Funding Opportunities for Career Development
Dr Gwen Averley
Research Funding Development Manager
http://www.mrc.ac.uk/skills-careers/
Overview
• The Faculty process for applying for
Fellowships
• How to find funding opportunities via
RESEARCHconnect
• Recent funder changes in fellowship eligibility
• Success rates
Making Fellowship Applications at Newcastle
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/medical/research/fellowships/
Faculty ECR Working Group
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/medical/research/fellowships/ffgs.htm
• Support for those applying for science Fellowships
• Contact [email protected] and the member of the
Faculty Fellowship Group from your academic unit
Clinical Academic Office (CAO)
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/biomedicine/clinical/about/index.htm
• Support for those applying for clinical Fellowships
• Contact [email protected] in the CAO
FELLOWSHIPS: informing the Faculty
To submit a (non-clinical) Fellowship application the applicant
must have the prior consent of the Dean of Research; sight of a
near final version of the application, well before the closing date,
will be required in order to obtain this consent
The applicant must send an email to the email address
[email protected] letting us know of the intent to apply in
order to initiate this consent process
The email should specify:
• which Fellowship(s) and the closing dates
• how far you are on with drafting the application
• whether you have informed your Research Support Officer of
your need to have costings done
• with whom you have discussed the proposal so far
• whether you have arranged internal peer reviewers and who
Faculty Fellowship Group
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/medical/research/fellowships/ffgs.htm
Chair
Prof Deb Henderson, Deputy Dean of Research and
Innovation
ICaMB Caroline Austin, Kevin Waldron, Paula Salgado
ICM
Simi Ali, Catharien Hilkens
IGM
Helen Arthur, Gavin Hudson
IHS
Judith Rankin, Falko Sniehotta
IoN
Craig Robson, Steve Clifford, Lisa Russell
NICR
Melissa Bateson, Zosia Chrzanowska-Lightowlers
SDS
John Taylor
Discuss your plans with them; they will let you know what
level is competitive; they will comment on draft applications;
they will give mock interviews
Recent Fellowship eligibility changes
BBSRC removes upper limit on number of years’ research experience
http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/news/policy/2015/150326-n-changes-bbsrc-fellowships-followingreview/
• The Anniversary Future Leader Fellowship has continued as the
Future Leader Fellowship (FLF), providing support for independent
postdoctoral research
• The number of scientists eligible for the David Phillips Fellowship
will be increased by removing the upper limit on the years of
research experience; combined with the FLF this creates a
continuum of support from PhD to Group Leader
MRC removes eligibility criteria based on years since PhD
http://www.mrc.ac.uk/news-events/news/signposting-medical-research-career-options/
Wellcome Trust - Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowships
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Biomedical-science/Funding-schemes/Fellowships/Basic-biomedical-fellowships/WTX033549.htm
you must be in the final year of your PhD studies or have no more than
two years of postdoctoral research experience from the date of your
PhD viva at the final decision point
Finding Funding: RESEARCHconnect
For RESEARCHconnect you need to login at this URL
http://www.idoxgrantfinder.co.uk/education/
Note that the University accounts are only available from the ‘/education’
URL – your login will not work from their home page
Your user name is [email protected]
i.e. using '@newcastle.ac.uk' and not '@ncl.ac.uk'
and your immediate password is ‘newcastle’
You can change the password in My Account once you are in
For grants and fellowships you need to search RESEARCHconnect
GrantFinder is more for business and local health authority type funding
ReCap session https://internal.ncl.ac.uk/medical/research/grantguide/
Other Funding sources
• Professional bodies
• Learned Societies
• National, European, International
• Especially for small awards, prizes, ‘esteem’ awards,
public engagement, etc.
• New Twitter accounts
• @FMSgrantfunding
• @SAgEfunding
First step
Learned Societies & Professional Bodies
JOIN THEM
Source of small funding, prizes, networking
CV building
In addition to the all-important publications
• Travel grants
• Prizes
• Essay competitions (e.g. MRC Max Perutz Writing
Award)
• Public engagement activities
• Entrepreneurial (e.g. Biotechnology YES) C/D 27 May
• Vacation Studentships
• Eventually Fellowships, research grants
Example travel / training grant calls
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availability depends on your research area – think laterally
Biochemical Society
Boehringer Ingelheim GmbJ
Brain
British Association for Cancer Research
British Infection Society
British Neuropathological Society
British Society for Cell Biology
British Society for Developmental Biology
DAAD – German Academic Exchange Service
European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
(ESCMID European Association of Experimental Social Psychology)
Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS)
Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness
Genetics Society
Nutrition Society
Physiological Society
Society for Experimental Biology
Society for General Microbiology
Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
Success rates data
Research funder strategy and strategic priorities
• Wellcome Trust grants awarded and funding
statistics http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Managing-a-grant/Grants-awarded/index.htm
• BBSRC portfolio analyser
http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/research/grants-search/advancedsearch/
• MRC Fellowship success rates
http://www.mrc.ac.uk/research/funded-research/success-rates/
• NIHR Fellowship success rates
http://www.nihr.ac.uk/funding/training-programmes.htm
MRC Fellowships awarded (2013/14) 2014/15
http://www.mrc.ac.uk/research/funded-research/success-rates/#fellowship
MRC Fellowship type (2013/14) 2014/15
No. of
No. of
application application
s
s awarded
Success rate
(%)
Clinical Fellowship
Clinician Scientist Fellowship
(33) 35
(7) 11
(21%) 31%
(5) 4
(2) 1
(40%) 25%
(119) 121
(44) 38
(37%) 31%
(88) 100
(13) 14
(15%) 14%
(19) 18
(2) 0
(11%) 0%
(8) 10
(4) 5
(50%) 50%
Early Career Fellowship in Economics of Health
(5) 3
(3) 1
(60%) 33%
Methodology Research Fellowship
(8) 9
(2) 2
(25%) 22%
(35) 44
(9) 6
(26%) 14%
(7) 21
(0) 3
(0%) 14%
(327) 365
(86) 81
(26%) 22%
Senior Clinical Fellowship
Clinical Research Training Fellowship
Non – Clinical
Career Development Award
Senior Non-Clinical Fellowship
Specialist Schemes
Career Development Award in Biostatistics
Population Health Scientist Fellowship
Special Training Fellowships in Biomedical
Informatics
Total
Guidance on grant writing
The Art of Grantsmanship by Dr Jacob Kraicer
http://www.hfsp.org/funding/art-grantsmanship
Grant Writing Guidance
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/medical/research/grantguide/
‘More than Lucky’ by Kay Guccione re ECR experience of
obtaining fellowships
http://www.lfhe.ac.uk/en/research-resources/smalldevelopment-projects/sdp2014/sheffieldApo.cfm?utm_source=research&utm_campaign=sdp