Funding
We celebrate the breadth of research approaches, methods and themes across Schools and disciplines, and recognise that this implies the need for diverse forms of support.
Enhancing support for grant applications
In partnership with our Schools, we developed a toolkit for enhancing academic-led grant support. This covered initiatives to help foster a grant culture in Schools, and more specific measures on awareness raising and guidance, peer review and mentoring, and training.
The challenges related to Covid-19 suggest the continued relevance of these measures, but have also created the need for some additional priorities. Our response to these challenges included ensuring support for those most affected by Covid, notably those with caring responsibilities, through
- priority access to research leave,
- protected research time,
- seed funding,
- and professional support for grant applications.
We will be working with Schools to ensure that research support is targeted at ECRs and those at critical career junctures, those with protected characteristics, and those especially adversely affected by the pandemic.
We continue to work with, and encourage, our Schools to reflect on funding portfolios, encouraging staff to apply for schemes that match the strategic priorities of the School, meet the needs of ECRs and other researchers at critical career junctures, and offer appropriate levels of funding. Our aim is to use our CAHSS thematic groups as fora to build collaborations aimed at challenge-led and interdisciplinary funded research opportunities.
Scaling up grant proposals
We are launching a series of initiatives to enable our staff to understand, and succeed in, the new funding landscape. Part of this involves supporting themes and clusters to build capacity in areas of strength that are aligned with funder priorities (as set out above).
Complementing this, we will train and support some of our researchers to develop larger, more ambitious proposals. We have welcomed Edinburgh Research Office (ERO)’s new Academic Talent Strategy, which sets out initiatives to support staff at all career stages in winning and implementing externally funded projects. We have also been actively involved in shaping and promoting the ERO’s new Strategic Leadership in Research Programme, which supports mid-career researchers with a strong track record to scale up their ambition and lead large-scale funding bids.
We will also be conducting ongoing horizon-scanning with ERO and Schools, to identify areas for building capacity for future large grant opportunities. This will feed into ongoing adjustment of our priority themes and areas for cross-College collaboration.
We will target Challenge Investment Fund grants to support seed funding for ambitious collaborative grant applications.