Tagged / FDT

RKEO alternative 12 days ‘to’ Christmas – 2 new FDT members

On the second day to Christmas, my RKEO friend gave to me, 2 new FDT members.

Welcome to Theresa McManus, Funding Development Coordinator, and Ainar, Research Facilitator – International.

Theresa provides support to the University-wide Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework, (RKEDF), which incorporates a suite of pathways providing developmental support to academics at every stage of their careers.

Theresa specifically provides support to the Research Facilitators, the Funding Development Manager, and the Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework Facilitator within RKEO.

Theresa enjoys being efficient, proactive and having a variety of different activities to work on. She is a sustainability champion, cycles to work and is a keen environmentalist and gardener.

Ainar works across all faculties Tuesday to Friday as a single point of contact for bids and proposals to international funders. Within the Funding Development Team, the aim of his work is to contribute towards the growth of EU and international research activity across the University. Ainar’s responsibilities include scanning strategic agendas of EU and international research funders, supporting principal investigators in strengthening their applications, ensuring the proposal meets the funder’s strategic aims and supporting the FD Officers with his expertise of EU and international funding.

For more than a decade, Ainar has been involved in both pre- and post-award activities related to EU and international funding. His strengths are extensive experience of working for government, academia and industry, collaborating internationally and across different disciplines.

Ainar enjoys travelling overseas, gardening and appreciates all the nice and simple things that life provides.

Board the Pre-Award Omnibus on 18th April 2018

Do you wonder how best to engage with pre-award processes at BU?

Are research application finances a bit of a mystery?

Does the costing side of your research application deter you from applying?

Are you not quite sure where to start?

If so, then come along to these sessions on Wednesday, 18th April at Talbot Campus:

Please follow the links above to reserve your place at as many of these events as you are able to attend. You will then receive a meeting request confirming the location of each session.

If you need help outside these workshops, please contact relevant member of the Funding Development Team in the Research & Knowledge Exchange Office.

Board the Pre-Award Omnibus on 18th April 2018

Do you wonder how best to engage with pre-award processes at BU?

Are research application finances a bit of a mystery?

Does the costing side of your research application deter you from applying?

Are you not quite sure where to start?

If so, then come along to these sessions on Wednesday, 18th April at Talbot Campus:

Please follow the links above to reserve your place at as many of these events as you are able to attend. You will then receive a meeting request confirming the location of each session.

If you need help outside these workshops, please contact relevant member of the Funding Development Team in the Research & Knowledge Exchange Office.

Board the Pre-Award Omnibus on 18th April 2018

Do you wonder how best to engage with pre-award processes at BU?

Are research application finances a bit of a mystery?

Does the costing side of your research application deter you from applying?

Are you not quite sure where to start?

If so, then come along to these sessions on Wednesday, 18th April at Talbot Campus:

Please follow the links above to reserve your place at as many of these events as you are able to attend. You will then receive a meeting request confirming the location of each session.

If you need help outside these workshops, please contact relevant member of the Funding Development Team in the Research & Knowledge Exchange Office.

 

What’s the importance of the funding submission process?

Guidance

The Research and Knowledge Exchange Office (RKEO) Funding Development Team (FDT) are here to help academics apply for external funding. There are so many funders out there with so many different guidelines that it’s not always easy to find out how, who and what you should be applying to.

There is huge kudos in obtaining external research funding for the academic and BU. It not only enables you to progress your research ideas and potentially build centres of excellent in your area at BU, but knowing that your research has made a benefit to society has to be the greatest achievement.

How can FDT help?  The competition is tough out there and so we want to ensure that you are fully supported at BU to submit a winning application.  The costing of all proposals (including those that we are not the lead on) need to be undertaken by FDT before proposals reach the submission stage. Costings are undertaken by FDT to ensure that a) they are complete and include full costs, b) that they include indirect and estates costs at current BU rates and c) that they include inflation at the BU rate. Proposals need to be added to our grants system RED in order to track our bidding activity, which is in turn reported on and used for KPI’s, REF, HEBCI and HESA returns; and RED generates the APF (Activity Proposal Form explained below). The costs need to be added to our costings system, pFACT, for accurate costings and audit purposes.

In addition to this, Legal Services need to check whether we are agreeing to any terms and conditions in advance of submitting the bid – and, if so, what these are. We also need to check for any potential financial issues in advance of submission that need to be noted (for example, the risk of exchange rate fluctuations, if match funding is required, etc.). The APF (Activity Proposal Form from RED detailing the costs and income) and CAF (Contract Agreement Form from Legal Services detailing any legal or financial risks) need to be signed by a BU authorised signatory before the bid can be submitted; this gives approval for submission. This approval ensures that the appropriate senior staff (DDRPP/DoP/Dean/UET members/Board members) are aware of the risks and commitments which arise from us undertaking the project, assuming it were to be awarded. All proposals will also have to go through your Faculties agreed Quality Approval process.

