How Does the Coronavirus Lockdown Affect Funding Applications?

Most funders are aiming to keep open
for business as usual - so get typing.
(Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash)

Every part of our lives has been affected by the current lockdown to tackle the Covid-19 outbreak, and the world of research funding is no exception. Some funders are postponing the deadlines for some or all of their schemes, while others are trying to continue as normal. Here we summarise what we know so far.

Dude, Who's Got My Twitter?

@NIHR, apparently. Or possibly a forgotten Britpop band

It's a fast moving world in the Twittersphere, and you have to be quick to bag the Twitter handle that is, well, your birthright. Some, such as @BBSRC, were super sharp and got theirs [shame they won't be around much longer - Ed], although that might be more down to the implausibility of any other person/organisation having that acronym. But what about others who were - um - a bit slower or have common arconyms? Dude, who's got my Twitter?

Thoughts on BA Small Grants & Fellowships

Jack Carswell in action last week

Last week we hosted a visit by Jack Caswell the Assistant Head of Research Awards at the British Academy. The BA plays an important part in the research funding ecosystem: with the demise of smaller grants from the ESRC and AHRC, the BA is one of the few places where those working in the humanities and social sciences can turn if they want to undertake riskier, explorative research.

This may come as a surprise to many. The BA has something of a reputation as a fusty, traditional funder, a kind of Piccadilly gentlemen's club with an academic veneer. An unfair reputation, perhaps, but one that I've duly exploited for humourous ends in the past.

Figures behind the Figures: Dr Natalia Sobrevilla Perea

Each term I feature a different Kent award winner in the Research Services newsletter, looking at their research and discussing their career path and funding track record. I thought it would be worth adding these to the Blog. In February I featured Prof Adrian Podoleanu; today the spotlight falls on Dr Natalia Sobrevilla Perea, Reader in Hispanic Studies in the School of European Culture and Languages.

Dr Natalia Sobrevilla Perea

When I showed Dr Natalia Sobrevilla Perea a list of her applications and awards over the last seven years, she seemed genuinely shocked. ‘I’d forgotten about some of these,’ she said as she looked down the list, ‘but it does show that perseverance pays off.’

And how. Natalia, a Reader in Hispanic Studies, has put in 11 applications and got five awards, totalling almost £100,000. Her first two applications were unsuccessful, but she never gave up. ‘I had in mind a larger project, and submitted a series of applications to allow me to explore different facets of it.’

Her research, she laughingly admits, is focussed on an area ‘that nobody cares about’: nineteenth century Peru. The secret of her success has been her ability to ‘translate’ her interest to those outside the area, and demonstrate its relevance to wider history, policy, and culture. It’s a crucial skill for anyone putting together a funding application.

Getting Interdisciplinary Work Published

Inter-Multi-Supra-Cross: grappling with definitions

I’ve talked about the difficulty of interdiscipinarity before (for instance here, here and here; no yawning at the back), but on Tuesday I was at a British Academy funded workshop for early career researchers (ECRs) which wrestled again with the subject. And you know what? There were signs of hope.

I want to focus in particular on the potential for interdisciplinary publishing, and especially the work of Sarah Campbell and Rowman and Littlefield International. Sarah is Editorial Director of this new, small scale academic publisher. She’s done her time in academic publishing, and worked at Continuum for a decade before starting RLI. Whilst it’s linked to a big sister in America, it is editorially independent, and being so has allowed her the freedom to start from scratch and think about how interdisciplinary research can best be served.

Leverhulme Bankrolls the BA Small Grants Scheme

Great news from the Mayfair Gentlemen's Club that is the BA HQ. As you will remember, the BA scrapped, and then reinstated, their Small Grants scheme. However, there was still some uncertainty hanging over the scheme: when I spoke to them at the time they said that they would make 'strong representations and arguments' to BIS to continue it.

Now Leverhulme has come riding over the horizon with a fistful of dollars. They are going to pump £1.5m into the scheme over the next three years. Adam Golberg at Nottingham has done more analysis of what this will mean in practice, and he reckons that it will be an extra 67 or so funded projects.

