Category Archives: Application advice

ESRC success rates 2014/2015 – a quick and dirty commentary

Posted on July 8, 2015 by Adam

The ESRC has issued its annual report and accounts for the financial year 2014/15, and they don’t make good reading. As predicted by Brian Lingley and Phil Ward back in January on the basis of the figures from the July … Continue reading →

Posted in Application advice, Career Young Researchers, ESRC, Frustrations, Funding, Funding Policy, Research Costs, University culture | 5 Comments

Grant Writing Mistakes part 94: The “Star Wars”

Posted on November 13, 2014 by Adam

Have you seen Star Wars?  Even if you haven’t, you might be aware of the iconic opening scene, and in particular the scrolling text that begins “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away….” (Incidentally, this means that … Continue reading →

Posted in Application advice, British Academy, Career Young Researchers, ESRC, Frustrations, Funding, University culture | Comments Off on Grant Writing Mistakes part 94: The “Star Wars”

ESRC success rates 2013/2014

Posted on October 21, 2014 by Adam

The ESRC Annual Report for 2013-14 has been out for quite a while now, and a quick summary and analysis from me is long overdue. Although I was tempted to skip straight through all of the good news stories about … Continue reading →

Posted in Application advice, ESRC, Frustrations, Funding, Funding Policy, Research Costs, University culture | 1 Comment

Pre-mortems: Tell me why your current grant application or research project will fail

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Adam

I came across a really interesting idea the other day week via the Freakonomics podcast – the idea of a project “pre-mortem” or “prospective hindsight”  They interviewed Gary Klein who described it as follows: KLEIN:  I need you to be … Continue reading →

Posted in Application advice, Funding, Funding Policy, University culture | 4 Comments

Six writing habits I reckon you ought to avoid in grant applications…..

Posted on February 20, 2014 by Adam

There are lots of mistakes to avoid in writing grant applications, and I’ve written a bit about some of them in some previous posts (see “advice on grant applications” link above).  This one is more about writing habits.  I read … Continue reading →

Posted in Application advice, Career Young Researchers, ESRC, Frustrations, Funding, University culture | 4 Comments

Demand mismanagement: a practical guide

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Adam

I’ve written an article on Demand (Mis)management for Research Professional. While most of the site’s content is behind a paywall, they’ve been kind enough to make my article open access.  Which saves me the trouble of cutting and pasting it … Continue reading →

Posted in Application advice, Frustrations, Funding, Funding Policy, Open Access, University culture | Comments Off on Demand mismanagement: a practical guide

Book review: The Research Funding Toolkit (Part 1)

Posted on September 10, 2012 by Adam

The existence of a market for The Research Funding Toolkit, by Jacqueline Aldridge and Andrew Derrington, is yet more evidence of how difficult it is to get research funding in the current climate.  Although the primary target audience is an … Continue reading →

Posted in Application advice, Funding | Comments Off on Book review: The Research Funding Toolkit (Part 1)

News from the ESRC: International co-investigators and the Future Leaders Scheme

Posted on July 24, 2012 by Adam

I’m still behind on my blogging – I owe the internet the second part of the impact series, and a book review I really must get round to writing.  But I picked up an interesting nugget of information regarding the … Continue reading →

Posted in Application advice, Career Young Researchers, ESRC, Funding, Funding Policy, Research Costs, University culture | 1 Comment

Responding to Referees

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Adam

This post is co-authored by Adam Golberg of Cash for Questions (UK), and Jonathan O’Donnell and Tseen Khoo of The Research Whisperer (Australia). It arises out of a comment that Jonathan made about understanding and responding to referees on one … Continue reading →

Posted in Application advice, ESRC, Frustrations, Funding, Funding Policy, University culture | 1 Comment

Coping with rejection: What to do if your grant application is unsuccessful. Part 2: Next Steps

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Adam

In the first part of this series, I argued that it’s important not to misunderstand or misinterpret the reasons for a grant application being unsuccessful.  In the comments, Jo VanEvery shared a phrase that she’s heard from a senior figure … Continue reading →

Posted in Application advice, ESRC, Funding, Funding Policy, University culture | 5 Comments