British Academy Skills Acquisition Awards

Full information: http://www.britac.ac.uk/funding/guide/skills_acquisition.cfm

Quantitative Skills Acquisition Awards of up to £10,000 are available to support the career development of early career scholars – i.e. those within 10 years of the award of their Phd. who are in established academic posts. These awards aim to develop and enhance their quantitative skills by providing an award to enable early career researchers to spend some time with a mentor at a specialist centre in the field.

This scheme was introduced by the Academy in 2013. Around 20 awards are expected to be available in the next round of competition, with the aim of providing funding to:

• ·         Support specific skills acquisition
• ·         Benefit outstanding researchers
• ·         Encourage the development of networks and future partnerships.

The scheme enables researchers to spend time with a mentor in a research group specialising in quantitative methods, and will also provide some funding to meet the costs of a mentor.

Costs of travel, accommodation and subsistence can be applied for, together with a contribution to the cost of teaching relief for the applicant, and the time of the mentor, and although the maximum award is up to £10,000 over 12 months, the average value of award is expected to be significantly lower.

Applications will consist of three main components:

• First, the researcher should outline the project s/he intends to work on with a named mentor (the researcher would need to identify them in advance), explaining how this relates to longer-term career development. S/he should also demonstrate additionality i.e. explain that this funding to develop their quantitative skills would not otherwise be available.
• Second, the researcher’s Head of Department should confirm that no existing resource is available to provide for the planned skills acquisition, and how the proposal relates to the department’s research strategy. A key aim of the scheme is to ensure that the programme supported new activity, rather than substituting costs already borne by institutions.
• Third, the mentor with whom the researcher plans to work should outline the support to be made available to the researcher and the time that they would make available.

All applications should demonstrate that Academy funds are sought for a clearly defined, discrete piece of research, which will have an identifiable outcome on completion of the Academy-funded component of the research.

Closing Date

The closing date for applications for the next round of skills acquisition awards will be 30 October 2013. Application forms will only be available on the e-GAP system from 4 September 2013. The starting date of grants in this round will be not earlier than 1 September 2014 and not later than 1 April 2015.

Award information

• Level of award: up to £10,000.
• Period of award: grants are tenable for up to 12 months.
• Further information: View Frequently Asked Questions.