The funding schemes available through the ESRC IAA@UoB are all designed to support projects with the potential for any type of impact, across all sectors.
The Schemes
The Follow-on Fund (up to £10,000) is for the development of innovative and experimental forms of knowledge exchange from existing or on-going quality research, not just those projects previously funded by the ESRC.
If you would like to develop your relationship with stakeholders or co-design work, the User Engagement Fund (up to £7,500) is for earlier stage engagement.
Alternatively, the Secondment Scheme (up to £20,000), for outgoing or incoming secondments, is designed to develop sustainable partnerships between academic and non-academic organisations.
If activity is urgent and needs immediate support, the Urgency Fund can enable you to take advantage of time-limited opportunities. It offers up to £5,000 and is open to applications at all times.
Finally, applications for light-touch assessment will be developed in parallel with institutional or national challenges and initiatives and will have already gone through an independent assessment process as well as benefitted from development support. The ESRC IAA Manager with the Chair of the EIMG will consider which application process is appropriate.
Things to think about when applying
For those writing an application Dr Jess Woodhams, Director of the Centre for Applied Psychology, offers these points to remember
For any application
- It is important you make it clear 1) exactly what sort of impact your proposal will result in and 2) exactly how you will measure/audit this impact (e.g., can your partners provide a report at the end of the work, are there tangible outcomes that can be measured that demonstrate impact?).
- Don’t be too ambitious in your claims, e.g., you can’t claim you will change legislation or policy unless you can demonstrate you are engaging with the right people and that they have already ‘bought into’ your proposal.
- Remember to include letters/emails of support from collaborators and make sure these state any financial or in-kind contributions they are making (even better if you can quantify in-kind contributions).
- In calculating your costs, be conservative. If your Department can help cover the costs of consumables, then don’t request them in your application. Try to request the minimum amount you require to successfully carry out the work and do not cost in time for paper/grant writing.
For Follow-on-Fund applications
- Remember, this is not a research funding application.Make sure that the focus of your proposal is on knowledge exchange or it won’t be eligible.
- The knowledge exchange has to be based on existing or ongoing research so you need to make it clear how it relates to research you have already done/are doing.
For Secondment applications
- Make it clear why the secondment is necessary for the knowledge exchange/co-production of research.
- Stronger applications demonstrate how knowledge exchange is two-way and why the researcher (for outgoing secondments) has to be embedded within the partner organisations for this to be a success, for reasons beyond data collection.
- Stress the involvement of the partner in producing the research – what is their input/what is their role? How do they contribute and feed in throughout the research-to-impact process?