It remains to be seen whether the scheme will continue indefinitely, and what the success rate will be when the scheme reopens in the open. But in the meantime let's just thank Leverhulme for recognising the worth of small scale funding as an investment in the future.

BA Joins Twitter Shock!

Exciting news from the Twittersphere! The 'funder least likely to' has actually got a Twitter account. Yes, the British Academy, wholesale provider of wingback leather arm chairs, steamed sponge puddings and ironed copies of The Times of London, has joined the Twitterati.

This is both exciting and - to be frank - slightly disappointing news. Exciting in that Twitter has become an important tool in the world of research funding for finding out what's going on, and getting early alerts, insights and gossip on forthcoming schemes. Disappointing in that it shatters my treasured vision of the BA as a Mayfair gentlemen's club, which I mentioned in an earlier post.

However, thankfully the BA has managed not to disappoint with its first tweet: 'Archbishop of Canterbury asking 'what should the Word of God sound like?' at the British Academy today.' You couldn't make it up. I'm hoping the next will be 'Is there honey still for tea? The need for a good dinner in a time of change.'

Oh yes. The BA: reassuringly old school. Make sure to follow them here.

BA Reinstates Small Grants

Well, fresh back from my hols, I'm ploughing through the emails and finding out what I've missed. Firstly, good news from the British Academy: it has reinstated its Small Grants scheme. Hurrah! God bless the BA for swimming against the tide and backing a popular scheme that plugs that small grant-sized hole in national research funding provision.

I spoke to Ken Emond, Head of Research Awards at the BA, to check whether this would be a one off, or whether it would continue to fund the grants. He said that the intention was that it would be on-going, and that they would make 'strong representations and arguments' to BIS to do so. Whilst this is excellent news, it's still uncertain if it will run twice a year as it has in previous years: it might be reduced to an annual round.

So, good on the BA Fellows and Officers, who - very unfairly - I always imagine as inhabiting a private members club in Piccadilly, complete with leather wing back chairs and a grandfather clock ticking away in the distance somewhere. A few of the older members might be slumbering under their copies of the Times and dreaming of steamed sponge puddings, along the lines of Rowley Birkin QC. Please, if you work for the BA, don't shatter my dream and tell me it's all beige offices and power suits.

Changes to NERC Schemes

With all the changes at ESRC, EPSRC, STFC and AHRC, it feels like NERC has been dragging its feet somewhat. Not any more. It's announced that:

• It's cutting its Small Grants.
• Consortium Grants are being cut from two rounds per year to one, and an outline stage will be introduced.

At this stage these kind of changes shouldn't come as a surprise. There's barely a funder left standing that hasn't stripped out its small grants: the ESRC and BA have already done so, and the Royal Society dropped its Conference Grants. Small scale funding is so last year.

NERC does say that 'it will remain possible to submit proposals for small discrete projects, proof-of-concept studies and pump-priming exercises to the Standard Grants scheme, if they exceed the minimum scheme funding level'. That's defined by NERC as '£25,000 for directly incurred costs', which has always struck me as a slightly curious way of defining a lower limit. Why not a minimum that includes directly allocated and, perhaps estates and indirect as well? Whilst £25k may sound like quite a small amount, and way below the £65k maximum for the current Small Grants, when you add in directly allocated, estates and indirect costs you would be coming very close to this figure.

So, in effect, they will not be providing any small scale funding. I tried talking to them about it this morning, but unfortunately the relevant person was away from her desk, but I imagine the reason for cutting the grants is (a) they're getting too many applications and the success rates are plummeting, (b) what they have been funding has tended to be incremental and not paradigm shifting, and (c) universities should be funding it anyway.

Well, up to a point, Lord Cooper. I would suggest, in response, that (a) if you're getting too many applications, it's a sign of popularity, of a scheme that the sector actually wants. How about putting more money towards it and away from the flashy large scale schemes? (b) okay, it's small scale by nature, but then, sometimes research does progress in small increments, and current breakthroughs build on previous knowledge, and (c) universities have the cash?? Ha!

