College Research Support Office (CRSO)
Your College Research Support Office (CRSO) is here to help you with your external funding proposals for research and consultancy activities.
Examples of the type of support we offer include:
- Finding the best funder and scheme for your idea.
- Advising on the call requirements (including any technical aspects), including drawing on past experience.
- Advising you of internal approval processes.
- Providing examples of previous success (where available).
- Discussing your resource requirements and organising your budget, including Financial sign off.
- Completing online submission forms.
- Making sure any Terms and Conditions are reviewed by the University.
- Coordinating the relevant contracting arrangements upon award.
Please do get in touch with us as soon as you have an idea for a project or have seen a funding scheme of interest. Early engagement means that we can set up the overall application process to run effectively and create the best possible conditions for your success.
The CRSO Team
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.
Contact details for the CRSO
Liz Potts
Research and Knowledge Transfer Administrator, Business School and School of Education
Tel: 0121 414 3422 (ext. 43422)
Email: e.a.potts@bham.ac.uk
Alana Tomlin
Research and Knowledge Transfer Facilitator, School of Government and Society and School of Social Policy
Tel: 0121 414 2299 (ext. 42299)
Email: a.tomlin@bham.ac.uk
Sonia Large
Research and Knowledge Transfer Administrator, School of Government and Society and School of Social Policy
Tel: 0121 414 7135 (ext. 47135)
Email: s.j.large@bham.ac.uk
Currently on Secondment:
Richard Gough
Knowledge Transfer Facilitator, Business School and School of Education
Tel: 0121 414 4978 (ext. 44978);
Email: r.gough.1@bham.ac.uk
Please note: Richard is on Secondment with New Core. Please contact Tania Woloshyn for all enquiries and application support related to the Business School and School of Education.
Internal Processes
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.
Research Funding Opportunities
The University of Birmingham offers a range of internal funding opportunities designed to help support your research.
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, travel funds have been established to allow academics to seek funding for travel to these regions to establish and develop research collaborations.
The International Relations Team manages several funds, which support cooperation with institutions in North America.:
If you have any queries, please contact Erica Arthur (e.d.arthur@bham.ac.uk, x45888).
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.
Global Health Partnership
The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) is offering a unique opportunity for the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Medical Research Council (MRC) to co-design a global public health initiative. The forthcoming call seeks to bring together expertise in medical science and health interventions in developing countries, with an understanding of local knowledge, cultural dynamics, community engagement and trust.
Call details
Activities under this initiative should aim to lay the foundations for networks and researcher relationships between expertise in the medical sciences and the arts and humanities internationally, and teams should include a mix of both of these expertise. Possible activities include establishing inter-disciplinary collaborative partnerships or consortia, strengthening research activity across the field, capacity building and small scale pilot and exploratory higher risk projects to explore innovative boundary crossing collaborations.
Relevant themes that could be considered include, but are not limited to:
- Understanding public health in relation to cultural and population change, migration / mobility, cultural diversity.
- Public health in cities and the effects of urban migration.
- Contextually appropriate, user-led / co- design to improve health systems or services.
- Delivery of public health programmes in relation to legal frameworks; belief systems and ethical considerations.
- Trust in science and community preparedness for medical research and trials.
- Addressing health challenges in contexts of humanitarian crises, including conflict.
Duration: Between 18-24 months.
Value: Costs of up to £200,000 fEC suggested, although the scale of the awards will be flexible.
Deadlines: The MRC and AHRC plan to launch two consecutive partnership award calls in 2017. The first runs from February with a deadline on 8th June 2017. The second will run from September with a deadline in December 2017.
Full details available here: https://www.mrc.ac.uk/funding/browse/mrc-ahrc-gcrf/mrc-ahrc-gcrf-global-public-health-partnership-awards-pre-call-announcement/)
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.
Useful Links
This page is edited by Sonia Large.