Research England Launches 'Old MacDonald' Funding Suite

On the farm: E-I--E-I-O
(Photo by Stijn te Strake on Unsplash)

Regular readers will know that there's a special place in our hearts for funders and policymakers who use random letters of the alphabet to name their initiatives. The European Commission are past masters at this, realigning all of their thematic directorates to the letter P in February, and launching a '3 Os' agenda in 2016.

Not to be outdone, the newly-flush Research England is making great headway in getting on this bandwagon being a leader in this field. Keen eyed applicants may have noticed that their two most recent schemes, Expanding Excellence in England (E3) and International Investment Initiative (i3), are a bold and brave attempt to shoehorn a vaguely descriptive title into a single vowel.

Meanwhile, in Oslo...

Norway: Jealous.
(Photo by Mikita Karasiou on Unsplash)

As we glory in the sunny, post-Brexit uplands of Britannia resurgent, more evidence has reached us of the 'envy of less happier lands.'

The Norwegian parliament in Oslo is currently in deadlock over ways to fully split its people and cause disbelief, hilarity and ill-will amongst its closest neighbours. As we know, this is the aim of all governments, as it gives people something to talk about in the awkward downtime between seasons of Love Island and I'm a Celebrity.

Open Access: Europe's Plan A-R Explained

A publisher mansplains 'Titanium OA'
(photo: Rawpixel via Unsplash)

There was much excitement in Brussels this week with the publication of 'Plan S', the European Commission's plan to make all scholarly publications resulting from public research funding open access from 1 January 2020.

But the big question is: what happened to Plans A-R? Robert-Jan Smits, Senior Advisor on Open Access within the European Political Strategy Centre, spoke exclusively to Fundermentals.

'It was a long and difficult process,' suggests, Smits, 'and it took us many months and an awful lot of coffee.'

Smits set out the process that they had been through to reach Plan S, and the 18 previous plans that got them there.

Trumping Science

Trump (photo: Wikipedia)

For the second time this year, I woke to news that winded me. As I left the house, the rain hammered against my face and coursed down the gutters. It felt that weather was a physical manifestation of the despair that many of us felt.

As the UK had done nearly five months before, the United States appeared to have voted for isolationism after a divisive, bullying, ill-informed campaign. Fear, anger and retreat had triumphed over hope, openness and inclusivity.

For the second time this year, I tried to imagine what this result may do for research and the funding that underpins it. The initial signs aren’t good.

Fundermentals Top Ten of 2017

As we stumble towards the end of 2017, our heads spinning with fake news and fake news about fake news, it's time to look back and think: well, we've got Trump and May, but at least Fundermentals is still doing lookalikes.

Yes, readers, the world may be a bizarre place at the moment but there are certain things you can rely on. And so, as 2017 shudders to a halt, we take a look back at what's tickled your fancy in the year of covfefe.

Who Ya Gonna Call?

Downtown Brussels. Help is just a phonecall away (photo: Elliott Brown)

With the news that the UK's participation until the end of H2020 has been secured, now is the time to dust off your proposal and get working for the deadlines in the early months of next year - and beyond. But do you need help with preparing it, or questions about the detail? There is a network of national contact points (NCPs) who can help you. It is sometimes hard to track these down, so here they are, in cut-out-and-keep form:

'Are you - or have you ever been - a victim of anti-Brexit bias?'

Wanted: McCarthyites for fun times. 

Dear Daily Mail

I am writing this by candle light inside a small cupboard in the so called 'Registry'. The Anti-Brexit Stormtroopers are everywhere. They march down the corridor at all hours, banging on our doors, demanding that we remove all signs of Britishness including our Great British Bake Off calendar and our National Trust poster, checking to see that all of our measuring jugs are metric and that we know all of the words to 'Ode to Joy.'

They are monitoring our thoughts with their sophisticated Remainer mind techniques. I know it. I am trying to keep my mind blank so that they don't pick up on my desire for a return to a time when we were allowed to holiday on polluted beaches and watch Benny Hill and the Two Ronnies on endless repeat. Before all those Apple Macs and skinny lattes came along and spoilt everything.