However, something tells me that NERC aren't going to backtrack on the decision, especially when all their sister funders are doing the same. So we need to work in the changed climate. If you want to apply for funding for a small project get in touch with me and I'll help you identify other possible sources of funding, or how to frame your project in such a way that it could fit within NERC's Standard Grants scheme.

The Squeezed Middle: Redrawing the ESRC 'Bubbles'

As I reported elsewhere, the recent ESRC events in London and Brighton gave a good insight into developments at the Council, and how they are planning to implement their Delivery Plan. One of the slides in Adrian Alsop's presentation was a graphic representation of how their schemes fitted together neatly to fill the career of a social science academic, from 'early' to 'senior', and from £100k to £5m+. Here it is:

However, I think this is a little disingenuous. It suggest that there is a wide range of funding available to a wide range of academics at pretty much any time in their careers. It suggests that early career researchers (including those doing PhDs) can apply for Centre and Large Grants, as well as having a pretty good crack at the whip when it comes to Research Grants.

However, given the size of these grants, I think the ESRC is really looking for someone with a considerable track record, both for their research and for the management of grants. So, more realistically, it should look something like this:

So, on the left are the Future Leaders who are less than 4 years from their PhDs, and on the right are the more senior researchers with at least 10 years postdoc experience. This leaves a big gap in the middle where there's not a lot, apart from the soon to be announced Secondary Data Analysis Initiative and various international and knowledge exchange schemes.

This area - let's reclaim the political phrase du jour and call it the 'squeezed middle' - is ill served elsewhere. Perhaps the 'deserted middle' is more accurate. The BA does have the 'Mid-career Fellowship', but this only offers 40 grants annually. To both those in the social sciences and humanities. Nationally.

The forthcoming 'risky' research route will redress this somewhat, but what about mid career researchers who are doing good, solid work that doesn't rely on risks? Bide your time and don't bother us seems to be the message from the redrawn ESRC bubbles.

'Haldanegate'

The spat within the humanities community over allegations in Sunday's Observer that the AHRC had been forced to include the 'Big Society' in its research plans has now got its own name: haldanegate. I love the delicious combination of irreverence, scandal and hysteria that the name implies.

I mentioned the controversy in a post a couple of days ago, but a more measured (and hilarious) overview of the timeframe of 'haldanegate' has been provided by James Sumner of the University of Manchester. There's also a piece in the most recent Research Professional (issue 365) arguing that, rather than running counter to Haldane, the idea of research serving the needs of government was there from the start. What's different here, as Sumner says, is that the 'Big Society' is a party political initiative. And that's the worry.

In addition, whilst the AHRC has effectively refuted the Observer claims, there's still the question of how the Big Society ended up in the Delivery Plan. In some ways its worse that the Council's arm wasn't twisted: instead, they seem to have offered themselves up willingly to the service of Dave et al.

Finally, whilst the Observer journalist has been shown to have misquoted and conflated the thoughts of Peter Mandler, the chief source for the piece, there's still the question of his allegations over the British Academy. He said that he was talking about the BA rather than the AHRC. This doesn't seem to have been followed up by anyone. Sure, it was a smaller scale funder who was involved, but still...

Haldanegate will rubble on for some time, I think.

Time, Gentlemen, Please...Last Orders at the BAr

As mentioned in a previous post, the British Academy is phasing out Small Grants and Conference Funding. To this end they've just announced the final calls to these schemes, as follows:

Overseas Conference Grants
Grants are available for the travel expenses of a scholar delivering a paper at a conference abroad.
Deadline for submission of applications: 2 March 2011
Results expected: end May 2011
Earliest Start Date for Conference: 1 July 2011
Latest Start Date for Conference: 31 December 2011

Conference Support Grants
Grants normally not exceeding £7,500 (but in exceptional circumstances up to £20,000) to promote the dissemination of advanced research. Conference convenors may apply for financial assistance, e.g. to bring key speakers to the conference, or for a wider range of expenses.
Deadline for submission of applications: 16 March 2011
Results expected: end June 2011
Earliest Start Date for Conference: 1 September 2011
Latest Start Date for Conference: 31 August 2012

Small Research Grants
Grants are offered of up to £7,500 for collaborative or individual projects to facilitate initial project planning and development, to support the direct costs of research, and to enable the advancement of research through workshops or by visits by or to partner scholars.
Deadline for submission of applications: 23 March 2011
Results expected: end June 2011
Earliest Start Date for Research: 1 August 2011
Latest Start Date for Research: 1 April 2012

New BA Fellowship Scheme

After all the cuts, something (quite) positive: a new scheme from the BA. The Mid Career Fellowship Scheme looks, on first view, a bit like the old BARDA: £160k fully economically costed, but with a cap of £80k on salaries. It looks like they’re rushing this out slightly, as the first deadline is 9 March 2011.

