RIS Active-Research and Innovation Services News

Grants Factory
Essential Elements of a Good Application
Wednesday 30 October, 12-2pm
Keynes Seminar Room 23

Everyone’s research is different, but successful funding proposals share a number of common elements. Mastering these is essential if your application is going to get the consideration it deserves, no matter how good your underlying research idea is.

The next Grants Factory session will look at these, and will provide insights into how to get them right. The speakers come from very different disciplines, but it is their diverse backgrounds which is their strength: it shows that, whether you’re applying to the AHRC or the BBSRC, the EPSRC or the ESRC, you need to understand the basics.

Prof Mick Tuite (Biosciences, with experience of BBSRC, Wellcome and Levehulme) will start by providing an overview of these ‘essential elements’, before being joined by colleagues for a panel discussion to look at the specifics expectations of different funders. Those taking part include Prof Sarah Vickerstaff (SSPSSR, with experience of the ESRC), Prof Simon Thompson (Computing, with experience of EPSRC) and Prof Gordon Lynch (SECL, with experience of AHRC). They will be very open to questions; if you have something specific you want them to address it would be useful if you could let me know beforehand.

Following this session, these four, together with other colleagues, will be offering Writing Group sessions, to help, support, mentor and motivate staff in preparing successful proposals. These will be split into four broad areas:

• The Arts & Humanities
• The Social Sciences
• Life & Health Sciences
• ICT, Maths & Physical Sciences.

More detail on the dates and format for these will be circulated by the Faculty Funding Officers in due course, but if you would like to come along to either the Essential Elements session, or the Writing Groups, do let me know.

All the sessions are free and open to all staff, and lunch will be provided on 30 October.

As part of international Open Access Week, the University is inviting some key players in the sector to discuss the current state of play. In the sixteen months since Dame Janet Finch published her report on Open Access (OA), policy has moved on quickly: the Government accepted the findings of the Report, and the Research Councils (RCUK) have mandated OA publishing. This event will be a good opportunity to take stock. The programme includes speakers from HEFCE, RCUK, the Open Library for Humanities and the Research Information Network, as well as editors of OA journals.

Not only will there be a chance to hear from these speakers, but to meet others who are finding their way in the new, post-Finch environment.

The event is aimed primarily at academics and academic support staff but all are welcome to attend, both from the University and elsewhere. More detail of the programme, together with the booking form, is available here.

Paul Woodgate from the Wellcome Trust’s Society and Ethics programme has offered to come and speak to staff about the Trust’s recently expanded remit in the area. The previously bioethics-focussed strand has been widened to include more scope for other relevant disciplines to seek research support.

The programme supports research into the social and ethical aspects of biomedical research and health, with the ultimate aim of achieving improvements in human and animal health. This could include questions about social roles, perceptions of risk and uncertainty, public attitudes and behaviour, and/or increasing our understanding of the causes of health inequalities. It could also look at key concepts deployed in ethical analysis.

He will be giving a talk at 2pm on 24 October (venue TBC). It’s free, all are welcome, and tea and coffee will be provided. However, do let me know if you would like to come so that I can get an idea of numbers.

Paul has also offered to run a ‘surgery’ session afterwards, so that individuals can talk about the specifics of their projects. If you would like to have a slot, do let me know.

More detail on Wellcome’s Society and Ethics Programme is available here: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Society-and-ethics/index.htm

Whilst some early career researchers might have a very clear and definite idea of where they want to be in five, ten or twenty years time, others may be less sure. Even those with certainty might not know how to make it happen. This session, the first ECR Network event of the new year, will be led by Prof Sally Sheldon (Kent Law School) and Dr Simon Black (Human Resources/School of Anthropology & Conservation). Both have had very different careers, and between them represent a number of different issues, from juggling the needs of family with the demands of your career, to dealing with workloads whilst keeping your eye on your long term goal, to making the most of opportunities, even if they’re the ones you might not necessarily have initially chosen. As well as a researcher in his own right, Simon is Learning & Development adviser for HR, with particular responsibility for the development of researchers, so can advise on the support the University offers in planning and developing your career.

The event is free and open to all, and tea/coffee/water/biscuits will be provided. However, do let Phil Ward (p.ward@kent.ac.uk) know if you intend to come along so that I can get an idea of numbers.

The Grants Factory and ECR Network programme for 2013-14 have been announced. This year sees an ambitious expansion of the programme, including mock panels, working groups, and more input from external providers. The full programme is available on the Fundermentals blog, here.

The final Early Career Researcher Network event of the year will take place next Wednesday, 5 June between 12-2pm, and will focus on how to balance the conflicting demands of academia.