The role of Fellowships & Grants in an Academic Career

Dave Bembo

Research & Commercial Division

30-36 Newport Road

tel x75159

fax x74189

bembo@cf.ac.uk

www.cf.ac.uk/racdv

Interpretation

An academic career in this context means progression from:

i) (frequently) postgraduate level work leading to a research degree

ii) postdoctoral (or equivalent) level work as a research assistant / research associate (PDRA)

iii) a greater degree of independence, possibly as a research fellow

Q - How does writing grant applications and holding research funding fit with this ?

Q - Do you recognise yourself in this list ?

Scope:

Cardiff University - research awards and performance

University research strategy & key issues

The RAE context

Research grants vs Fellowships

Your eligibility to apply for and hold research funding in your own right

[ Points of contact for research support ]

Research activity versus total turnover

Total Cardiff University turnover c. M£320 New research awards (grants & contracts): M£110 in 2006/07 1,625 ‘live’ externally funded research projects @ March 2006, total value M£278 1,789 research applications made by Cardiff staff logged in RACD in 2006/07 for a total of M£299 (mean = £167K) Average CU research award 2006/07: £129K (£97K in 2004/05, £113K in 2005/06)

2005-06 All research awards

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

0

1563

3125

6250

12500

25000

50000

100000

200000

400000

800000

1600000

3200000

6400000

12800000

More

Upper value of frequency class, arithmetic progression (£)

Fre

qu

en

cy

Research Awards (£M)

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

96/97 97/98 98/99 99/00 00/01 01/02 02/03 03/04 04/05 05/06 06/07

Year

Research awards by sponsor (2006-07)

