Category Archives: Funding

‘Unimaginative’ research funding models and picking winners

Posted on April 27, 2017 by Adam

Times Higher Education recently published an interesting article by Donald Braben and endorsed by 36 eminent scholars including a number of nobel laureates. They criticise “today’s academic research management” and claim that as an unforeseen consequence, “exciting, imaginative, unpredictable research … Continue reading →

Posted in ESRC, Funding, Funding Policy, Public Sector, Research Costs, University culture | 3 Comments

The rise of the machines – automation and the future of research development

Posted on June 10, 2016 by Adam

In the wake of this week’s Association of Research Managers and Administrator‘s conference in Birmingham, Research Professional has published an interesting article by Richard Bond, head of research administration at the University of the West of England. The article – … Continue reading →

Posted in Funding Policy, Post-Award, Public Sector, Research Costs, University culture | Comments Off on The rise of the machines – automation and the future of research development

How useful is reading examples of successful grant applications?

Posted on March 8, 2016 by Adam

This article is prompted by a couple of twitter conversations around a Times Higher Education article which quotes Ross Mounce, founding editor of Research Ideas and Outcomes, who argues for open publication at every stage of the research process, including … Continue reading →

Posted in Application advice, Career Young Researchers, ESRC, Funding, Open Access, University culture | 6 Comments

Getting research funding: the significance of significance

Posted on February 17, 2016 by Adam

In a excellent recent blog post, Lachlan Smith wrote about the “who cares?” question that potential grant applicants ought to consider, and that research development staff ought to pose to applicants on a regular basis. Why is this research important, … Continue reading →

Posted in Application advice, British Academy, Career Young Researchers, ESRC, Frustrations, Funding, Funding Policy, Research Impact, University culture | 2 Comments

I’m running a marathon….

Posted on July 12, 2015 by Adam

“The first rule of Running Club is that you DO NOT stop talking about running.” It starts with the couch-to-5k running programme. This is a relatively gentle start to talking about running, with typical sessions involving only talking about running … Continue reading →

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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

ESRC – sweeping changes to the standard grants scheme

Posted on March 5, 2015 by Adam

The ESRC have just announced a huge change to their standard grants scheme, and I think it’s fair to say that it’s going to prove somewhat controversial. At the moment, it’s possible to apply to the ESRC Standard Grant Scheme … Continue reading →

Posted in Career Young Researchers, ESRC, Frustrations, Funding, Funding Policy, Research Costs, University culture | 6 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 →

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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