Research Grants & Contracts Office

Research Seminar Dept of Management

Craig Bryce

Summary

 Research Grants & Contracts Office (RGCO)  Funding Schemes  FEC and Costing (briefly!)  Internal procedures for approving applications  Finding further information

Research Grants & Contracts Office structure

Peter Westley Director of Finance Liz Francis Head of RGCO Craig Bryce Deputy Head Sharon Bell Research Accounts Officer Rassi Pelpola Research Accounts Assistant Marion Barthram Research Grants Assistant George Eyre Theresa Ball Costing & Pricing Accountant Research Support Officer

Research Grants & Contracts Office structure

Sharon Bell Research Accounts Officer Rassi Pelpola Research Accounts Assistant Peter Westley Director of Finance Liz Francis Head of RGCO

Craig Bryce

Deputy Head

Theresa Ball

Costing & Pricing Accountant

George Eyre

Research Support Officer

Applications

Marion Barthram Research Grants Assistant

Research Grants & Contracts Office structure

Project Accounting Sharon Bell

Research Accounts Officer

Rassi Pelpola

Research Accounts Assistant Peter Westley Director of Finance Liz Francis Head of RGCO Craig Bryce Deputy Head Theresa Ball Costing & Pricing Accountant George Eyre Research Support Officer

Marion Barthram

Research Grants Assistant

Research Grants & Contracts Office structure – Dept of Management

•

School of Business, Economics & Informatics

•Psychological Sciences •Psychosocial •Social Policy & Education •All EU grants Peter Westley Director of Finance Liz Francis Head of RGCO

Sharon Bell Research Accounts Officer Craig Bryce Deputy Head

Theresa Ball Costing & Pricing Accountant George Eyre Research Support Officer Rassi Pelpola Research Accounts Assistant Marion Barthram Research Grants Assistant •School of Arts •Biological Sciences •School of SSHP (rest of)

Research Grants & Contracts Office (RGCO)

      The

RGCO

, part of Finance Dept, provides administrative, financial and support services related to externally funded research projects

Pre award:

funding information, help with applications, approval, contract negotiation

Post award:

project accounting, approval of posts, allocation of overheads, financial reporting, contracts with partners

Policy development Management information Training and events

Help with Applications

  

Costing

- salaries and overhead-type costs – done on web-based costing system pFACT

Approval

– done using workflow system on pFACT

Electronic submission

– may need to set up an account, e.g Research Council’s Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) system  Contractual arrangements  Copies of previously successful applications for most schemes

Research Funding at Birkbeck

     2009/10 –

209

applications (33%) Income

£10,170,194

in 2009/10 (12.5%) Jan ‘11 contract value

£52,006,414 66

different funding bodies

162

active research projects, throughout all Schools  Management    2009/10 - 4 applications (75%) Income 2009/10 – £76k 5 Active projects, Contract value £268k

Research Funding at Birkbeck

Funder Type

Research Councils, Royal Soc, British Academy UK Based Charities UK Govt UK Industry , Commerce EU Overseas & Other Total

No. of apps

115 46 12 3 23 10 209

% of apps

55%

Successful Unsuccessful

28 75

Unknown

12 22% 6% 1% 11% 5% 12 8 2 12 6 68 27 1 1 10 3 117 7 3 1 1 24

% to date

24% 26% 67% 67% 52% 60% 33%

Funding Information

 Economic & Social Research Council  Leverhulme Trust   British Academy Others…

ESRC (1)



Research Grants Scheme

  £200k > £2m Recently changed – no small applications <£200k considered        Up to 5 years duration Flexible re subject area as long as within ESRC's remit 80% FEC No closing dates Apply via Je-S 6 sides of A4 for research proposal Most decisions within 26 weeks

ESRC (2)

Recent revisions to Funding Schemes, “fewer but more flexible research schemes”



Future Leaders scheme

  Will replace postdoctoral fellowship and first grants scheme. “More information will be available shortly” 

Large grants and centres

  will be integrating large grants and centre competitions “more information will be available shortly”

http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding-and-guidance/funding opportunities/

ESRC (3) - Fellowships



Professorial Fellowships

      support leading social scientists working in the UK Fellow given freedom to pursue their own innovative and creative research agendas Provides;  Fellow’s time (up to 60%)  additional research assistance costs  PhD studentship Up to 3 years 80% FEC Usually announced in October, closing date in December, peer review February to April, interviews are in May and decisions made by end of July. Awards are expected to commence the following October at the earliest.



