BU’s Teresa Coffin and Eva Papadopoulou (Research and Knowledge Exchange Operations) attended a training day hosted by the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) aimed at discussing the challenges and opportunities for the social sciences in the current climate. The focus of the event included presentations from the main Department Heads who outlined their internal workings, grant application framework and advice for successful applications. They also discussed their amended research agenda, funding opportunities, various partnerships and current strategic priorities. Notes from the day can be found here:
Tagged / ESRC
Wanted: members for RC governing councils
Six research councils are inviting applications to fill governing council vacancies expected to arise in 2013.
Suitably qualified academics and experienced individuals from industry, commerce, government, and the voluntary, creative and cultural sectors, can apply.
The vacancies are at the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Natural Environment Research Council, and the Science and Technology Facilities Council.
The vacancies include some positions with audit committee responsibilities for part-time membership.
Annual honoraria of £6,850 will be paid. The closing date for applications is 19 November.
New Funding Programme on Quantitative Methods Training

The Nuffield Foundation, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) are launching a £15.5 million funding programme in October 2012 aimed at promoting a step-change in quantitative methods training for UK social science undergraduates.
This 5-year programme will fund the creation of a network of up to 15 Quantitative Methods Centres to develop new approaches aimed at embedding the acquisition and application of quantitative skills to substantive issues in disciplines across the UK social science undergraduate curricula.
Centres will be able to apply for funding of up to £350k per year to develop and deliver a wide range of fundable training activities, including bursaries for students attending holiday courses or in relevant work placements, recruitment of new staff and the development of new courses and pathways to careers requiring skills in quantitative methods.
Centres are expected to be within single Higher Education Institutions, with limited scope for any consortia arrangements. Single departments or groups of departments within an Institution may apply, but only one application per Higher Education Institution will be allowed.
We expect that competition for funds will be intense. Applying Institutions should therefore already have demonstrable expertise in and commitment to developing quantitative skills in the social sciences.
More information about the programme can be found on the Nuffield Foundation website www.nuffieldfoundation.org from October 15th. They will also be holding two launch events in London and Manchester to present this initiative:
Friday 19th October @ 11.00am British Academy, London
Thursday 8th November @ 11.15am Manchester University
If you are interested in applying, they hope that you will be able to attend one of these events. This is an open invitation, but all who wish to attend must register so that they can plan for numbers. Initially, no more than 2 attendees per HEI, but if they have room they would be happy to allow more.
If you would like to attend, please RSVP by e-mail using the attached form to QMEnquiries@nuffieldfoundation.org by Monday 8th October. They will send further information about the events to registered attendees.
ESRC Knowledge Exchange Opportunities scheme
The scheme provides the opportunity to apply for funding for knowledge exchange activities at any stage of the research lifecycle, and is aimed at maximising the impact of social science research outside academia.
The flexibility built into the scheme is intended to encourage applicants to think creatively about knowledge exchange, and applications are welcomed for either a single activity or a combination of activities; be it setting up a network to help inform the development of a research proposal, arranging an academic placement with a voluntary or business organisation, or developing tools such as podcasts and videos aimed at communicating the results of research to the general public, or developing existing research to make it more applicable to policy or practice.
Important changes to the Knowledge Exchange Opportunities scheme
Following comments from the community on the difficulty of securing cash contributions from user stakeholders, we have changed the scheme’s co-funding requirement so that partner contributions can now consist of any combination of cash or in-kind resources. The scheme has also been broadened to allow applications for new applied research, provided this is user-led or in collaboration with a user partner. Further details regarding these changes are outlined in the guidance documents below.
The call opened on 20 August 2012 and closes at 16.00 on 2 October 2012.
