About Holly Hoar

I am the Development Officer (Research & Funding) in Research, Business and Employability Services. The Research team provides information to University staff on external funding, partners, and innovation activities. The team works with researchers and academic staff to help diversify income for Staffordshire University. Our Research and Funding Blog contains information on funding opportunities and the activities of the team. See my staff profile here http://www.staffs.ac.uk/staff/profiles/heh2.jsp

£10k for research in arts and humanities

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Holly Hoar

The University has had some success with these grants in the past, but there seems for have been fewer applications in recent rounds. We are keen to see the numbers increasing again as this is a great fund to launch new researchers or to get small projects off the ground

Funding Body: British Academy and Leverhulme Trust

Scheme: Small Research Grants

Overview: Fund is available to support primary research in the humanities and social sciences.

Funds may be used to facilitate initial project planning and development, to support the direct costs of research and to enable the advancement of research through workshops or conferences, or visits by or to partner scholars.

Applications for individual and collaborative projects are equally welcome. International groups of scholars are eligible to apply, provided the lead applicant is a UK-based scholar.

Budget: Grants are tenable for up to 24 months and are worth between £500 and £10,000. Start dates may be between 1 September 2014 and 31 March 2015. The fund does not cover staff time for the principal investigator, but you can employ a researcher to do the leg work on the project and get their time covered. Institutional overheads are not covered.

Deadlines: 15 April 2014 –Bids are submitted online. All bids need final online approval from the External Projects Team as well as faculty approval. Please factor in time for this and let the team know in advance that you are submitting a bid.

Further Information: http://www.britac.ac.uk/funding/guide/srg.cfm

Funding for Conferences in China on any subject

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Holly Hoar

This find contributes towards fees and living expenses. Applicants include British postgraduate students (i.e. UK citizens only) giving conference papers in China, or travelling to China to pursue essential doctoral research.

Funding Body: Great Britain-China Educational Trust

Scheme: Student awards

Overview: The Great Britain-China Educational Trust invites applications for its student awards. These support Chinese students studying for a PhD in any subject at a UK university as well as British postgraduate students giving conference papers in China, or travelling to China to pursue essential doctoral research. Chinese students must have started their third year before they are eligible to submit their application. Students may only apply twice for the award.

Budget: The maximum award amount is £3,000. The most common amount awarded is between £1,500 and £2,000.

Deadlines: 19 April 2014

Further Information: http://www.gbcc.org.uk/staward.htm

Overview of European Funding

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Holly Hoar

UKRO The University is a subscriber to the UK Research Office (UKRO). This specialises in European funding and events. You can subscribe for emails when funding calls and events are open in your research area.

To join use this link http://ims.ukro.ac.uk/UKRO/login.aspx and click on the option ‘If you do not yet have a profile’. The site will use your email address to identify you are a member of staff at Staffordshire University and give you free access to it. You subscribe to emails using the ‘My Profiles’ section at the top of the page.

If you want to visit the main UKRO website you can access it here: www.ukro.ac.uk

Erasmus+ The Erasmus+ programme will run from 2014-2020 and supports activities in education, training, youth and sport across all sectors of lifelong learning including Higher Education, Further Education, adult education, schools and youth activities.

Erasmus+ aims to boost skills and employability as well as modernise education, training, and youth work across Europe. It will provide opportunities for over 4 million Europeans to study, train, gain work experience and volunteer abroad and will also support transnational partnerships between education, training and youth organisations, as well as support grassroots sport projects

http://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/how-to-apply

Horizon 2020 is the EU funding programme for research and innovation, which will run from 2014 to 2020. UKRO have created the diagram below giving an overview of the different funding strands. When you log into your UKRO account you can click each of the strands and it will take you to a factsheet about them. Details on how to log into UKRO are above.

http://www.ukro.ac.uk/subscriber/funding/Pages/index.aspx

A year off to work on design with a business

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Holly Hoar

This fund gives a design researcher the chance to work in business for 6 months to a year and collaborate on projects. They are interested in three priorities:

The role of design in the innovation system
The role of design in service innovation
Evidence to demonstrate the impact and value of Design

Below is some more information.

Funding Body: AHRC and ESRC

Scheme: Design fellowships

Overview: These enable design researchers in UK universities to become embedded in business or public service organisations and work with them on collaborative projects.

Researchers should be keen to apply or test ideas about service innovation in business, public sector or similar context. They should apply in collaboration with a business or public sector organisation of their own choice.

Fellowships support a period between six months and one year on a full time or part time basis, with costs. Awards must start between 1 August and 31 December 2014.

Budget: AHRC meeting 80 per cent of full economic costs

Deadlines: 24 April 2014

Further Information: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/Funding-Opportunities/Pages/AHRC-ESRC-Design-Fellowships.aspx

Professorship/Associate Professorship Call 2014 – Advisory Sessions

Posted on February 19, 2014 by Holly Hoar

To support the Professorship/Associate Professorship call announced by the Vice Chancellor, Dr Steve Wyn Williams will run two sessions that are designed to guide prospective applicants on the conferment process and criteria.

