Funder News
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| Shaping capability: EPSRC’s research portfolio and Developing peer review to deliver the Strategic Plan |
Portfolio Shaping
EPSRC have been undertaking continued work over recent months to shape their portfolio of research and training in areas which are internationally excellent and nationally important. To maintain the UK's global research standing in light of increasing international competition, they are focusing their investments to ensure they use resources effectively, build the capability needed to compete and gain the most long term benefit for the UK.
Working with major stakeholders, EPSRC have mapped their current portfolio, and with the support and input of their Strategic Advisory Teams and agreement of Council, have made decisions on the relative funding trajectory for the remaining 53 of the total 113 research areas. The action categories for these research areas are available to view online through the 'Our portfolio' section. A full list of research areas and action categories is also available. You will see details of their strategy and approach for each research area along with diagrams and additional information.
ESPRC will continue to accept and fund proposals in areas within a reduce category; they are not stopping funding in these areas, but they do expect to see some reduction in the overall investment to create space to grow other priority areas. It is likely that competition for funding in reduce areas will be greater as a result. In addition the strategy for areas identified as grow, maintain or reduce may encourage a particular focus e.g. on research that meets particular industry needs, addresses a societal challenge or community identified grand challenge.
What this means for applicants, reviewers and panel members
ESPRC now published the relative funding trajectories and strategies for their entire portfolio. From April they expect all applicants to describe their proposals in the context of our portfolio. Reviewers are already asked to comment on the National importance statement and from April they should also comment on how the research fits with and complements other UK research already funded in the area or related areas, including the relationship to the EPSRC portfolio and the stated strategy set out in the “Our Portfolio” section. Proposals submitted after April will be considered by the new panel process in the Autumn and panel members will be briefed prior to the panels taking place.
EPSRC Regional meetings will be held in May 2012, providing an opportunity for collaborative work and to move forward with their Delivery Plan. Further details will be published on the website shortly.
Fellowships
Please follow link for the latest Fellowship updates:
http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/fellows/Pages/areas.aspx
Peer Review
Please follow link for EPSRC’s commitment to Peer Review principles:
http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/apprev/basics/Pages/prprinciples.aspx
National Importance
Please follow link for preparing a proposal to include national importance:
http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/apprev/preparing/Pages/includingnationalimportance.aspx
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Changes to AHRC’s Policy on Resubmissions and Grade Descriptors
(Nov 2011) |
Following advice from their peer review panels, the AHRC is amending the grade descriptors used by reviewers and panels in assessing applications for AHRC funding. We are continuing with a 1 (low) to 6 (high) scale but the description for each grade has been revised to provide further clarity and differentiation between the grades. In line with our revised resubmissions policy (see below), the linkage between grade and ability to resubmit applications is also being removed. The new scale will come into effect for reviews requested on or after 1 December 2011. It will be accessed in the usual way through the Je-S helptext and in the Funding Guide.
An additional scale will be available at a later date for the revised Fellowship Scheme. The descriptors will reflect changes to the scheme and ensure that all aspects of the scheme are assessed.
In addition, as a part of their approach to demand management, and in common with some of the other Research Councils, we are revising our resubmission policy. For applications considered by panels on and after the 1 April 2012 unsuccessful applicants will not be permitted to resubmit their application. This change will apply to all schemes. Panels will be able to invite resubmissions but it is expected that this will happen only as an exception when panels consider proposals to have exceptional potential and can identify specific changes to the application that could significantly enhance its competitiveness. Invited resubmissions will be assessed in the usual way in competition with the other applications being considered in that round.
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EPSRC Announce Changes to Peer Review and Introduce “National Importance” Assessment Criterion
(Nov 2011) |
National Importance will become a required assessment criterion from 15 November:
Applicants will need to clearly identify the national importance of their proposed research project, over a 10-50 year time-frame. This should be articulated in relation to other research in the area, explaining how it aligns to national UK priorities, responds to user/stakeholder pull or underpins priority areas for other research councils. Much of this information is already included in most proposals so this change aims to formalise the submission and assessment for this criterion. All proposals submitted from 15th November will need to include National Importance within their case for support.
