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Monday 29 March 2010
REF Consulation: Results Announced
Thursday 25 March 2010
The Word on the Leverhulme Street
- The Trust will be extending its online application system to include outline applications for Research Project Grants, International Networks and Artists in Residence from 14 July 2010. You will only be able to submit paper versions until 30 June 2010. For further information available click here.
- Leverhulme reckon they'll be big increase in applications to them from the hungry, the hunted, the poor huddled masses fleeing from the swingeing cuts at the Research Councils. They're batoning down the hatches in anticipation and not running any major initiatives in the foreseeable future.
- However, it will be running its Research Programmes this year, and plan to have the following three streams: 1) Resilience 2 ) Intergenerational Justice, 3) Science and Politics.
- The Director of the Trust, Professor Sir Richard Brook, has confirmed that the Trust has never had to turn down a proposal because of a lack of funds. In fact, the 2008 and 2009 Major Research Fellowship Scheme awarded less than its allocation due to the (perceived) paucity of the proposals it received.
- In light of this the Sciences have had the lion's share of Leverhulme funding in recent years. The Trust feels that there has been a lack of excellent proposals in the Humanities and Social Sciences, and would welcome more in these areas.
- Leverhulme has not bought into the whole Impact thing, nor any crowing about league tables or ratings. So avoid references to the RAE etc in your proposals.
Wednesday 24 March 2010
Research for Patient Benefit Workshop
Monday 22 March 2010
EPSRC JeS Summary: 'Suppose Sarkozy has a Wedding...'
They quote Dr Shaun Stevens, an EPSRC Leadership Fellow, who suggested that applicants should 'make it accessible -- so minimal technical language: certainly none at the beginning and, where there is some, it should be explained. I would say there are (at least) two approaches: either treat it like a summary of a popular lecture, so it is in teaching mode, explaining basic concepts at the beginning and then trying to give a vague idea of the mathematics involved; or do it by analogy (a la Sarkozy) without really explaining any of the mathematics at all.'
Friday 19 March 2010
NERC Announces Change to July Deadline
Thursday 18 March 2010
EPSRC to Review their Fellowships
EU Culture Programme: UK Applications 75% Success Rate
Strand 1.1 Strand 1.2.1
Wednesday 17 March 2010
The End of Dual Support?
- quality related (QR) funding, which depends for its distribution on the outcome of the RAE/REF (how many acronyms can I get into one post??),
- project funding, which is distributed by the Research Councils.
Friday 12 March 2010
The Low Down on the Britac Grants Panel
No better time, then, to remind ourselves of what your application will be up against. As you know, the BA represents the whole range of Humanties and Social Sciences. As such, the panel of great and good that will assess your application are quite a mixed bunch.
- Professor Sir Adam Roberts - President - (Oxford) professor of international relations
- Professor Leslie Hill - (Warwick) professor of French
- Professor Maxine Berg - (Warwick) historian
- Professor Doreen Massey - (Open) geographer
- Professor Simon Blackburn - Chairman - (Cambridge) philosopher
- Professor Steven Mithen - (Reading) archaeologist
- Professor Christopher Bliss - (Oxford) economist
- Professor Andrew Whiten - (St Andrews) psychologist
So watch out all you lawyers, anthropolgists, sociologists! All you professors of English, German, Spanish! All you theologians! There'll be no-one batting on your side. But then again, there'll be no internecine spats either...
Transformers: Impact in Disguise?
- A: Builds on current work and is the accepted way forward;
- B: Some work packages deviate from the accepted way forward and show elements of adventure and creativity;
- C: The majority of the work packages show high levels of adventure and creativity e.g. new methods, new techniques, bringing together existing approaches to form new directions;
- D: Entire proposal presents high levels of adventure with a highly creative approach with the potential of the research to be transformative e.g. creation of new area of research, paradigm shift, disrupting current approaches/methodology.
By 'transformative', EPSRC mean 'research that has the capacity to either: revolutionise existing fields, create new subfields, cause paradigm shifts in existing thought and knowledge, and/or support discovery that might lead to radically new (disruptive) technologies.'
Wednesday 10 March 2010
ResearchResearch gets Professional
Monday 8 March 2010
Spend or be Damned
- Creating a 15 year framework for science and innovation, with increased spending
- Prioritising investment in scientific skills and infrastructure, such as laboratories and equipment
- Expanding the R&D tax credit.
Tuesday 2 March 2010
'A brilliant concept poorly explained has no chance'
- Use a clear layout -eg bullet points, short sentences, paragraph breaks, signposts, diagrams
- Use repetition and emphasis, but be economic and brief
- Learn 'the language of funding', and follow the AHRC's suggested format.
Internal Peer Review Panels
- Wednesday 3 March 2010: Engineering, digital arts, computing, mathematics – EPSRC ‘Mock’ Panel (to help understand the process that proposals go through at panel). Brian Spratt Room, Cornwallis, 2-4pm - Chaired by Prof Peter Clarkson (SMSAS) and Prof. Simon Thompson (Computing)
- Friday 19 March 2010: Social sciences - ESRC, Nuffield or Leverhulme Internal Peer Review Panel (to review your proposal). Venue TBC, 12:30am-2pm. Chaired by Prof Dominic Abrams (Psychology) and Prof Peter Taylor-Gooby (SSPSSR).
- Wednesday 5 May 2010: Biomedicine & experimental psychology – Wellcome/MRC/NHS Internal Peer Review Panel (to review your proposal). Howard Rodgers Room (Room 234), Ingram, 2-4pm. Chaired by Prof. Mick Tuite (Biosciences), with input on the NHS from Annette King (CHSS)
- Thursday 27 May 2010: Engineering, digital arts, computing, mathematics – EPSRC Internal Peer Review Panel (to review your proposal). Brian Spratt Room, Cornwallis, 2-4pm. Chaired by Prof Peter Clarkson (SMSAS) and Prof. Simon Thompson (Computing)
- May 2010 (Date TBC): Humanities - AHRC Internal Peer Review Panel (to review your proposal), Venue TBC. Chaired by Prof Paul Allain (Arts).
- Tuesday 8 June 2010: Biology, ecology & conservation sciences – BBSRC/NERC Internal Peer Review Panel (to review your proposal). Senate Committee Room 1, 2-4pm.
Chaired by Prof. Peter Bennett (DICE) and Prof Martin Warren (Biosciences)
Participating in these sessions will help you understand how your project might fare under panel conditions. All the chairpersons have extensive experience as funding committee members, reviewers and successful applicants.
If you’re planning to have a proposal almost ready for submission around that time then please let me know so that we can anticipate demand for the events. To take part in any but the first of these events could you send me the following (as a minimum) three days before the meeting:
- 200 word lay summary;
- (at least) 2 pages of Case for Support (12 pt min, single spaced). This should include some Background to the project and an outline of the Research Programme/Work Plan. No need for preliminary data or references;
- If possible, a 200 word impact statement
No other advance preparation is required, and there’ll be coffee/tea etc available.
NIHR Seeks Peer Reviewers
- Service Delivery and Organisation (SDO)
- Public and patient involvement
- NIHR Trainee Co-ordinating Centre
- Clinical Research Network
You can register your interest on their website, as follows:
- Go to the website
- Click on the "registration" icon on the left hand side of the screen
- Enter the institution postcode and click on the "find institution" button
- Select the address if it is there by clicking in the box and then click on the "use selected address" button
- If the address is not there, scroll down the page and click on the "continue" button
- Complete all the mandatory boxes
- Click the "submit" button at the bottom of the page
- An email will be sent to your account confirming registration