The sessions will be held on:-

Monday 3rd March at 9.30 am in Cadman Conference Room, Cadman Building, Stoke
Monday 10 March at 10.00 am in C346, Beacon Building, Stafford

Both sessions will run for around two hours

In order to ensure that there is sufficient time for questions and discussion, attendance will be capped at thirty members of staff at each session. If necessary an additional session will be arranged during early March.

Places must be booked and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. To book a place, please email Richard Gorton: r.l.gorton@staffs.ac.uk by no later than 24th February. When replying, please state whether your booking is for 3rd or 10th March.

Innovation Grants for Parkinson’s

Posted on February 12, 2014 by Holly Hoar

Parkinson’s UK has three funding calls over the year open to their innovation fund. They are interested in the healthcare services provided to people with Parkinson’s, this sounds like a good fit to some of the work areas within the Faculty of Health. As far as I am aware this is not a fund the University has gone for before, so it may be an interesting one to explore.

Funding Body: Parkinsons UK

Scheme: Innovation Grants

Overview: These support high-risk, high-reward research with focus on the causes, treatment and cure of Parkinson’s.

Innovative research might include:

•examining the delivery of healthcare services to people with Parkinson’s;

•exploring bold new ideas that could lay the foundations for bigger studies in the future;

•developing practical improvements for the lives of people with Parkinson’s and their carers.

Research proposals must have a solid rationale, but do not require a significant level of preliminary data.

Applications are encouraged from basic scientists, clinicians and healthcare professionals, including physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, alternative therapists, nurses and practitioners. Grants are tenable at universities, research institutions or hospital trusts.

Budget: Grants are worth up to £35,000 for a maximum of 12 months.

Deadlines: 26 March 2014, 14 May 2014 and 10 September 2014

Further Information: http://www.parkinsons.org.uk/content/innovation-grants

Research funding calls sent directly to your inbox

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Holly Hoar

To be successful in applying for research funding it is important to know what funding is out there and when the application deadlines are. To help, the university subscribes to a website called Research Professional www.reseachprofessional.com.

There are over six thousand research funding calls currently open on Research Professional. The site can be used to make a tailored search for your research project. You can filter your search in a range of ways. This includes discipline, what you want money for or which funders you are interested in.

After you have made the search, you can see which funds are open. Plus you can save the details and set Research Professional to email each time new funds open which fit your criteria. Using this tool can ensure you are always up to date on open calls in your research field.

You can download a step by step guide on setting up searches here: Using Research Professional

You will not need to set up an account to search on Research Professional, but you will need one to save your settings. Using a University email address when you create your account will let Research Professional know your subscription is already paid for.

You can speak you the External Projects Team to get further details on using Research Professional.

Fund an international academic to work at Staffs Uni

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Holly Hoar

If you know a star academic working abroad that you would like to work at Staffordshire University for two years, this fund from the Royal Society and British Academy should be of interest.

Researchers can work in a broad range of fields including natural and social sciences and humanities.

Funding Body: Royal Society and the British Academy

Scheme: Newton International Fellowship

Overview: The Royal Society and the British Academy invite applications for the Newton international fellowship. This enables early-stage postdoctoral researchers from all over the world to work in the fields of natural and social sciences and the humanities at UK research institutions. Contact between the applicants and their UK sponsor must have been established prior to application.

Applicants must have a PhD and up to seven years of active full time postdoctoral experience. They should be working outside the UK and be competent in oral and written English. UK citizens may not apply.

Budget: The fellowship lasts for two years and provides £24,000 per year for subsistence costs, up to £8,000 per year for research expenses and a one-off payment of up to £2,000 for relocation expenses. In addition, fellows may receive up to £6,000 per year for up to 10 years following the tenure to support networking activities with UK-based researchers.

Deadlines: 10 March 2014 –This is an annual call

Further Information: http://royalsociety.org/grants/schemes/newton-international/

Host a conference in humanities or social sciences

Posted on January 22, 2014 by Holly Hoar

The British Academy has launched their annual call for people to hold conferences at the academies London base. The remit for conferences is that they fit around the theme of humanities and social sciences. Plus they are looking for proposals for conferences that will be pivotal events and of lasting significance in the field. This is a chance for leading and emerging scholars to examine current and future issues surrounding novel, dynamic, innovative and exciting subject areas.
Funding Body: British Academy
Scheme: Conference Programme
Overview: The British Academy invites proposals for its 2015 conference programme. This supports conferences on subjects in the humanities and social sciences held at the British Academy’s premises in central London. The academy will support up to six conferences in 2015, with up to 135 participants each.
Any UK-based scholar is eligible to submit a proposal.
Budget: The academy provides the venue, facilities and catering; contributes to travel and accommodation for convenors, speakers and chairs; and promotes and administers the conferences. Themed volumes of essays arising from the conferences may be published in the Proceedings of the British Academy series.
Deadlines: 21 February 2014 –annual call
Further Information: http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/events_proposals_conferences.cfm

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