ESRC Announces New Grant Limits

An ESRC 'Costing Stormtrooper'

Last month the ESRC announced that it would be introducing changes to the funding thresholds for its Research Grants scheme. The lower threshold was to rise to £350,000 and the upper threshold fall to £1 million at Full Economic Costs.

In a surprise move the ESRC has decided to take this one step further.

'We changed our minds,' admitted Head of Analysis and Marginal Tweaking at the Council, Amelia Throttleford. 'We've crunched some numbers and have realised that we need to narrow the range still further.'

'I Doubleplusbellyfeel the Notion of Unobstacles'

In March the University of Warwick published 'Warwick Tone of Voice: Full Guidelines.' Now read on. Thank you to my colleague Andrew Massoura for highlighting this gem.

Dr Winston Smith on his way to the University's Newspeak Committee

'2084'

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

Dr Winston Smith, a young lecturer, hurried across the Goodwarwick University campus, and slipped quietly through the glass doors of the 'DoubleplusgoodREFResults' Administrative Building. He was already late for the meeting as he passed a poster depicting an enormous face, more than a metre wide. Its eyes followed Winston as he made for the Central Committee Room. THE VC IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran.

Deconstructing the Science Strategy

Derrida's Car

My undergraduate degree was in English literature, and I still bear the scars. I find it hard to read any text without wanting to deconstruct it. This contagion even affects my TV viewing: I can’t enjoy Breaking Bad without considering its playful, almost Joycean, re-imagining of estrangement, fatherhood and myth.

So imagine my delight when, on the same day that the results of the Research Excellence Framework were announced, the government let slip Our Plan for Growth: Science and innovation. Rarely have we been offered a strategy so loaded with the unspoken, so ripe for unpicking.

Imposter Syndrome: Notes from ECR Network

The Imposter Syndrome is a relatively new concept. Dr Pauline Rose Clance, a clinical psychologist, was the first to coin the phrase in 1971 when she noticed that her female students were not putting themselves forward as much as their male counterparts. Initially it was assumed that it was a gender-based phenomenon, but at last week’s ECR Network meeting it was clear that it was prevalent across academia.