When considering National Importance in your application, you should consider and describe aspects such as whether the research :
- Contributes to, or helps maintain the health of other research disciplines
- Contributes to addressing key UK societal challenges
- Contributes to current or future UK economic success
- Enables future development of key emerging industry(s)
Guidance on how to complete this section is available on Je-S and on the EPSRC website.
Reviewers will be asked to consider national importance as an additional criterion when assessing proposals. Panel members will continue to rank proposals on the basis of the reviewer reports and applicants' responses to them. Research quality will remain the pre-eminent criterion with National Importance as a major secondary criterion. New reviewer forms will be sent out with proposals received after 15 November. Additional advice and guidance will be available on Je-S and on the EPSRC website.
Further information on National Importance
Further information on changes to peer review
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| AHRC announce major changes to their Fellowship Scheme (Sep 2011) |
The AHRC have just announced changes to its Fellowships Scheme as initially outlined in its Delivery Plan for 2011-15. The scheme will now focus on developing and promoting research leaders who provide intellectual leadership both within and beyond their own disciplines. The scheme’s early career route is designed to build leadership capacity by equipping individuals who have outstanding potential to develop the qualities required to become research leaders of the future.
The Fellowships scheme will remain open to excellent research proposals on any topic within any subject and discipline covered by the AHRC’s remit. While the scheme will continue to support concentrated time for individual research activities part of the Fellowship period should include time spent working with others to demonstrate leadership or leadership potential. This may involve activities such as research networking, knowledge exchange, collaboration with organisations outside HE, international collaborations, public engagement activities or interdisciplinary engagement.
Applications will be for between £50,000 and £250,000 fEC and will be for periods of between 6 and 18 months (or 6-24 months for applications from early career researchers). Although the AHRC will maintain the current budget for the Fellowships scheme, funding for the Fellowships will become more selective due to the larger average size of awards. Although the AHRC are not introducing demand management measures for Fellowships they expect Research Organisations to ensure that only applications which meet the high standards of the revised scheme are submitted. The scheme will be monitored and any Research Organisations putting forward applications without sufficient selectivity will be contacted by the AHRC to discuss the issues and may be prevented from submitting further applications.
The revised scheme will be open to applications from early January 2012. As previously announced the current scheme will close to new applications at 4pm on 17 October 2011.
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| Funder news - Changes to NERC Responsive Mode schemes (Aug 2011) |
Small Grants
- The NERC Small Grants scheme will close following completion of the 2011 competition. The closing date for submission of small grant proposals to the final call is 1 September 2011.
- It will remain possible to submit proposals for small discrete projects, proof-of-concept studies and pump-priming exercises to the Standard Grants scheme, if they exceed the minimum scheme funding level.
- The Urgency Grant scheme will continue in a revised format following the closure of the Small Grants scheme.
Consortium Grants
- The Consortium Grants scheme will be modified to operate via one grant round per year rather than two, and an outline stage assessed by members of the Peer Review College will be introduced. The final closing date for submissions to the Consortium scheme in the current format will be 1 December 2011 (concept notes to be submitted by 1 September 2011).
- From 2012 additional resources will be committed to the Consortium Grants scheme.
- Detailed information on the new format for the Consortium scheme from 2012 and information about other changes planned for responsive mode will be released in autumn 2011
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| EPSRC announce changes to peer review (July 2011) |
In 2010 Council published its Strategic Plan articulating a very clear goal to Shape Capabilities. To support this, all our investment decisions, in the future, will be based on the international excellence of the research and its national importance (set in a global context), while continuing to encourage the free generation of ideas and curiosity-based research.
Peer Review is central to achieving our aims; therefore we need to adapt our current process to incorporate the new criteria. This is to inform you of the changes that will be happening in autumn this year. Further detailed information and the timescale for these changes will be available in September.
Applicants -
- From now onwards, we will expect applicants to consider their research in the context of international excellence and national importance. Before applying applicants need to consider their research proposal in relation to the "Our Portfolio" section of the EPSRC website and the relative scale of our investment in the research area(s) posed. For example, whether we intend to 'grow', 'maintain' or 'reduce' a research area as a proportion of the total EPSRC portfolio.
- From autumn onwards, applicants applying to EPSRC will need to include a section in their case for support on the importance of their research in relation to the national / international context and the strategic fit of their proposals with respect to the portfolio we are looking to create as described in the "Our Portfolio" section of the EPSRC website. Confirmed timescales and guidance on how to include this in the case for support will be on the website in September.
