1. EPSRC Economic Impact Plan: New requirements and changes to proposal form
2. EPSRC Managing Demand: Amendments to policy for repeatedly unsuccessful applicants
3. EPSRC Peer Review Survey: Outcomes and Changes
4. EPSRC Postdoctoral Fellowship: (internal deadline: 14 July 2009)
5. London Mathematical Society: Conference Grants
1. EPSRC Economic Impact Plan: New requirements and changes to proposal form
From 21 April 2009, applications for EPSRC funding will need to address the issue of the potential economic impact of research grants. The wider context is the drive on the part of HM Government to demonstrate value and return for its public investment.
EPSRC has replaced the beneficiaries section of the application form with two new sections:
• Impact summary: this is to explain who may benefit from the research, how they may benefit and what will be done to make sure they have the opportunity to benefit.
• Academic beneficiaries: this is to explain how the research will benefit other researchers in the field. Up to two pages impact plan should be submitted with the application form.
Applicants will also need to write a new two-page Impact plan in addition to the case of support. The plan is specific to users and beneficiaries of the research who are outside of the academic research community and should expand on the information in the impact summary
Information and guidance on how to prepare an impact plan are available here.
2. EPSRC Managing Demand: Amendments to policy for repeatedly unsuccessful applicants
EPSRC has introduced changes to the grant application process in order to reduce the volume of applications as a whole. The new measures concern changing the rules on the resubmission of proposals and the introduction of a temporary 12-month exclusion for repeatedly unsuccessful applicants.
• From 1 April 2009 EPSRC no longer accepts uninvited resubmissions of proposals.
• From April 2010 EPSRC is introducing a 12-month cooling-off period for repeatedly unsuccessful applicants. EPSRC will allow unsuccessful applications who have: (i) three applications as PIs over two years in the lower half (below 50%) of the applicant field, and (ii) personal success rate below 25% to submit only one application over the subsequent 12-moth period.
Click here for more information on new rules on the resubmission of proposals.
3. EPSRC Peer Review Survey: Outcomes and Changes
In 2008 EPSRC ran a survey to gather information from stakeholder in academia and industry on the suitability of the current peer review process and suggestion for improving the process. Overall, the current process is seen favourably by the vast majority of the research community. Some actions, however, where identified for the improvement of the process. Actions include:
• Reviewer forms will be redesigned to make them clearer and to make the links with the assessment criteria more explicit.
• Strengthening guidance for panels.
• Improving the process followed by panels.
• Establishing a new EPSRC peer review college to increase focus on performance management and to offer opportunities for training and networking.
Results of the EPSRC Peer Review Survey are available here.
4. EPSRC Postdoctoral Fellowship (internal deadline: 14 July 2009)
EPSRC Postdoctoral fellowships enable talented new researchers to establish an independent research career shortly or immediately after completing a PhD. They provide funding to cover the fellow’s salary and a small amount of travel and subsistence, equipment and consumables. The fellowships last for up to three years.
Candidates should have an ‘Oxford sponsor’, a faculty member supporting the application and prepared to assist in the application process. Full first drafts should be submitted to Research Facilitation by 14 July.
More information for this call is available here.
5. London Mathematical Society: Conference Grants
The current upper limit for grants is £6,000. This normally covers support for: the principal speakers (up to £4,000); research students (up to £1,000); participants from the international short visits scheme or from the former Soviet Union (up to £1,000).
Award amount max: £6000
Internal deadline: 1 September 2009.
More information for this call is available here.
More information on current and past funding opportunities on: https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/research/research-facilitation/funding-oppor…