Call documents, including the scheme guidance are provided below:
- Call specification (PDF, 147Kb)
- Je-S guidance notes (PDF, 234Kb)
- FAQs (PDF, 90Kb)
- Supporting data template (Word, 35Kb)
Fellowship opportunities
Within this round of the Knowledge Exchange Opportunities scheme there is also the opportunity to apply for two prespecified placement fellowship projects. The first placement is with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Environment Agency, and the second placement is with the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The specification for each placement, including details of how to apply, can be found below:
- Defra and Environment Agency fellowship: ‘Regulating for a sustainable economy’ (PDF, 211Kb)
- ONS Fellowship: ‘Quantification of economic benefits of population and socio-demographic statistics’ (PDF, 144Kb)
ESRC aim to inform applicants of a decision on all applications within 26 weeks of the closing date for the call. Funding decisions will then be advertised on this website.
The RKE Operations team can help you with your application. Please direct any enquiries to RKE Ops in the first instance. Alternatively, contact ESRC at knowledgeexchange@esrc.ac.uk.
Future calls
- 3 December 2012 – 7 February 2013
- 3 April 2013 – 6 June 2013
- 5 August 2013 – 3 October 2013
Work in Social Sciences? Have contacts in India and the EU? Then this could be for you!
The first awards under the India-Europe research grants scheme for the social sciences have been made.
The Open Research Area (ORA) scheme is a multi-funded (including the ESRC) EU focused programme which supports collaborations between researchers in India and Europe. This year, the three-year research projects will each include an Indian partner alongside researchers from UK, French, German or the Netherlands. They will study areas such as ageing and wellbeing, the global accessibility of medicine and the cultural authority of science. You can read about the funded projects on the DFG (German funders) website.
The funding scheme is designed to provide top-up resources to established working groups, to enhance collaborative efforts as part of a cross-continent social sciences network. A new call for proposals will be launched in September and close in January 2013.
ESRC Future Research Leaders scheme 2012/2013 – how to apply
The ESRC’s Future Research Leaders call is currently open with a closing date of 4th October 2012.
Universities are expected to consider applications very carefully prior to submitting them to the ESRC through this call, and all applications need to be supported with a letter from the PVC (Research, Enterprise and Internationalisation).
With this in mind BU has established a process for submissions to this call. All proposals must be submitted to a special version of our internal peer review scheme (the RPRS) first and must be signed off by Matthew Bennett as PVC (Research, Enterprise and Internationalisation) prior to submission.
For applicants interested in the scheme, the key internal dates are as follows:
28th Aug | Proposals to be submitted to the RPRS and sent for review. |
10th Sept | Proposal feedback to be returned to applicants. |
10th Sept – 21st Sept | Applicants to finalise proposals based on reviewer feedback. |
21st Sept | Final proposals to be sent to Matthew Bennett (via RKE Ops). |
Matthew Bennett to review and approve final proposals (and write the PVC letter of support). Once reviewed, CRE Operations will let applicants know when to submit via Je-S. | |
26th Sept | Final decision from Matthew Bennett re: proposals to submit |
26th – 1st Oct | Selected applicants finalise proposals |
1st Oct | Final proposals submitted via Je-S |
4th October | ESRC deadline |
If you are considering applying to the scheme but have not yet confirmed this with the RKE Ops team please could you do so as soon as possible.
Please take the time to read through the call documentation available on the ESRC website – it contains a lot of important information about assessment criteria and what the ESRC are looking for in a proposal.
If you have any questions about this call or the Resarch Proposal Review Service please contact Caroline O’Kane
ESRC – Workshop for Google Data Analytics Social Science Research
“Data is the new raw material of the 21st century, it allows citizens to hold governments to account, drives improvements in public services by informing choice, and provides a feedstock for innovation and growth.” As open-source data is set to grow, this is a key time to better understand how it maps onto and possibly significantly strengthens, the ability of academics to understand society. The ESRC and Google are therefore pleased to announce the Google Data Analytics Social Science Research Call.
