TRUST US, WE CAN HELP!

 

Research Professional recently shared an article about how useful your Research Office can be and we couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

We may not be researchers but the Research Office can be a real help when you are thinking about writing a bid – and not just because you need us to develop your budget and navigate the institutional approvals!

FUNDERS We know them. If you have a research idea but you’re not sure which funder you stand the best chance of success with, we will help you explore the funders and get to the bottom of what it is they want to identify where your research best fits amongst them.

FUNDING CALLS We read funding calls all day and we know what to look for when picking out key bits: where the emphasis lies and what the funder is really looking for in a proposal. If you’re not sure you are ticking the right boxes or would like some guidance on any particular scheme, we can help you with that.

TIMESCALES Sometimes it can be a difficult thing to establish a timeline either for writing a research proposal or for carrying out the project itself. Your Research Development Manager can help you to think realistically about your goals and map out how much time you will ideally spend on each aspect of the proposal or project.

LAY REVIEW Your Research Office can be a helpful place to get a lay person’s perspective on your proposal. When your project goes off to the funders for consideration, it is likely that those reviewing it aren’t going to be experts in your field. If your Research Development Manager is having a hard time grasping what your research is, then there’s a possibility that those reviewing it will too, and a project that isn’t easily understood is less likely to be funded than one that is.

You can read the full article here, but the main point is that we are here to help every step of the way so make sure you get in touch so we can get started!

Contact the Research Office: researchapplications@mmu.ac.uk

Meet the AHRC and hear about their plans in a one day engagement event

From November 2019 to February 2020, the AHRC will be touring the UK with a series of free one day events packed with panel sessions, speakers and networking opportunities. These new events are designed to help researchers, research offices, communications, policy and public engagement professionals get a deeper insight into our newly launched Delivery Plan and meet the team from AHRC. Three of the dates have been announced and you can register for your place today.

The ‘Meet the Arts and Humanities Research Council’ events will run approximately from 10am – 5pm, with an additional evening reception for those who would like to attend. Events will take place at the following locations:

• Cardiff University – 6 November 2019
• University of Strathclyde – 10 December 2019
• The University of Manchester – 9 January 2020

There will also be an event in London in spring 2020. Full details will be released and registration for this event will open shortly.

https://ahrc.ukri.org/newsevents/news/ahrc-launches-new-event-series-for-the-arts-and-humanities-research-community/

 

 

Nuffield Foundation Strategic Fund – Seed Corn Now Open!

Following the previous blog post announcing Nuffield’s new £15 million fund for ambitious social science research projects, seed corn applications are now open.

For applicants who want to do some initial exploration of ideas, Nuffield are providing the opportunity to apply for seed corn funding with their latest update:

“We recognise that applications of the scale and scope we are envisaging for the Strategic Fund will require extensive development. Seed corn funding is intended to help develop Strategic Fund applications and could be used for:

• Convening an engagement event to support the development of a Strategic Fund proposal
• Supporting an activity to build a consortium of expert partners to deliver a project of the scale and nature envisioned by the Strategic Fund
• Reviewing the existing evidence base
• Secondary analysis of existing data
• New small-scale or pilot research

We do not expect every Strategic Fund outline application to require seed corn funding, and the award of such funding is not a prerequisite for submitting an outline application to the Strategic Fund.”

 
Seed corn funding is available on an ongoing basis from today. The sums available will vary depending on the nature of each request, but they anticipate awarding grants of around £5,000.  There is no limit on the number of seed corn applications but please note that there may be an internal process to manage the number of subsequent full stage proposals.

Please contact your Research Development Manager and/or Officer to discuss this opportunity further.

SAMS/BAM Research and Capacity Building Grant Scheme

The British Academy of Management currently have an open call for the Research and Capacity Building Grant Scheme (link).

Key Information:

The maximum value of award is £150,000.
The duration of project will be between 24 months (minimum) and 36 months (maximum).
Application deadline 30th September 2019 (17:00 BST).

Principal Investigators must be based in a UK HE institution and will normally be located in a School of Management or Business. Co-Investigators may be based in HE institutions outside the UK. The Principal Investigator and all Co-Investigators who are based in Schools of Management or Business must be BAM Members and have active BAM membership for the duration of the project.