There's nothing on their website yet, but here's the information that was included in their email today:

Proposals are invited for a new scheme of British Academy Mid-Career Fellowships. The Academy intends, through this scheme, both to support outstanding individual researchers with excellent research proposals, and to support outstanding communicators who will promote public understanding and engagement with humanities and social sciences. The scheme contributes to the Academy’s strategic commitments both to the support of ideas, individuals and intellectual resources and to public engagement and dovetails with the Academy’s new Languages and Quantitative Skills programme.

Aim of the award
The aim of the scheme is to allow successful applicants to obtain time freed from normal teaching and administrative commitments. The time bought by the scheme should be devoted to the completion of a major piece of research and/or to the promotion of a programme of public engagement and communication. Awards will be judged both on the excellence of the research proposed and on the capacity of the applicant to communicate with a broad audience.

Scope of the award
Applicants for the Mid Career Fellowships should be intending to pursue – or, in the case of those applying to support a programme of communication, have pursued – original, independent research in any field of study within the humanities or social sciences. In respect of some of the awards, the Academy will take into account the aim of providing particular support for certain important fields, including modern languages and quantitative and other formal skills. A small proportion of the total number of awards will be offered specifically to contribute to the Academy’s new Languages and Quantitative Skills Programme. All applicants are invited to state how they see their particular programme, whether directly meeting current challenges or not, contributing to the identification of future priorities and challenges.

Eligibility
These Fellowships are awards to individuals, and the Academy is looking particularly to support mid-career scholars. The Academy takes no account of an applicant’s physical age or current status in determining eligibility, but will look to provide opportunities for scholars who have established a significant track record of publication or as an excellent communicator and ‘champion’ in their field, and who are normally within no more than 15 years from the award of their doctorate. In considering eligibility, the Academy will make due allowance for applicants who have had career breaks, and for established scholars who do not have doctorates.

Level of Grant
These Fellowships are covered under the Full Economic Costing (FEC) regime, but the Academy’s contribution to the salary of the Mid-Career Fellow will be capped at £80,000. It is not expected that the total value of an award will exceed £160,000. Awards can be held over a minimum of 6 months and a maximum of 12 months, beginning in the autumn of 2011.

Closing Date
The closing date for applications is 9 March 2011. Decisions will be announced in late May.
Applications must be submitted via eGap, the Academy's electronic grant application system.

BARDA Gets Shot Down

Along with the Small Grants and Conference funding, the BA will axe their Research Development Awards (BARDAs). I guess I shouldn't be surprised. These were relatively expensive - being fully economically costed - and may in their short life time have been too heavy a burden for a small funder such as the BA.
There's been a holding statement on their website for some time stating that 'this scheme is now suspended until the outcome of the government's spending review has been decided,' but I have heard that it will not now be resuscitated. Instead the BA will introduce a 'Mid-career Fellowship'. Details should be available on its website in due course.
This is in line with the recently issued Joint Statement on Early & Mid Career Support. However, I still don't get it. There's a strange leap of logic for a small funder to withdraw the relatively small amounts that early career researchers need, and instead take over responsibility from a bigger funder for the more expensive mid career researchers.
I'm sure it's just me. I'm sure I'm missing something. I'm sure it will all become clear.