The call for Google Data Analytics Social Science Research aims to provide funding for projects that demonstrate the potential of how publicly accessible online data, analytical and presentational tools, such as those provided by Google, can be used to address social and economic research topics, showcasing how academics can use online data analytical tools in creative, intellectual and creative ways. As part of this process, the projects should:
- transmit best practice in use of such tools for social science
- show how the tools can be used to test social-science theories
- suggest possible improvements/innovations in the tools to help integrate analytics and open-source data tools in general into the teaching/learning community.
They have allocated £200,000 to fund a maximum of four research projects lasting up to one year. The call will open on 20 August 2012 and close on 2 October 2012.
To register for this call launch workshop please send a brief description of your area of interest to:knowledgeexchange@esrc.ac.uk by 2 August 2012. Please note, this information may be circulated to other attendees unless you state otherwise.
Further Information
The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.
ESRC – Student Internship Scheme
The ESRC student internship scheme provides current ESRC-funded PhD students with the opportunity to spend up to six months in a non-academic organisation within the public, civil society (voluntary) or private sector where they can work as part of a team involved with policy and practice development.
The internship scheme provides both student and host organisations with a clear set of benefits and contributes to the skills and professional development of PhD students.
Students can benefit from:
- networking within the policy arena
- transferable skills and knowledge
- time management skills
- report writing skills.
Hosts can benefit from:
- additional resources
- production of briefing papers
- adding to the organisation’s policy evidence base.
ESRC students
If you are an ESRC-funded student wishing to undertake an internship award during 2012, you will need to complete and return an application form for each of the host organisation(s) you wish to apply to by the closing date of 10 August 2012.
Application forms and project details for participating hosts are available using the host organisations links below.
Participating host organisations for the 2012 internships:
- Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC)
- Cabinet Office – Behavioural Insights Team
- Creative England
- Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
- HM Revenue and Customs
- Home Office
- Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (IRISS)
- Ministry of Justice
- The Scottish Government
- The Sentencing Council
- UK Border Agency
- Welsh Government
Internship holders receive a three month extension to their ESRC award (conditions apply), and will be able to claim for reasonable travel and accommodation costs (conditions apply).
End of Award Report
Students and host organisations must complete and submit an End of Award Report within three months of completing the internship.
Contacts
- Julie Dunsby, Policy Support Officer
Email: julie.dunsby@esrc.ac.uk
Telephone: 01793 413011 - Andrea Bond, Policy Support Manager
Email: andrea.bond@esrc.ac.uk
Telephone: 01793 413145
The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.
ESRC/NIHR Dementia Initiative

Dementia initiative
The Prime Minister has announced plans to tackle what he is calling a ‘national crisis’ posed by dementia, including a doubling of research funding into dementia to £66 million per annum by 2015. As part of the funding being made available, the ESRC and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) will be working together to support an initiative with up to £13 million funding available for social science research on dementia.
Scope
The initiative will fund large grants which will be national or international focal points for social science research in Dementia which make a significant contribution to scientific, economic and social impact. The call will address the following areas, see Research Agenda (PDF, 71Kb) for full details:
- Prevention, including public awareness and early presentation
- Public health of behaviour change, including the role of social interventions in slowing cognitive decline
- Delivery of interventions in hospitals care homes and carers, including the interface between professionals, lay people and patients
Documentation
- Call specification (PDF, 198Kb)
- Guidance notes for applicants (PDF, 275Kb)
- Guidance for applicants on involving patients, families and carers (PDF, 151Kb)
- Examples of career development and capacity building (PDF, 64Kb)
- Additional costs proforma: NHS support and treatment costs (Word, 143Kb)
- Presentations from 3 July meeting for potential applicants (PDF, 1.2Mb)
- Frequently asked questions (PDF, 144Kb)
Timetable
- Meeting for potential applicants – 3 July 2012
- Launch/open call – w/c 9 July 2012
- Closing date for outline call – w/c 11 September 2012
- Announce decisions for outline call – mid December 2012
- Closing date for full call – February 2013
- Inviting short-listed applicants for interviews – June 2013
- Interviews – June 2013
- Announce final decisions – July 2013
Links
- Prime Minister’s challenge on Dementia (Department of Health website)
- National Dementia Strategy (Deptartment of Health website)
- Ministerial Advisory Group on Dementia (Department of Health website)
- Strategic Research Agenda for the Joint Programming Initiative on Neurodegenerative Disease (JPND website)
- Lifelong Health and Wellbeing: Strategy for Collaborative Ageing Research (MRC website)
Contact
For further information please email: dementia@esrc.ac.uk
The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.