Awards this period Comparative Awards

Organisation Type 01/08/2006 - 31/07/2007Current Count

01/08/2005 - 31/07/2006Compare

Count

Charitable Bodies £19,019,416 213 £15,138,691 213

EC £5,589,752 39 £4,537,600 35

EU Government £74,120 7 £166,562 9

EU other £927,548 21 £446,601 19

Health Authorities / Hospitals £281,947 11 £599,444 16

Other Sources £1,914,350 49 £4,300,344 64

Overseas £3,297,774 64 £2,775,746 33

Research Councils £30,745,597 124 £22,109,284 151

UK Central Government £30,949,928 192 £30,549,635 166

UK Industry and Commerce £17,038,256 117 £13,949,399 114

UK Local Authorities £161,024 7 £144,720 4

UK Public Corporations £40,172 2 £1,470,416 8

Total £110,039,884 846 £96,188,442 832

School CountAmount

AwardedAverage Count

Amount Awarded

AveragePercent Change

ARCHI 18 £3,167,073 £175,949 15 £1,324,680 £88,312 139%

BIOSI 99 £6,740,840 £68,089 103 £9,270,893 £90,009 -27%

CARBS 52 £3,867,191 £74,369 56 £3,825,653 £68,315 1%

CHEMY 42 £3,680,394 £87,628 24 £3,502,919 £145,955 5%

CLAWS 12 £2,039,230 £169,936 15 £226,164 £15,078 802%

COMSC 24 £1,940,815 £80,867 19 £585,937 £30,839 231%

CPLAN 25 £3,153,594 £126,144 30 £1,815,636 £60,521 74%

DENTL 31 £1,550,863 £50,028 22 £1,476,924 £67,133 5%

EARTH 31 £1,366,314 £44,075 38 £3,543,507 £93,250 -61%

ENCAP 10 £131,615 £13,162 16 £159,376 £9,961 -17%

ENGIN 69 £9,146,332 £132,556 54 £19,269,106 £356,835 -53%

EUROS 3 £85,691 £28,564 13 £138,023 £10,617 -38%

HISAR 17 £285,175 £16,775 30 £490,162 £16,339 -42%

JOMEC 9 £438,949 £48,772 9 £416,661 £46,296 5%

MATHS 14 £1,706,737 £121,910 11 £59,278 £5,389 2779%

MEC01 6 £1,275,991 £212,665 13 £6,756,158 £519,704 -81%

MEDIC 200 £49,308,115 £246,541 186 £23,796,654 £127,939 107%

MUSIC 2 £3,335 £1,668 2 £8,500 £4,250 -61%

OPTOM 20 £2,533,375 £126,669 22 £898,334 £40,833 182%

PGMDE 0 £0 £0 0 £0 £0 0%

PHRMY 35 £1,971,187 £56,320 44 £2,191,737 £49,812 -10%

PHYSX 17 £6,039,063 £355,239 23 £4,219,021 £183,436 43%

PSYCH 45 £4,445,134 £98,781 35 £7,520,631 £214,875 -41%

RELIG 5 £371,042 £74,208 6 £467,175 £77,863 -21%

SOCSI 46 £3,701,487 £80,467 46 £3,597,151 £78,199 3%

SOHCS 6 £41,253 £6,876 7 £149,500 £21,357 -72%

SONMS 10 £839,958 £83,996 6 £393,895 £65,649 113%

WELSH 4 £209,131 £52,283 4 £84,767 £21,192 147%

Total: 852 £110,039,884 £129,155 849 £96,188,442 £113,296 14%

01/08/2006 - 31/07/2007 01/08/2005 - 31/07/2006

Awards this period Comparative Awards

Research awards by school (2006-07)

Extract from Cardiff University’s Research Strategy, 2006/07 – 2010/11

UK top 5 by 2012; World top 50 by 2015

(99th in THES World rankings Nov 2007, 141st in 2006)

[maintain increase in research income; focus on dissemination & profile]

RAE 2007/8 and beyond

[new metrics and KPIs]

“The University values the contributions of research staff at all stages of

their careers, and supports actively the development of measures of

esteem at both an individual and school level. The University recognises

that early stage researchers make an important contribution to its

research culture.”

Quality of research applications, internal peer review

http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/plann/strategicplan/index.html

Research Assessment Exercise (RAE)

Regular UK Government review of research activity in HEIs. Recently in 1996, 2001 and now 2007/8.

Subject based panels and sub-panels, not always equating to departments and schools. Profile outputs for 2007/8.

Importance of independence of researchers.

Financially, RAE measures research income per FTE per annum

Outputs – (usually) 4 key papers for each member of staff returned. Impact factors important.

Esteem factors. Environment. Numbers of PhD students and RAs.

RAE grade drives QR funding model.

‘Premiership’ transfer market for staff.

Q – do you know where you ‘fit’ in the RAE ?

Q – do you see the RAE as a negative or positive factor in terms of your career

development ?

Eligibility to apply for and hold Research Grants & Fellowships

Most Cardiff University research grant bids submitted by ‘academic staff’, i.e. lecturers, senior lecturers, readers, professors.

UK Research Councils and other major funders often place significant restrictions on eligibility to apply for research grants, e.g. permanent HEFCW funded academics only (see later slides).

Seldom any such restrictions for Fellowship applications – generally open to applications from a far wider field of candidates.

Focusing on Research Fellowships

…..the term "Fellow" is used to describe a temporary academic post. Generally, a fellow has very limited teaching duties and devotes the bulk of their time to research (http://en.wikipedia.org)

…..not a research assistant working on someone else’s project grant

…..can be the first step to becoming an independent researcher

…..fellowship needs to be viewed as an opportunity to develop a research career (MRC Training & Career Development Board)

….. a personal award, with a high esteem factor. ‘RAE friendly’.

Fellowships are more about the quality of individuals, and less about their projects.

Grants Fellowships

Research idea or topic

generated by the academic investigator

originated and developed by the Fellowship holder

Professional Development no special provisions often an important part of the

programme

Eligibilityoften only academic staff can apply

there are schemes for practically everybody

Selection Peer Review, rarely has an interview stage

Peer Review + often references + interview

Example: evaluation criteria and weighting for EU Marie Curie TMR Fellowships, first step evaluation process (FP6)

B1 Scientific Quality of the Project 30 %

B2 Quality of the research trainingB3 Quality of the hostB4 Quality of the Researcher 70%

B5 Management and Feasibility

B6 Added value and Relevance to the objectives of the activity B7 Previous proposals and contracts

B8 Other Issues

Cardiff University view of Research Fellowships

The recipe for excellence in research:

1. Recruit and retain the best people2. Provide a high quality environment 3. Support their development; give them time to generate

outstanding ideas4. Reap the benefits……

Holders of Research Fellowships have demonstrated via peer review:

their individual quality & competitiveness a desire to develop a personal research portfolio

Q – is a Fellowship right for you ?