You Wouldn't Let It Lie

Big news in the short-staffed Department for Exiting the European Union. They've managed to get Bob Mortimer, partner of Vic Reeves, to step up to the plate as its Chief Scientist.

This is excellent news. In these troubled times it's important to have clowns and comedians at the helm. I mean, it worked for David Davis, didn't it?

Any relation to Chris Jones, the Department's Director for Justice, Security and Migration is, of course, entirely coincidental.

Mortimer

Jones

HEFCE Announces 'Confidence and Supply' Logo

We were shocked to learn today that, despite all the excellent work by the Fundermentals Creative Team, it's logo was not chosen to represent REF2021.

Logo: not chosen

'Large Hadron Colliders All Round!'

A large hadron collider. Come on: you know you want one.

It has come to our attention that some people may be swayed by the promises of R&D investment made by the major parties when it comes to voting in the general election on June 8th. Both Labour and the Conservatives have promised to increase spending on research and development to 3% of GDP, and the Lib Dems have pledged to 'double' R&D spending across the economy. 

Don't listen to them. They'll promise it all and deliver nothing. When it comes to empty promises, only one party has the necessary track record: The Fundermental Understanding of Critical Knowledge for All party. We are committed to strong and stable research leadership. We recognise that 3% of GDP is a derisory insult to the the people of this great country of ours. It is positively European. It reeks of garlic and foreignness. 

Bonfire of the Sanities

Since the EU Referendum last year, there has been a lot of uncertainty about what it will mean for UK academics. In the last edition of the Research Services' newsletter, Research Active, we looked at known unknowns, and why European funding is crucial to the University—and the UK as a whole.

Current Situation

The EU has made it clear that, until the UK actually leaves the Union, it is still a full Member State, with all ‘rights and obligations’: ‘UK legal entities [are eligible] to participate and receive funding in Horizon 2020 actions,’ it confirmed.

Mr Gimlet and Hard Brexit

 News, this week, that the Department for Exiting from the European Union has been open to receiving advice from scientists, according to Mr Gimlet, from Viz's Finbarr Saunders (and his double entendres).

Any similarity to Prof Mark Walport is, of course, entirely coincidental.

Gimlet

Walport

Stopping the Bleeding

Kubler-Ross: Helping us understand our grief

The tsunami that hit British politics on 23 June 2016 laid waste to many political careers and irreparably cracked the foundations of the European dream. In higher education there is still a sense of bewilderment and loss, and a group of survivors gathered at Senate House on Tuesday for a Wonkhe-sponsored day conference to survey the damage and assess how best to rebuild. As one of the first speakers put it, ‘how can we stop the bleeding?’

Brexit and the Suffocating Dog of Research

After the storm, the clear up. Or rather, after the storm, the running for cover. As the UK political infrastructure goes into meltdown, and politicians shake their heads sadly and claim that it was nothing to do with them - it's the 'will of the people' - a number of colleagues have asked about how Brexit will affect the UK’s ability to access European research funding, Horizon 2020. 

Lighting a Candle

For most of June I've been travelling. I went up to Birmingham for the ARMA Conference, and then spent a week in Ghent with my team on an Erasmus+ exchange with colleagues at the University there. Finally, I was at the EARMA Conference in Lulea in Sweden last week.

And those three weeks brought home to me what a wonderful continent Europe is. From the vibrant, multi-cultural metropolis of Birmingham, to the cosmopolitan, relaxed and historic centre of Ghent, to the natural wonder of Lulea and the glittering archipelago of Stockholm: it is a diverse, open and inclusive continent, rich in history, but forward looking. 

Now you will have noticed that I included Birmingham as a natural part of Europe. Because to me it is: the UK is a part of Europe. Whilst the Channel is a geographic boundary, in all other ways the UK is strongly linked with the mainland. Economically, historically, culturally, environmentally, scientifically: on every level we are Europe. 

Which is why the Referendum result on Friday morning felt like a body blow. The messages, like telegrams, came in as I was driving back from Gatwick, from Stockholm, in the early hours, and the darkness that surrounded me felt foreboding.