Richard Shipway wins ESRC Festival of Social Science sponsorship
Huge congratulations to Dr Richard Shipway, who has been awarded sponsorship by the ESRC to run an event during the ESRC’s national Festival of Social Science in November .
The event, Optimising Olympic tourism opportunities after the 2012 Games, will use insights from Richard’s research to explore how the potential of the London 2012 Games can be harnessed to enhance tourism in the years following the Olympics.
If you wish to learn more about the event, please contact Dr Richard Shipway on RShipway@bournemouth.ac.uk.
If you would like to learn more about public engagement activities across BU or explore how you can develop public engagement activities around your research, please contact Becca on REdwards@bournemouth.ac.uk
ESRC – Grant linked studentships funding opportunity
Grant Linked studentships are designed to add value to the proposed research outlined in the grant application, whilst providing a clear opportunity for a distinct and independent course of enquiry for the student. Through being embedded with a high quality research team, they should offer the student an opportunity to both develop their substantive research skills, alongside broader professional development.
Grant linked studentships may be requested on any research application (with the exception of the Future Leaders scheme) as long as:
- the grant applied for is for 3 years or more
- the Principal or Co-Investigators are approved to act as primary supervisors for PhD students
- the student(s) will be located in an ESRC accredited Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) and they are studying on an accredited pathway.
Up to three studentships can be applied for on any single grant application. It must also be clear that the studentship is not a displacement for the normal research support required on the grant. The student must have a distinct, independent area of enquiry that will add value to the overall research objectives of the grant.
For further details on the application process for Grant Linked Studentships please read the information available within the Research Funding Guide.
More information on the details on the rules and regulations for Grant linked studentships can be found within the Postgraduate Funding Guidelines.
If you require further assistance please contact ptdenquiries@esrc.ac.uk
The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.
ESRC Social Science Festival
Professor Ruth Towse and Professor Martin Kretschmer have been awarded funding from the ESRC (RES-622-26-565) to organise an event as part of the Festival of Social Science 2012.
The symposium ‘What constitutes evidence for copyright policy?’ will be held on 8 November 2012 in the Executive Business Centre.
Professors Towse and Kretschmer write: “This interactive event offers the opportunity for discussion on evidence for copyright policy between social scientists, policy-makers and producers and users of copyright works. Copyright law is a topical and contentious area that affects a wide range of stakeholders with differing views on copyright policy. The need for evidence-based policy on copyright policy was emphasised in the Hargreaves Review and has led to several calls for evidence from stakeholders. The responses they provide to the Intellectual Policy Office are varied in nature and quality; the IPO has responded by issuing guidelines on what constitutes acceptable evidence (which itself is contested).
“Besides being a matter of pressing public concern, copyright also attracts the interest of a broad range of social science disciplines each with its own rules of evidence. The emphasis on economic growth as the objective of copyright policy has shifted the need for evidence in the direction of economics but economic evidence is not always easily available. Nor it is the case that only quantitative evidence is regarded as valid.”
The event will involve the following:
- Social scientists in a range of disciplines will explore their perceptions of evidence in non-technical terms and discuss their research findings on copyright. The aim is to develop a perspective on what evidence social scientists believe is relevant for copyright policy-making purposes.
