Impact and Funding Bids on 16th February at 3.30pm and we will help you understand what you need to include for the best chance of success, and look at the different ways impact may be considered within each call.

Although the session will include a brief look at definitions of impact, it is advised that you watch the 10-minute introduction to impact video on Brightspace beforehand to get the most out of the training.

Book your place.

How to avoid being late

Guidance

I published the updated late submissions procedure earlier this week.  I thought it might be useful to those applying for funding to have a few tips on how to avoid being late:

  • Plan out your research for the year, five years and even ten years – the RDS Research Facilitators can help you with this by discussing your career progression, the impact you want your research to have both short- and long-term, and opportunities available to support you with your research plans
  • Ensure your Research Professional searches are up-to-date and finding the opportunities for you – RDS Funding Development Officers can help you set up searchers that ensure you get the heads-up on what’s coming up
  • Look for schemes where there are multiple calls and plan realistically for the call deadline that suits you – you don’t have to go for the one in two weeks’ time when there is another in 3 months’ time
  • Look for opportunities to ‘attend’ funder town meetings/information days for specific calls/ schemes – not only are these great opportunities to get a heads up on what calls are coming out soon but it is also an opportunity to network and find potential research collaborations. Most of these will now be online, making attendance easier
  • If you require partners to support your research, ensure these are in place and on board with your plans before considering applying. Similarly, ensure your research team are in place and can support you with the application preparation
  • Don’t put yourself under unnecessary pressure – start writing down your case for support and research ideas before looking for the right funding opportunity
  • Talk to your HoD and peers about what you want to achieve – they will be able to offer you support and can provide peer review
  • Take up the opportunities available under the RKEDF to help you with application writing
  • Get all those involved in a proposal on board before writing, especially if the funder has e-submission. Ensure investigators are registered on the e-submission sites; ensure CVs are updated for all those required; ensure letters of support from partners include a recent date, are on headed paper, and are signed; and make sure that any BU letters of support are drafted and that those who will sign it know what your application is about and what support you’re asking BU for.
  • TIME – this is the biggest thing you need! – to ensure your application stands a good chance of success you need to think through your objectives and ensure they’re well defined, make your hypothesis clear, consider the impact of your research, include relevant preliminary data, tell a compelling story, and justify your methods.  See the 12 top tips for writing a grant application provided by the MRC when they visited BU in 2017.

We’re here to support you and so do get in touch with your RDS colleagues as soon as you have an idea

How to avoid being late

Guidance

I published the updated late submissions procedure earlier this week.  I thought it might be useful to those applying for funding to have a few tips on how to avoid being late:

  • Plan out your research for the year, five years and even ten years – the RKEO Research Facilitators can help you with this by discussing your career progression, the impact you want your research to have both short- and long-term, and opportunities available to support you with your research plans
  • Ensure your Research Professional searches are up-to-date and finding the opportunities for you – RKEO Funding Development Officers can help you set up searchers that ensure you get the heads-up on what’s coming up
  • Look for schemes where there are multiple calls and plan realistically for the call deadline that suits you – you don’t have to go for the one in two weeks’ time when there is another in 3 months’ time
  • Look for opportunities to attend funder town meetings/information days for specific calls/ schemes – not only are these great opportunities to get a heads up on what calls are coming out soon but it is also an opportunity to network and find potential research collaborations
  • If you require partners to support your research, ensure these are in place and on board with your plans before considering applying. Similarly, ensure your research team are in place and can support you with the application preparation
  • Don’t put yourself under unnecessary pressure – start writing down your case for support and research ideas before looking for the right funding opportunity
  • Talk to your HoD and peers about what you want to achieve – they will be able to offer you support and can provide peer review
  • Take up the opportunities available under the RKEDF to help you with application writing or attend our STEAMLabs to form interdisciplinary, collaborative groups – these are both great opportunities to network and form new partnerships for future research applications
  • Get all those involved in a proposal on board before writing, especially if the funder has e-submission. Ensure investigators are registered on the e-submission sites; ensure CVs are updated for all those required; ensure letters of support from partners include a recent date, are on headed paper, and are signed; and make sure that any BU letters of support are drafted and that those who will sign it know what your application is about and what support you’re asking BU for.
  • TIME – this is the biggest thing you need! – to ensure your application stands a good chance of success you need to think through your objectives and ensure they’re well defined, make your hypothesis clear, consider the impact of your research, include relevant preliminary data, tell a compelling story, and justify your methods.  See the 12 top tips for writing a grant application provided by the MRC when they visited BU last year.

We’re here to support you and so do get in touch with your RKEO colleagues as soon as you have an idea.