Conversion Conversations

Alchemy: like getting a research grant,
only easier (image: Wellcome CC BY)

Last week Alex Hulkes, the Economic and Social Research Council’s strategic lead for the insights team, wrote an interesting report on the council’s conversion rate for grants. This is the percentage of fundable grants that it is able to fund. In November he provided a similar analysis of success rates. Taken together, the two reports suggest that while the quality of applications has increased (the proportion of ‘fundable’ applications has risen from roughly one-quarter to half of the total), the success rate is pretty much where it was five years ago.

RCUK to Clawback Money from Grants

RCUK has announced that it will be clawing back funding from some existing awards in light of a fall in the official forecasts of inflation.

The changes, estimated to be around 1.2%, will take effect from April 2010 onwards, and will affect any grant with outstanding payments of more than £100k.

Alan Thorpe, Chair of Research Councils UK said: "The decline in inflation needs to be reflected in the grants we award. All savings made as a result of changing the rate will be reinvested into research and postgraduate training."
It's noted, however, that 'rises in inflation' are not reflected in the grants they award.

Thanks to Juan and Gill for highlighting these changes. The full press release is available here.