- Representatives of stakeholder organisations that have responded with evidence to the IPO’s calls for evidence will explain what to them is relevant evidence.
- IPO staff responsible for assessing responses to calls for evidence have already committed to participate in this event. They will explain how they use the information they receive from stakeholder meetings and calls for evidence to develop policy measures.
If you are interested to participate, please contact Dr Rebecca Edwards (Research Development Officer, Public Engagement): redwards@bournemouth.ac.uk
Seven Days of social science research: ESRC funded research findings

The ESRC has profiled key areas of ESRC funded research exploring many aspects of our lives through a series of videos and articles, which can be found here.
The research is grouped thematically around the iconic nursery rhyme ‘Monday’s Child’ and is well worth taking a few moments to look at (even if you don’t consider yourself a social scientist) as the themes have a considerable bearing on all of us.
I think the videos are also great examples of how to make short broadcasts about your research in a way that is engaging to many audiences. The short articles contained on the site are also not only interesting, but provide useful examples of how to communicate your research without ‘dumming down’ your findings.
Debbie Sadd awarded funding for the ESRC Festival of Social Science
Many congratulations to Dr Debbie Sadd, from the School of Tourism, who has been awarded funding to run an event during the ESRC Festival of Social Science which will be held during 3-10 November this year.
Her event London 2012: Was it worth it? will bring together up to 200 young people from local schools to debate the impact of the Olympic and Paralympic Games on the local area and the country as a whole. Speakers at the debate will include representatives from Dorset 2012, Sporting Legacy, Podium and BU. Not only will young people (and their teachers!) get to learn more about the research happening at Bournemouth University, it is hoped that the debate generated will help to inform future research.
Debbie’s event will also help young people engage with social science more generally by exploring the value of understanding evidence and critical thinking.
Along with our other successful events, this debate will help put BU on the Festival of Social Science map in what will be the tenth year of the festival!
Kip Jones wins ESRC Festival of Social Science funding!
Congratulations to HSC’s Dr Kip Jones who has been awarded funding from the ESRC to run a public engagement event as part of the ESRC’s Festival of Social Science later this year.
The event will be a multi-activity format including a screening of the film ‘Rufus Stone’ and launch of the method deck ‘Methods to Diversity’ –a community organising tool; day to include small group discussions, distribution and hands-on experience with the method deck, reports from Research Projects (BU & Equality SW); participation of Research Advisory Group and Intercom Trust.
This is excellent news – well done Kip 🙂
ESRC Call for Evaluating the Business Impact of Social Science
The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is seeking to commission an evaluation study to assess the ways in which social science research and the knowledge and skills of social scientists can have impact in business. The study will begin by assessing the business impact of social science through the work of a small number of Business/Management Schools. It will then track the career paths of social science doctoral graduates from these Schools, and investigate in greater depth the contributions of those working in business.
The aims of the evaluation are as follows:
Part 1 – Impact of Business/Management Schools
- identify the range and nature of business impacts resulting from the work of the Business/Management Schools
- evaluate the processes through which business impacts may be or have been generated, through research and related activities (including academic/business collaborations, knowledge exchange and business engagement initiatives, networking and dissemination)
- develop an understanding of the contributions of social science within local, regional and national contexts, and the factors that promote or inhibit impact within these contexts
- identify and analyse the determinants of the impacts identified (ie why and how impact has been generated)
- identify good practice and lessons learned, to support the development of impact generation within the business sector
- inform the development of methodology for future impact evaluation studies in this area.
Part 2 – Impact of social scientist with PhDs working within business
- identify the employment destinations of social science doctoral graduates from the three Schools
- identify the range and nature of impacts that social scientists with PhDs working in business have contributed to
- identify and analyse the determinants of the impacts (ie why and how impact has been generated)
- explore impact processes and potential impacts, and identify any barriers to impact generation
- develop an understanding of businesses’ appreciation and need for the higher level skills associated with PhD training
- identify good practice and lessons for enhancing the contribution that social science doctoral graduates can make to business
- inform the ESRC’s investment in PhD training with a view to maximising future impacts.