Q – is a Fellowship right for you, right now ?

Research Councils and other main sponsors - significant variation in the minimum qualifying criteria for an individual to apply for grants as PI (where ‘grant’ = Responsive Mode award, Project Grant,or equivalent) n.b. not Fellowships.

Examples:

1. AHRC - PIs and CoIs must be directly funded by a Higher Education Funding Council (e.g. HEFCW); research assistants and research fellows are explicitly ineligible to apply for funding.

2. ESRC - places no restriction on research assistants applying as PI, and applicants are eligible for funding whether or not they are established members of a recognised institution (provided that institution supports the application and any resulting research activity).

Eligibility to apply for and hold research grants

Eligibility of research fellows to apply for research grants

Fellows are often defined by funders as those holding externally funded fellowships awarded competitively, and can be regarded as eligible by certain funders while those same funders exclude research assistants employed on project grants from submitting applications

i.e. fellows are sometimes at an advantage in terms of the funding that may be available to them.

Overall, a confusing picture. Cardiff University recognised this, and policy was established in late 2005/early 2006.

Paper was reviewed by Early Stage Researchers Steering Group, October 2005, and approved by University Research Committee, December 2005 (paper 05/185). Final stage of approval – Human Resources Committee in early 2006.

Objectives:

Clarity for researchers and schools on

* what is expected of researchers in terms of generating funding proposals

* what support should researchers expect from academic schools

* what are the risks, and how can they be managed

CU Research Committee recommendations :

Clearly, minimum criteria set by funders must be observed.

Early career researchers should be encouraged to apply for research funding, where appropriate for them to do so.

Key factors to consider:

* existing time commitments of research staff* career stage and expectations of individual & school tied in with supervision / mentoring / job description / targets and appraisal* alignment of proposals with school & CU priorities* co-investigators may be required for internal purposes only* focus is on maintaining quality of proposals in a very competitive arena.

Current relevance (2007):

1. An increasing emphasis on quality of research proposals across the university sector – e.g. RCUK consultation on the Efficiency of the Peer Review process, 2007

2. Comparisons of average success rates of HEIs in securing Research Council funding (THES and Research Fortnight, summer 2007)- Cardiff average was circa 24% (some competitors 30-40%)

3. Cardiff’s increasing focus on quality of proposals, quality of research undertaken and quality of research outputs, versus raw financial performance (i.e. value of research awards)

First steps in bidding for research grants:

1. Talk with your supervisor / principal investigator / line manager. Agree on what you should be focusing on and what is expected of you in terms of bidding for research funding. How does this fit with your other duties? Shared goals, common agenda.

Q – is this a discussion that you feel you can have ?

2. Contact the funder and check your personal eligibility – don’t rely on interpretation of tables or web sites as there is often an element of subjectivity, and the position adopted by a funder evolves.

Questions or comments ?

Research Development Staff in RACDV

Dr Dave Bembo Tel: 75159; Bembo@cardiff.ac.uk

Jane Whittingham (Research Information Officer); Tel: 76930; WhittinghamJ@cardiff.ac.uk

Nick Bodycombe (European Office Manager); Tel: 75834;

Eevi Laukkanen (European Officer); Tel: 70114; LaukkanenEM@cardiff.ac.uk

BodycombeN@cardiff.ac.uk

Dr Amanda Jones (Heath Park Schools) Tel: 79296; JonesAL6@cardiff.ac.uk

Dr Samantha Redman (Life Sciences) Tel: 79177; Redman@cardiff.ac.uk

Dr Lee Bartlett (Engineering & Physical Sciences) Tel: 79198; BartlettLM@cardiff.ac.uk

Dr Paul Goodwin (Engineering, Physical & Natural Sciences) Tel: 75464; Email: GoodwinPA@cardiff.ac.uk

Dr Hywel Edwards (Engineering & Physical Sciences) Tel: 76957; EdwardsH3@cardiff.ac.uk

Sally O’Connor (Social Sciences) Tel: 75494; OConnorS@cardiff.ac.uk

Rebecca Blackwell (Humanities) Tel: 77134; BlackwellRM@cardiff.ac.uk