Research Opportunities Fund
(previously Research Networking Fund)
Funding of up to £2,000 for faculty to stimulate new interdisciplinary
ideas, themes and synergies. Funds could be used for:
•
Developing a network to respond to a specific interdisciplinary funding
call;
•
Identifying new interdisciplinary research questions / problems that have
the potential to shape future funding agendas;
•
Preparation for large grant (over £500k) applications; for example through
the short-term employment of a research assistant or associate tutor,
interview coaching or stakeholder engagement;
•
Visits for Sussex faculty to engage with key collaborators in the
development of joint proposals.
Info: www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/research/sussexresearch/rof
Research Networking / Opportunities Fund:
all bids and awards
7
6
5
4
BIDS
3
AWARDS
2
1
0
GLOBAL
HAHP
LPS
ESW
MFM
BSMS
No deadline / apply anytime /
quick response
ENGLISH
MPS
ENGINF
PSYCH
LIFESCI
High success rate → iterative
application process
Examples of ROF/RNF funded activity
Developing a network:
• Vinita Damodaran (HAHP): awarded £1,500 to create a Sussex-led
consortium of British Universities interested in historical climate
reconstruction who will (1) develop closer collaborations with users /
policymakers / organisations with similar interest across, and (2)
develop a plan to submit a joint external proposal.
• Ed Hughes (MFM): awarded £2,000 to create an Orchestra of the
Future project bringing together Sussex faculty from MFM, EIT and
MPS to discuss development of interdisciplinary research activity.
• Ben Burbridge (HAHP): awarded £300 to hold a workshop to discuss
the establishment of a new Centre for Visual Culture.
Examples of ROF/RNF funded activity
Preparation of a large grant:
• Benjamin Zeitlyn (ESW): awarded £490 for 2 bid development
meetings for the international team drafting an ERC starting grant to
be submitted in March 2015.
• Lyndsay Smith (ENGLISH): awarded £700 to hold a 2 day meeting to
explore interdisciplinary research questions that will inform an
application to the AHRC and/or Leverhulme.
• Barry Garraway (MPS): awarded £1,500 to network with external
academics and raise UoS profile in Quantum Technologies in advance
of a large EPSRC call → resulted in awards of over £7M.
Research Development Fund
Pump-priming funds of £5k - £50k to develop activities that will lead to
substantive external proposals.
Duration: up to 12 months
Next call date: 16 Feb 2015
Next deadline: 13 April 2015
Info: www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/research/sussexresearch/rdf
Successful proposals provide a convincing case
for the necessity of the pilot work to be undertaken
before a competitive proposal could be made to a
specific external funding body.
Research Development Fund: stats
Average award value = £16k
(range from £5k to £35k)
Average project duration =
7 months
(range from 2 to 12 months)
RDF Round 1
Dec-13
44 bids submitted from 12 Schools
9 awards
20% success rate
RDF Round 2
RDF Round 3
Apr-14
Nov-14
18 bids submitted from 9 Schools 23 bids submitted from 10 Schools
7 awards
11 awards
39% success rate
48% success rate
Examples of RDF funded activity
1.
2.
3.
David Hendy (MFM) The BBC Centenary History Project: Researchers in
MFM will be working with the BBC to bring the Corporation's hitherto-closed
Oral History Archive to a wide public audience. RDF funding will allow the
material to be scoped and for an interpretation and digitisation strategy to be
developed.
Sara Crangle (ENGLISH) Aesthetics & Politics: Rethinking Contemporary
British Avant-Gardism: The archive of Anna Mendelssohn (1948-2009) was
donated to Sussex in 2010; RDF funding will facilitate the cataloguing of her
work, a pre-requisite to future research funding bids and Sussex-based
scholarship
Sue Currell (ENGLISH) Mapping the American Radical Periodical: New
Masses magazine 1926-48: This digital scholarship project will enable the
conservation and digitization of Sussex Special Collection’s archive of the New
Masses magazine.