Please note that from the confirmed date of change (in the autumn); all proposals submitted must include strategic fit and importance in their case for support.
Peer review of proposals -
- From autumn onwards, reviewers will be asked to consider importance as well as excellence in their assessment. Peer review meetings will be asked to prioritise based on quality and importance as the primary criteria and also comment on strategic fit to the research areas in the landscape document.
Changes to all forms, guidance and peer review processes will be in place from the autumn. The confirmed date that this will occur will be displayed on the peer review section of the website in September.
Further details |
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| EPSRC announce open access policy for research outputs (June 2011) |
The EPSRC have announced a new policy on access to research outputs which they are introducing with immediate effect. The policy states that all EPSRC-funded research publications must be published as openly accessible documents – that is, freely available online to anyone who has access to the internet.
Further details
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| ESRC will be moving to an Invited Only Resubmissions Policy from 1 June 2011 |
This means ESRC will no longer be allowing the resubmission of any previously unsuccessful proposals from this date, unless they have been specifically invited to do so. All proposals will be checked, and any uninvited resubmissions will not be processed, but treated as an unsuccessful application. They will be included as failed applications in the data that the ESRC is collecting on institutional grant performance as part of its initial demand management strategy.
From 1 June 2011 all proposals must be substantially different to the previous submission (ie new proposals). To assist applicants in preparing future applications, the ESRC will be issuing further guidance on what constitutes a new proposal very shortly. Further details
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RCUK announce changes to requests for equipment & social survey costs on Research Council grants wef 1 May 2011. |
A PDF of the guidance can be accessed here
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| ESRC require a ‘Data Management Plan’, for all bids or projects which will use and/or generate data (April 2011) |
The ESRC have requested an additional attachment, the ‘Data Management Plan’, for all future bids for projects which will use and/or generate data. This is an in-depth document of up to three sides of A4. See the links below for full details:
- Je-S help (in the left hand menu, select ‘Guidance on completing a standard grant’ then ‘Case for Support & Attachments’ and select the ‘ESRC Specific Requirements’)
- ESRC data policy
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| ESRC announce demand management plans (March 2011) |
ESRC have announced a programme of measures to manage demand on peer review and grant submissions. The measures will include self-regulation and a change to existing peer review practices and submission policies. These measures will be introduced in June 2011.
After 12 months of these initial measures ESRC will review their effectiveness, to establish whether further steps need to be taken to manage demand and welcome your views on the potential options.
Further details
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| AHRC announce closure of funding schemes (Feb 2011) |
The following schemes have now closed:
However, the Follow on Funding Scheme is now a permanent scheme.
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| EPSRC announce changes to letters of support (16/7/2010) |
The EPSRC has announced changes to the requirements for letters of support which will now be known as statements of support. Project partners are now required to answer a set of questions related to their involvement in the project rather than simply providing a general letter of support:
EPSRC: Changes to Letters of support
We have changed the requirements for letters of support and these will now be known as statements of support in order to clarify their purpose.
The purpose of this change is to focus the information provided to make it easier for Peer Review to assess the proposed collaboration.
We require a statement of support from each Project Partner collaborating on a project. A well written statement of support can significantly strengthen a research proposal by demonstrating the benefits of the collaboration, and the relevance and potential impact of the research for the Project Partners.
The statement of support gives the Project Partners the opportunity to highlight why they are supporting the proposal and what they hope to get out of it.
What has changed?
We are now asking Project Partners to answer some specific questions regarding their involvement in the project, rather than providing a more general letter of support.
When does this change come into effect?
This change is effective immediately and will be enforced from 01 September 2010.
Further information
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| Important information for applicants to AHRC funding schemes |
In 2010 the AHRC, along with the other Research Councils, will be transferring its grants processing activities to the new RCUK Shared Services Centre. In addition, the AHRC office will be moving from Bristol to Swindon in June.
Together, these changes will impact significantly on the AHRC’s planned schedule of activities over the coming nine months or so. While the AHRC will do its utmost to minimise the disruption to applicants and others, normal timescales for assessing grant applications will have to be changed to enable these changes to take place as smoothly as possible and for normal business to resume after the new systems are in place.