BA Cuts Small Grants and Conferences

Sigh. Another day, another bad news story. This time it's the British Academy, which is going to drop its popular Small Grants scheme and funding for conferences. This info leaked out as an afterthought in the 'Joint AHRC, BA and ESRC Statement on early and mid career support' . Whilst the three funders struggled to demonstrate their 'joined up thinking on cuts', they succeeded in doing nothing so much as highlighting how little support there'll be for anyone in the future.
The BA cuts are a particular blow to early career researchers. Whilst not huge (you could apply for up to £7.5k), the success rate was phenomenal (up to 75% at one stage), and they provided really useful 'enabling' money. Better still, it was a very simple application form, with the BA not asking for much more than a side of A4 on what you planned to do. You could do a pilot project, or undertake a visit, or set up a collaboration. It was often the first step on the ladder, the stepping stone to greater things.
Many in the Humanities and Social Sciences don't necessarily need large grants or prestigious programmes, and, as has been stated elsewhere on this blog, some great research comes out of this small acorn funding.
The cut doesn't make sense. Given the size of the grants, the BA isn't going to save itself much money. Instead, it will be discouraging those seeking their first grants, stymying those who are just setting out, and snuffing out plenty of good - albeit small - projects.
There'll be more info on the BA website in due course, I'm told, so keep checking there for a better rationale for the move. In the meantime the next round of Small Grants is likely to be their last, so get your skates on if you've been planning to submit.

Back from Holiday...Am I Still Dreaming?

After two weeks away from my desk, I'm beginning to plough through my emails and try to get to grips with my job again. One of the stranger items in my inbox was this, from the President of the British Academy. Sir Adam Roberts (for it is he) will be cycling from Lands End to John o'Groats to raise money for the Academy.
Now I'm as keen a cyclist as anyone, and any excuse for pedal...but times must be pretty tough if the BA is sending out its President to wheeze around the country drumming up funds. And £2k will only go so far: it's less than a third of one BA Small Grant.
But I appreciate the gesture: if nothing else it highlights the difficult times ahead for research funding in the UK. So give generously via Sir Adam's Just Giving page; you never know, your donation could come back to you as part of your next grant...

BA Faces up to Possible Cuts

The British Academy President, Professor Sir Adam Roberts, sent out a letter last week that covered various matters, including the prospect of cuts in their funding. In it he stated:

'Thought is also being given to an altogether grimmer matter: how to cope in the event of significant cuts to the Academy’s government grant, on which we rely for almost everything that we do. This would inevitably be painful: there may be valuable and productive programmes or activities in respect of which difficult decisions will need to be taken. When we consulted Sections in January, there was a clear message that we must do all we can to sustain postdoctoral fellowships and small research grants, with perhaps less of a priority to be accorded to BARDAs. Various scenarios are being examined, which Council will consider in June'.

The BARDA success rate is already in single figures, so we'll wait to hear with interest what decision they come to in June.

The Low Down on the Britac Grants Panel

I've just heard that the success rate for the last round of the British Academy Small Grants was 35%. Eek! A couple of years ago this was a far more robust 69%. So it's halved in two years. I'm not sure if that's down to less money sloshing around 10 Carlton House Terrace (it's not cheap polishing all that marble, you know), or a sign that the whole landscape is just a lot more competitive.
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...

Notes from the First Grants Factory Masterclass

Notes and slides are available from the first Grants Factory 2010 Masterclass, given by Prof Peter Taylor Gooby, and focused on how applicants can help their research become known to individual funders and make projects appeal to specific schemes.

Prof Taylor Gooby was well place to discuss this. During his academic career, Peter has won over 40 research grants with a total value of over £7 million. This includes several (Research Council and EU) grants worth over £1million each. His work as a panellist means he is also familiar with the decision-making process and 'mindset' of many of key UK funders including the Leverhulme Trust, British Academy, ESRC and Nuffield Foundation.

The notes and slides are available on the Research Services website.

BA: Less would be More

The British Academy has posted its response to HEFCE's REF proposals. They're generally supportive of the process and the form of assessment, but think the percentage dedicated to Impact should be reduced from 25% to 15%, with the extra 10% being distributed between outputs and environment. They also make the point that humanities and social sciences rely more heavily on the block grant, so the REF needs to be fully aware of the needs of these disciplines, and the make up of the panels needs to reflect the sector, and not distort it or make it difficult for the panels to assess the work of the discipline. More detail of the response can be found here.