The team has specific expertise in fundraising, commercial research and bid development and each Research Facilitator works closely with particular Schools within the College. If you would like to discuss opportunities for funding or require help with a specific application, please contact the team member that looks after your School, or drop in to our office on the 2nd floor (Room 247), West Wing, of the Muirhead Tower.

 

The CRSO is here to help support research funding applications by taking the bureaucracy out of bidding. This means that the Research Support Office makes every effort to treat each application as an individual project and not impose a one size fits all approach to developing an application.

In practice, this means that we have few fixed processes and procedures that we impose upon applicants, and most importantly – we won’t ask you to complete any paperwork. However, we do ask that applicants bear the following points in mind when making an application:

Inform the Research Support Office of your intention to apply for funding at the earliest possible opportunity. You can do this via email, over the phone or in person.

Always consult with the Research Support Office when designing your budget. Designing a budget for your application can be a complex process, and the Research Support Office team are here to help. Once you are working with us to develop an application we will also assist with your budget, this will save you time and also ensure that you have sufficient resources to complete your project.

Allow the Research Support Office to obtain institutional signatures. Many funding applications require the submitting institution to sign a copy of the bid. The Research Office can help you navigate this process and will ensure that your application receives the appropriate level of authorisation.

The University of Birmingham offers a range of internal funding opportunities designed to help support your research:

Travel funds: Birmingham International Engagement Fund

The University is keen to develop research links with the key markets of Brazil, China (particularly around Guangzhou), India and North America (the US and Canada). As a result, the Birmingham International Engagement Fund has been established to allow academics to seek funding for travel to these regions to establish and develop research collaborations.

• Learn about the Fund procedures and criteria

Collaboration with North America

The International Relations Team manages several funds, which support cooperation with institutions in North America, including the BRIDGE Partnership. 

• Learn more about international opportunities

ESRC Impact Acceleration Account

The ESRC Impact Acceleration Account has been awarded to the University of Birmingham by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in order to fund knowledge exchange and impact from 2014 – 2018. The ESRC Impact Acceleration Account is a flexible and dynamic fund designed to energise the local social science community to deliver timely impact initiatives, which build upon excellent research and engage non-academic users in generating positive change.

Three schemes are available:
Follow-on Fund: supports the development of innovative and experimental forms of knowledge exchange from existing or ongoing quality research.

Secondment Fund: supports the inward and outward secondment of staff, intended to developer sustainable partnerships between academic and non-academic organisations.

Urgency Fund: enables research staff to respond quickly to urgent, rare or unforeseen events.

Further information including details about how to apply.

External funding opportunities

External funding opportunities are regularly disseminated to the College via direct emails, or the College Weekly Newsletter. 

If you wish to explore options for research funding, you are welcome to contact the Research Facilitator for your School at any time to discuss relevant opportunities for your career, or for your research idea.

Research Professional: Research Funding Database

The College of Social Sciences has a Social Science Funding Opportunities mini site on Research Professional, where you can click on custom built searches of funding opportunities that are relevant to research within the College of Social Sciences. We also bookmark interesting opportunities on this page.

For further information about Research Professional, including an introduction to using the database effectively, please contact Sonia Large.