{"id":4737,"date":"2016-11-10T09:38:26","date_gmt":"2016-11-10T09:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/?p=4737"},"modified":"2018-06-26T15:49:32","modified_gmt":"2018-06-26T14:49:32","slug":"how-to-win-with-british-academy-grants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/2016\/11\/how-to-win-with-british-academy-grants\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Win with British Academy Grants"},"content":{"rendered":"

The British Academy<\/a> offers a portfolio of fellowships for Post-doctoral, Mid-career and Senior researchers. With no strategic priorities other than research excellence, it also takes a punt on risky, explorative small-scale research projects. But competition is rife and so insights into how awards are allocated are welcome. Here are some highlights from a session organised by Research Services in October. Your proposal will be judged on unsurprising criteria: academic merit, originality, the realtion of your proposal to what is already out there, feasibility, specificity, and outcomes.\u00a0There are lots of other opportunities including Rising Star Engagement awards, BA\/Wolfson Professorships (for Fellows of the BA mainly), Newton Fund calls, International challenges, and so on, but this session focused on a few specific themes. See also Phil Ward’s reflections<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Bulk of Funding goes to Research Fellowships<\/h2>\n

There are opportunities for Post-doctoral, MId-career and Senior Fellowships. The Post-doctoral Fellowship<\/a> competition (3 years funding, fEC) is tough with a success rate of around 5% (roughly 45 awards each year) and demand management processes are in place. Choose an opportune moment to apply because this is a one-shot deal and if you don’t get past the first stage of the process then it is game over. You have to nominate a referee and have a very good reason if you don’t choose the external examiner for your PhD. Your chances with a Mid-career Fellowships<\/a> (6-12 months, fEC) are a bit better with a success rate of 10% (roughly 35 awards each year). You’ll be judged on the excellence of your research proposal as well its potential its to say something to a broad audience. Senior Fellowships<\/a> (1 year, non-fEC) are rarer (roughly 8 awards each year). They are meant to help get a major programme of research over the finishing line.<\/p>\n

Small Grants are for Risky, Explorative Research<\/h2>\n

BA\/Leverhulme Small Grants <\/a>(up to 24 months, \u00a310K max) are a flagship scheme with a success rate of 20% (around 350 per year). They are looking for risky ideas and pilots that could lead to something more significant. Take a look at the special funds<\/a> which also contribute to this scheme because if you specify their relevance to your application it can improve your chances. Given the number of applications they have to plough through – and in fact there is only one person managing this – make your proposal supremely readable!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The British Academy offers a portfolio of fellowships for Post-doctoral, Mid-career and Senior researchers. With no strategic priorities other than research excellence, it also takes … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51105,"featured_media":4755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124,151064],"tags":[5349,705,8834],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4737"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4737"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4758,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4737\/revisions\/4758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}