In particular, AHRC applicants should be aware of the following changes:
- Research Grants and Fellowships Schemes – AHRC will not be accepting applications between 19 March 2010 – 31 May 2010. In addition, Fellowship applicants are strongly advised to submit their applications before the end of February as the outcomes of some applications submitted in March are unlikely to be announced until spring 2011. AHRC are also rescheduling panel meetings during 2010 which may mean that applicants will not receive outcomes when they would have been expecting them.
- Research Networking Scheme – AHRC will not be accepting applications between 26 February and 31 May 2010.
- Knowledge Transfer Fellowships - The planned closing date in May will not occur. The scheme will re-open later in 2010 on an open deadline basis on a date to be confirmed.
- Knowledge Catalysts – AHRC will not be accepting applications between 26 February 2010 and 31 August 2010. This will give time to consider the outcomes of the current review of the scheme due to be completed by end of March and implement any changes in the light of the review.
Applicants are advised to allow as much time as possible between submitting applications and the suggested start date for projects. Applicants should also bear in mind when submitting proposals that award announcements may be delayed by a number of months, and successful applicants may be required to change the start date of their projects to take this into account.
All schemes not mentioned above, including all postgraduate programmes, will continue as planned, and AHRC will be processing all applications already submitted before the dates outlined above.
Click here for more details
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| AHRC supsends Practice-led and Applied Route Research Grants (6/11/09) |
AHRC are currently reviewing their funding portfolio, starting with some smaller and longer-running schemes. The RGPLA scheme was originally set up over a decade ago as a capacity-building scheme. AHRC have therefore decided to suspend it during the review and applications are not being accepted until further notice. Further information will be announced later in 2010. As an alternative, applicants are advised to consider submitting applications to the Research Grants or Fellowships schemes, which are open to proposals in the creative and performing arts involving a significant practice-led component.
Note: This decision has not been widely announced, but appears in the latest AHRC Research Funding Guide
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| EPSRC publish Programme Landscape document (23/6/09) |
The EPSRC have produced a series of online documents which provide an overview and analysis of their entire £3.7 billion portfolio of grants and awards.
The Landscape document seeks to identify at an aggregate level, key features concerning both the shape and nature of the portfolio, articulate trends and outline some of the challenges to be met if the UK is to maintain its position as a major force in international science and technology.
Click here for details
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| EPSRC announce important changes for funding applications (16/3/10) |
The EPSRC have just announced important changes to funding applications and peer review:
- Reducing the pressure on peer review
- Changes to research base prioritisation panels
- Applications to include economic impact
- Changes to reviewer forms
All of these will be important, but the most immediately significant change relates to reducing the pressure on peer review by the exclusion of applicants (listed as the principal investigator on a proposal) who have:
- Three or more proposals within a two-year period ranked in the bottom half of a funding prioritisation list or rejected before panel; and
- An overall personal success rate of less than 25% over the same two years.
The EPSRC will apply the new conditions retrospectively from 1 April 2010 and will be based on a rolling two year period. EPSRC will contact individuals who either will be affected or will be at risk of being affected by submitting further proposals which are subsequently not funded.
In the meantime, anyone submitting proposals to EPSRC (or any other funder) who wishes a more detailed review of their proposal before it is submitted, could consider making use of the university’s voluntary peer review system.
Please contact the
if you require help or advice on any aspect of these changes.
Click here for further details from the EPSRC web site
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| The EPSRC now offers cross-disciplinary funding advice (3/11/08) |
Increased cross-disciplinary approaches in all scientific fields have meant that it can be difficult to know where to submit a research proposal. Some proposals will even cut across the remit of two or more Research Councils.
If you have an idea for a cross-disciplinary research project, you can now send the Cross-Disciplinary Interfaces Programme (C-DIP) an informal two-page outline of your proposal by email.
- This is an entirely optional process, and no detailed costings or references are required at this stage.
- The outline should explain clearly the key features of the proposed project, highlighting the main scientific challenges to be addressed.
- A short description of the proposed work plan would be useful.
Click here for further details
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| NERC - Knowledge Exchange Plan (29/5/2008) |
From 1 July 2008, responsive mode research proposals submitted to NERC should be accompanied by a knowledge exchange plan - click here to download pdf
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