Further details, and a copy of the full specification are available from the Research Councils UK Shared Services Centre Ltd. Please contact Jonathan Smith by email: jonathan.smith@ssc.rcuk.ac.uk or by telephone: 01235 446394 (Ref PS120008).
The deadline for submission of bids is 11.00 on 11 June 2012.
The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.
EPSRC call ‘Design for Wellbeing: Ageing and Mobility in the Built Environment’
Summary
EPSRC is leading a call with the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and invites proposals from interdisciplinary consortia for evidence led research into ageing and mobility in the built environment. This call is being run under the auspices of the Lifelong Health and Wellbeing (LLHW) cross-council ageing research programme which supports research addressing factors throughout life that influence health and wellbeing in older age.

This call is seeking to create a step change in interdisciplinary engineering, social science and design research for wellbeing in the built environment. There is up to £7M available (EPSRC up to £4M, ESRC up to £2M and AHRC up to £1M) to support a maximum of five large multi-disciplinary projects of up to three years duration.
Prospective applicants will need to complete an Expression of Interest form by 12:00 on Monday 10 September 2012.
The expressions of interest will be assessed by an expert short listing panel in September 2012 and those aligned appropriately with the assessment criteria will be invited to submit full proposals. The deadline for submitting an Expression of Interest is 12:00 on 10 September 2012. Those invited to submit a full proposal will be notified by the end of September 2012. The deadline for the submission of full proposals will be 28 November 2012, and will be peer-reviewed in March 2013 with the expectation that funding decisions will be made by the end of March 2013.
Timetable
There are two stages in the assessment process. This call invites Expressions of Interest (EoIs) which will be assessed by a shortlisting panel in September 2012. Shortlisted applicants will then be invited to submit full proposals.
Activity | Date/Time |
---|---|
Call for Expressions of Interest | May 2012 |
Call for Expressions of Interest submission deadline | 12:00 noon on 10 September 2012 |
Applicants informed of outcome and full proposals invited | 26 September 2012 |
Deadline for submission of full proposals | 16:00 on 28 November 2012 |
Prioritisation panel | March 2013 |
Full call document: Design for Wellbeing: Ageing and Mobility in the Built Environment (PDF 100KB)
Opportunities for existing ESRC Students
Overseas institutional visits
All full-time ESRC studentship holders are eligible to apply for financial support for overseas institutional visits (OIVs) within their studentship period, to visit overseas universities or esteemed research organisations. This additional funding is intended to provide applicants with the opportunity to:
- establish research networks
- disseminate early research findings
- participate in seminars and other academic activities that are directly relevant to their research
- undertake specialist research training that is not available within the UK.
How to apply
You should submit completed applications to your research organisation (RO) nominated contact who will check the form before forwarding it to ESRC. You should note that applications are sent to ESRC in batches by 16.00 on the last working day of the month. If you miss a batch deadline this will delay the processing of your application.
Applicants must allow at least three months between the batch deadline for the month in which they apply and commencing the visit (eg if your application was received by ESRC on 30 January, the earliest you would be able to commence your visit would be 1 May).
We will aim to process and send applications to assessors within five working days. We will normally communicate funding decisions to nominated RO contacts within two months of the batch deadline, although this may take longer at certain times of the year.
You should read the scheme guidance notes before completing the application form:
All successful overseas applicants are required to submit an end of award report within two weeks of the end of the overseas institutional visit. Students undertaking more than one visit should submit a report on completion of each separate visit.
Further information
If you have any queries about the scheme please contact:
- Julie Dunsby
Telephone: 01793 413011
Email: julie.dunsby@esrc.ac.uk - Sarah Peart
Telephone 01793 413145
Email: sarah.peart@esrc.ac.uk