The FDT will need to complete all of the above processes before the approval process can be completed. In addition, an intention to bid form needs to be completed at the beginning to establish what processes an application may need to go through and the timescales required. If you are intending to bid then please contact the Funding Development Officer for your Faculty to obtain a form (they have been tailored for each Faculty).

Why do we need to go through these processes?  The purpose of having a centralised group is that we connect all the necessary processes for academics (Finance, Legal, Faculty signatories) and we’re there to help ensure that the application has the best possible chance of being funded. If academics are successful then they will receive a contract and that contract has to go through certain processes in order to obtain the money and ensure it goes to the correct place. Most importantly, if this information is never recorded on RED then it has a knock on effect on several things. BU receives additional money from HEFCE based on the funding that we have received throughout the year and this also improves our REF submission. Small pots of money add up to large sums and if these are never recorded then we lose out on additional funds from HEFCE. Also, there are KPI’s with targets for R&KE funding to be obtained by academics in each of the Faculties. By not recording funding this will have a detrimental effect on the faculties targets for meeting the KPI’s.

The FDT also have Research Facilitators available to help you develop your research ideas at an early stage of your application.  We have also provided a number of pages to help you identify which funder would be appropriate for your research.  There is a wealth of information that can be found in the Research Funders’ Guide.  We have also put together an application submission timeline and have provided sample costs to aid you drafting out your costs.  More details can be found here.  Finally, there is a comprehensive list of all RKEO’s activities that support you in the Research Lifecycle.

Do get in touch and see how we can help you acheive your goals.

Results of RKEO pre-award survey

Guidance

The RKEO restructured in September 2014 and part of this was the newly formed Funding Development Team (FDT), who administer all things pre-award.  As there was disruption to the team in the summer of 2014 and the majority of the team were new to RKEO (and some were new to BU), we recognised that our service levels needed improving.  As a result, we have asked academics who have submitted applications to complete surveys so that we can seek to improve our service and have a way of monitoring this.FDT

The last survey was run in June and the general response was positive and recognised that we were making great improvements.  There were recommendations on what we could do further and we will take these forward.  The academics were asked to score our performance on a variety of topics and the results are given below:

Scores on the doors (1 = poor and 5 = excellent)

Demonstrate a good knowledge of the funder/ client 4.47
Have a good understanding of the bidding/ contract process – 4.69
Generate the costings and explain how the costs were derived 4.71
Demonstrate a high level of expertise 4.47
Answer all of your questions 4.63
Provide timely information 4.38
Keep you informed of progress 4.5
Respond quickly to your calls and emails 4.35
Help you to submit your bid/proposal on time 4.69
How would you rate the service provided by RKEO 4.4
Overall, would you say that your expectations were met – All said ‘yes’
Were you aware of the internal processes and timescales when applying for funding before you approached RKEO? 13 out of 17 said yes

These are great results which were also backed up with positive comments about our service.  Some of these are given below:

General comments

‘Regarding RKEO I think the team works great; I can just say thank you very much and please keep it up. I do apologize for the time and complexity constraints which were out of my hands.’

‘When I was contacted by my colleagues I expected that it may be a bit complicated because the time frame was short, yet it was a unique chance I should not miss. I was concerned on that and I wasn’t sure if it would be possible at all in the end. Thanks to the RKEO team work, it was possible.’

‘We are really lucky to have colleagues here to help us in such a professional manner. Applying for funding can be really stressful so what you need is someone to guide you and explain the process to you. Jenny and Ehren were so good, I am indebted to them.’

‘Excellent –  Jason was very professional and knowledgeable’

‘Considerable improvement over the last nine months.’

‘ (A score of) 5 what else? They were there for me and couldn’t ask for more.‘

‘As a result of this experience of submitting a bid (and particularly because of the support offered by RKEO) I definitely feel more confident about submitting larger bids in the future. I’ve seen how much support RKEO will be able to give me.’

Timeframe for processing applications comments:

‘It was processed much quicker than I expected and the RKEO team work, in particular the work of Ms Kerri Jones was great; not only met my expectations but exceeded them by large margins. If the submission was successful it is primarily thanks to her.’

‘Extremely quickly – it exceeded my expectations.  I’d left everything to the last minute (I’d almost decided not to bother bidding) but Ehren was able to process my application extremely quickly to enable me to meet the deadline.’

 ‘It has been great and grateful that Dianne and her colleagues helped out with very short notice and handled the requests in a professional and efficient manner.‘

This feedback helps the team to know that what they are doing is appreciated and worthwhile and we thank the academics for their support and recognition.  We don’t rest on our laurels though and we will be making changes to the process over the summer.  These will aim to speed up the process and ensure that procedures are clearer.  More information will follow on this and so watch this space.

Signpost with the words Help, Support, Advice, Guidance and Assistance on the direction arrows, against a bright blue cloudy sky.