Knowledge Exchanges/Placement Fellowships

 private, public and civil society sectors

ESRC (4)

  

Research Seminars

within their fields - multi-institutional groups of academic researchers, PG students and non-academic users who meet regularly to exchange information and ideas with the aim of advancing research  non fEC and are limited to £15,000      travel and expenses for speakers and participants secretarial costs stationary postage copying and telephone hire of rooms and facilities.

Another £3k available if strong case for    enhancing knowledge transfer impact for non academic users and/or the inclusion of international academics at events and/or the holding of events abroad.

WILL

be running 2011/12 details tba 2009 – 146/41 – 28%



ESRC (5)

Decision process

Submission via JeS Checked by Shared Services Centre (SSC), allocated to ESRC Officer for eligibility check Once accepted, proposal sent to reviewers from ESRC’s Peer Review College Proposal scoring below 4 rejected, those above 4 allocated to 2 members of the Grant Assessment Panel PIs given 10 days to respond to Reviewers comments (max 2 A4) Grant Assessment Panel meet and agree prioritisation list, considered by Grants Delivery Group and final decisions made.

Feedback sent with decision letters, scores of <4 receive 3or4 anonymous reviewer comments, scores >4 reviewer comments plus comments of 2 panel members.

ESRC award rates



ESRC Responsive mode;

  2009/10 – Standard Grants 682/94 – 14% Small Grants 653/124 – 19% 2010/11 - Standard Grants 304/41 – 13% (to date) Small Grants 178/44 – 25% 

Birkbeck responsive mode

 Success rate for

09/10

: 6/2 (33%)    Success rate for

08/09

: 5/2 (40%) Success rate for

07/08

: 8/2 (25%) Success rate for

06/07

: 8/4 (50%)

Leverhulme Trust (1)



Research Project

  “support for innovative and original research projects of high quality and potential, the choice of theme and the design of the research lying entirely with the applicant” Up to 5 years; < £500k for research assistance, PhD Students, replacement teaching, other direct costs     Most awards ~250k for 3 years Any topic 2 stage application process, outline must be accepted prior to submitting full application (up to 12 weeks) full appl deadlines

Sept, Dec and March

Leverhulme Trust (2)



Research Fellowship

     open to experienced researchers up to £45k research expenses ‘over and above normal living costs’ including reasonable replacement teaching 3 – 24 months Next round announced Sept ‘11 

Major Research Fellowship

 Open well-established and distinguished researchers    Provides a replacement staff member to cover the period of the Fellowship and £5k p.a. expenses.

2 –3 years 4.00pm on 6 May 2011 (result December) 

Early Career Fellowship

 2 year award, Trust pays up to 50% of the employment cost (up to max of £23k), plus research expenses up to £6,000 pa, deadline

10 March

Leverhulme Trust (3)

    

Success Rates Research grants

  

2007 – Outline – 43%, Full – 47%, Combined – 20% 2008 – Outline – 44%, Full – 49%, Combined – 22% 2009 – Outline – 48%, Full – 39%, Combined – 19% Research Fellowships

  

2007 – 18% 2008 – 16% 2009 – 15% Major Research Fellowships

  

2007 – 14% 2008 – 13% 2009 – 14% Early Career Fellowship

  

2007 – 13% 2008 – 12% 2009 – 13%

British Academy (1)

  

Small Grants

     primary research in the humanities and social sciences up to £7,500 direct costs, up to 2 years applications assessed equally on their merits, with no preference as to mode of enquiry for clearly defined, discrete piece of research with an identifiable outcome FINAL deadline: 23 March

BA Research Development Awards (BARDA)

 Up to £150,000 FEC, up to 3 years  scheme is currently suspended

Conference Support and O/S Conference Grants

 Final deadlines 16 th & 2 nd March – scheme scrapped

British Academy (2)



Postdoctoral Fellowships

   3 years support for outstanding early career researchers. 2-stage application, deadline: October applicants are expected to be at an early stage of their academic career.