Only one application as Principal Investigator is permitted per UK institution in each funding round.

As such, RKE are offering applicants the opportunity to submit an Expression of Interest. EOIs will be reviewed by the Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor of the Faculty of Business and Law, whereby one will be selected for further development and submission.

EOIs should be submitted to researchapplications@mmu.ac.uk by Friday 23^rd August 2019.

Expression of Interest Document – EOI_SAMSBAM

Call Guidance Document – SAMS-BAM guide for applicants Version 2 – 07.08.2019

Nuffield Health & Manchester Metropolitan Partnership Funding

Nuffield Health is the UK’s largest healthcare provider and has a formal partnership with Manchester Metropolitan. Following a successful first round of funding the joint Partnership Board now wish to commission a second round of RKE project exploring either:

• Emotional wellbeing (any aspect).
• Long-term health conditions (lifestyle).

All projects must meet the aims and objectives of one of Manchester Met’s RKE Centres and Nuffield Health Hallmarks:

• Higher Quality – All proposals must lead to a higher quality service or procedure than is currently available for any given focus area.
• Affordable – Any service or procedure developed as a consequence of research must be truly affordable to the end user outside of the research environment i.e. free at the point of delivery or no more than £1 per day.
• Pioneering – All proposals must push boundaries and challenge the status quo.
• Unique Position – Proposals must leverage the uniqueness of the partnership and its broader associations to deliver exceptional research.
• Whole Systems Approach – Nuffield Health takes an holistic approach to healthcare and strongly encourage interdisciplinary proposals that cover multiple systems.

If you are interested in applying please view the attached form. Completed forms must be submitted to hpscpartnerships@mmu.ac.uk by no later than Monday 14th October, 5pm. Projects must not start earlier than 1st April 2020.

Nuffield Project FormDownload

NIHR RfPB Social Care Information Event

NIHR Research for Patient Benefit have launched a Research for Social Care (RfSC) funding call. For more details of the announcement please visit the call page here.

Research Design Services across England are hosting roadshows to provide information and guidance to potential applicants to RfSC. The RDS NW will be hosting one of the events on 8th October 2019 in Manchester (exact details tbc).

If you are interested in registering please visit the RDS NW registration page (here) to sign up. The event is free and refreshments will be provided. More details of the events can be found here.

Latest Funding Opportunities from NIHR

The following new funding opportunities are now available:

Cross-Programme

• 19/93 Liver disease
• 19/94 Perinatal mental health
• 19/95 Solid organ replacement, transplant and donation
• 19/96 Emergency response and preparedness (HS&DR, PDG, PGfAR. PHR. RfPB)

Public Health Research Programme

• 19/89 Public Health Research Programme: Researcher-led
• 19/90 Continuing priority research topics of interest to the PHR Programme

Research for Patient Benefit Programme

• Researcher-led

NIHR Senior Investigators

• NIHR Senior Investigator competition 13

Systematic Reviews Programme

• NIHR Incentive Scheme 2019

Pre-Announcement: ISCF Healthy Ageing Challenge Research Director and Social, Behavioural and Design Research Programme

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has now announced its plans for delivering the Healthy Ageing Challenge, an investment of £98 million to enable businesses, including social enterprises, to develop and deliver products, services and business models that will be adopted at scale which support people as they age.

A Research Director is being sought who will provide strong, authoritative leadership on research for the Healthy Ageing Challenge. The role will involve leading and co-coordinating the successful research projects commissioned through the Social, Behavioural and Design Research Programme (call due early 2020). The Research Director will be responsible for the coherence of research across the portfolio of activity and for maintaining awareness of the domain and emerging evidence.

The successful application will be expected to have an outstanding track record of leadership within the area of healthy ageing, and a broad understanding of the potential for different disciples within and across the social sciences and arts and humanities to contribute to this research area.

The call for a Research Director will be led by ESRC in collaboration with AHRC and is expected to open in August 2019 with applicants indicating their intention to submit in September 2019 for a full proposal in October 2019.