Big Projects: the View from Research Services

Last term I took part in a Grants Factory event around developing 'big' projects. As part of this, I spoke briefly about issues that potential applicants should be aware of, gathered from the experience of Research Services in supporting bids.

Strong leader

Firstly, for a bid to be successful, it needs to have a strong leader. Not only do they need to have a single unifying vision, but they have to be persuasive and ruthless. They need to be able to attract the 'right' collaborators, but also need to be able to say no to those who aren't right for the project.

Talk to funder/Programme Manager

Secondly, you need to gather intelligence. Whilst most funders provide plenty of generic guidance, you need to try and get to the heart of what they really want. What are the politics behind the bid? Do they have in mind a particular structure, a particular project, a particular size? Talk to people at the funders and, if possible, the academics who helped to draft the call.

Preparing the bid

Thirdly, when it comes to the drafting of the bid, there are key elements to get right:

• With lots of collaborators, there's a danger that different drafts of the application get confused. Use software - such as Sharepoint or Dropbox - to help wiht version control.
• Face to face meetings are crucial for thrashing out the fundamentals.
• Give yourself time. I've already talked about this in relation to European Funding applications, but it's true of all big bids. You need much, much more time than you think you might: time to make connections, to get the intelligence, to draft and redraft, to get feedback, to get accurate costings, and to get it signed off.
• Make sure you've got the right partners. Sure, profile and research quality are important, but they have to be able to deliver the practicals. They must be trustworthy and dependable. They shouldn't be there as passengers. Your collaboration is only as strong as the weakest link. Once you've got the right people in place, make sure the management structures are appropriate and strong: it takes a lot of coordination.
• Finally, make sure you have the contact details of your partners' research offices, and pass them on to us to liaise with them.

Post Award Issues

Even before you put pen to paper to draft the application, you should be aware of what you're letting yourself in for. Three issues that come up regularly with my colleagues dealing with the post-award side of things are:

• Coordination: make sure you include the cost of an administrator/coordinator. This is crucial: it always takes much more effort, time and energy than you think;
• Timesheets: a killer for European grants. Make sure you keep track of the amount of time you spend on the grant, and don't leave completing these until the last minute.
• Equipment: some funders are unhappy if you don't purchase this as soon as the project starts.

The picture, in case you're wondering, is a picture of a Greek Orthodox priest herding cats. Now I'm not saying anything about the experience of coordinating colleagues when writing a bid, but...

Thinking in CinemaScope

With the recent doom laden news about small grant funding, academics are having to Think Big when it comes to projects. Yesterday's Grants Factory workshop focused on how they could develop their ideas in 'CinemaScope'.

Liz Mansfield kicked off by sounding out the participants about their hopes and fears for the session. Common threads emerged: how should I start? What should the scale be? How do I integrate different work packages, and how should I deal with uncertainty? What costs should I include, and how can I justify them? What should my submission strategy be?

Jon Williamson took over to talk about how to develop a research funding profile, how to 'upscale' a project, and the pros and cons of large collaborations. He suggested that a 'funding profile' was a crucial element of a grant proposal, providing reassurance to the reviewers and panellists that you can lead a larger project and can deliver the goods.

Whilst not everyone will have a gilt edged funding profile already, you should demonstrate how you have already engaged with external funding, and successfully managed an award - of whatever scale. There is a natural progression, from PhD award to postdoc fellowships, conference grants and small grants. Other grants, such as networks, demonstrate how you have coordinated different partners. All these grants provide the platform, the background, the foundation for the larger projects.

If you haven't secured funding yet, don't give up hope: you could think about acting as a Co-I on a project led by a more experienced PI, or have in place a strong project management framework, including a committee whose members have been project leaders.

But how should one start planning a project? Liz Mansfield suggested that, rather starting with a research question, or even with the final outcome, you should leapfrog to the point when the project is done and dusted. For her the starting point should be the memory of it: how is it remembered? How has it been assessed? How has it been judged?

This may seem simplistic, but pause for a minute and try putting this into practice. What is your area of research? What is your ultimate goal? From that point, work backwards and work out what steps you will need to achieve that goal. By thinking of the final memory, it will force you to be realistic about both the methodology, but also about the dissemination. And, for both, it will force you to think seriously about the resources you will need to effectively fulfil them. The beauty of this is that it will give you a macro oversight of your project that will naturally trigger questions about how best to construct its framework and micro management.

We're hoping to run the session again next year and, in the meantime, are planning to run a series of 'mock panels' in the Spring Term at which applicants can sound out others about their projects. Do get in touch if you're planning a large project, and want to move it from TV to the cinema screen.