Provides fellow’s salary plus limited research expenses and FEC costs (directly allocated costs, including mentor’s time, estates, and indirect costs). 

‘New’ British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship Scheme

      aim is to free applicants from normal teaching and administrative commitments support outstanding individual researchers with excellent research proposals, and to support outstanding communicators awards to individuals employed at UK universities, particularly to support mid-career scholars normally within no more than 15 years from the award of their doctorate 6-12 months duration It is not expected that the total value of an award will exceed £200,000 FEC   Deadline 9 March 2011 35 per year

British Academy (3)

 Full list              British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowships and Thank Offering to Britain Fellowship British Academy Research Development Award Scheme (BARDAs) British Academy Wolfson Research Professorships Conference Support Country-specific Agreements International Partnerships Mid-Career Fellowships Overseas Conference Grants Postdoctoral Fellowships Small Research Grants Special Funds UK-Latin America and the Caribbean Link Scheme Visiting Scholars



Europe

Research mainly funded via 7 th



Framework Programme Co- operation -

Collaborative Research Programme   Collaborative/multi-national requirement Call driven 

Ideas -

 Frontier Research (European Research Council) Starting Grants (call opens July ’11)  1.5m

€ over 5 years   PI must have PhD awarded in last 2 - 12 years PI expected to spend min 50% of time on project (funded)       Advanced grants 2.5m

€ over 5 years SSH deadline 6 April No PhD time eligibility but “only exceptional research leaders” PI with track record of significant research achievements in the last 10 years PI expected to spend min 30% of time on project (funded) 

People -

 Marie Curie Schemes 'mobility' requirement

Others….



Over the last 3 years the School has submitted applications to;

ACAS, AHRC, BBSRC, British Academy, CIMA, ESRC, EPSRC, EU, Health Research Council of New Zealand, JISC, Leverhulme Trust, National Maritime Museum, Natural England, NESTA, NORFACE, Nuffield Foundation, Royal Academy of Engineering, Royal Society, Technology Strategy Board, OMII-UK, UEFA.



Research Professional -

http://www.researchprofessional.com

Preparing a good proposal

 Guidance notes on constructing a good proposal to the ESRC Research Grants Scheme: http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding-and-guidance/guidance/applicants/how-to.aspx

 Part 1 Allow yourself time Study your funding source Read the rules Discuss your application Justify your costings   Part 2 Part 3 Content and presentation Dissemination and impact Check the details If you are successful If you are unsuccessful  EPSRC: Preparing a Proposal: http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/apprev/preparing/Pages/default.aspx  NERC: How to win money for research: http://www.nerc.ac.uk/funding/application/howtowin.asp

Full Economic Costing (fEC)

 Introduced by the Government in 2005  Used as basis to

cost

research projects, but very few funders will pay 100% of FEC  Research Councils pay 80% of FEC  Other funders pay according to their own terms and conditions  We use pFACT to calculate the FEC

What makes up fEC?

    Directly Incurred (DI) costs Directly Allocated (DA) costs Indirect costs Exceptional items: e.g. project studentships Research Councils will pay 80% of DI, DA and Indirect Costs; 100% of Exceptional Items

College Approval procedures pFACT

 Set out in the College's Financial Regulations, as approved by Governors  All external research grants must be authorised for submission through the pFACT system.

  All approval stages to be completed prior to submitting to the funding body RGCO – webpage http://www.bbk.ac.uk/rgco/researchgrants/applicatio n/authorization.shtml

College Approval procedures pFACT

 The application should only be submitted once all the stages have been completed.  Each approver should be given at least three clear working days (that’s NINE days prior to deadline).  Paper applications that require institutional signatures should be passed to the RGCO at the same time that the applicant completes their stage of the pFACT sign-off

http://pfact.bbk.ac.uk/login.aspx

Contact information

Research Grants Office: www.bbk.ac.uk/rgco Craig Bryce: extn 3141 [email protected]

Sharon Bell: extn 3139 [email protected]

Financial statements and reports

www.bbk.ac.uk/rgco