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Cash for Questions by Adam Golberg is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Category Archives: University culture
ESRC success rates 2013/2014
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
Pre-mortems: Tell me why your current grant application or research project will fail
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
MOOCing about: My experience of a massively open online course
I’ve just completed my first Massively Open Online Course (or MOOC) entitled ‘The mind is flat: the shocking shallowness of human psychology run via the Futurelearn platform. It was run by Professor Nick Chater and PhD student Jess Whittlestone of … Continue reading
Posted in Open Access, Public Sector, Research Impact, University culture
3 Comments
Adam Golberg announces new post about Ministers inserting themselves into research grant announcements
Here’s something I’ve been wondering recently. Is it just me, or have major research council funding announcements started to be made by government ministers, rather than by the, er, research councils? Here’s a couple of examples that caught my eye … Continue reading
Posted in British Academy, ESRC, Funding, Funding Policy, Research Impact, University culture
4 Comments
Six writing habits I reckon you ought to avoid in grant applications…..
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
ESRC success rates by discipline for 2012-13
Update: 2013/14 figures here. With all of the fanfare of a cat-burglar slipping in through a first floor window in back office of a diamond museum, the ESRC has published its Vital Statistics for 2012-13, including the success rates by … Continue reading
Posted in ESRC, Frustrations, Funding, Funding Policy, University culture
1 Comment
On strike again, and why you should join a union
Last time I took strike action was almost two years ago, and I didn’t like it then and I don’t like it now. Nevertheless, then (as now) I think strike action is justified, and that if you’re not already in … Continue reading
Posted in Frustrations, University culture
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Meanwhile, over at the ESRC…
There have been a few noteworthy developments at the ESRC over the summer months which I think are probably worth drawing together into a single blog post for those (like me) who’ve made the tactical error of choosing to have … Continue reading
Posted in Career Young Researchers, ESRC, Frustrations, Funding, Funding Policy, University culture
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Demand mismanagement: a practical guide
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
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Stammering and the Academy: What the rest of you need to know
This post is something of a departure from my usual focus and normal service will be resumed next time. This post is going to be about my work-related (and higher-education related) experiences of coping with a stammer. Is “coping” the … Continue reading
Posted in Frustrations, University culture
3 Comments