Author Archives: Sharon

Launch of BIIG Ideas Fund

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This month sees the launch of the Business Ideas & Innovation Grant (BIIG).

Are you working with a small business or organisation on a project/idea that could be progressed with our internal BIIG Competitive Fund? Open to all University led projects with businesses and organisations to work together to boost growth and development of ideas. You can apply for a grant of up to £5,000 which equates to approximately 8-14 days of staff time depending on your seniority and if additional resources or equipment is required.

Suggestions for activity include:

  • Apply with an organisation you are already working with
  • Use the fund to develop links with new organisations
  • Help kick start an idea into a larger project, a KTP or funding bid, consultancy or research opportunities
  • Support REF and research outcomes – could this help develop a paper or contribute towards an ongoing impact case study?

We can provide more guidance on the grant and help develop your project application. We are also signposting to other support mechanisms through projects such as Time2Grow and Alphas.

The funds need to be spent by May/June 2021.   This is an internal competitive application process and all applications will be scored against a matrix.  For an initial conversation please email Charlotte.patrick@northampton.ac.uk 

Application Guidance Notes and Funding Timeline can be found here

Deadline for companies to complete an Expressions of Interest is Friday, 9th October. Applications open to academics on Wednesday, 7th October. Interested in applying? Download an application form here

Exciting News! Launch of Pure Award Management

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We are excited to announce that Pure Award Management is going live on Wednesday, 1st July. This new award system will replace our funding platform on Gateway Haplo.

You may have used Pure before for your research and Pure Award Management will now capture the same online approval processes and post-award functions provided in Gateway Haplo along with a host of new features.

No more using two different systems! You’ll be able to keep all your research activities (papers, outputs and impact), applications, awards and projects in Pure making it an ideal one-stop for your research.

Extra features include:-

  • Application integration with Funding Institutional
  • Dashboard overview of your funding opportunities, milestones and projects
  • Reminder alerts so you are notified automatically of any upcoming milestones
  • Database reporting tools to create specifically designed reports

To help staff with the introduction of this new Award system, virtual training sessions will take place at the end of June and early July. Sign up for one of these dates here

Unable to make these sessions? Drop us an email and we can organise a 1:1 or small group session.

Important note: Please ensure your proposals are added to Gateway Haplo for approval by Thursday, 25th June to allow time to go through the approval cycle. Proposals after this date can be added to the new system on 1st July.

UoN Annual Research Conference 2020

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The University’s Annual Research Conference will be delivered online this year with a jam-packed programme.

This year’s offerings include 12 parallel oral presentation streams, a roundtable with the Gender Research Group, two symposia, the famous Three Minute Thesis competition and a virtual social event. There’s more! the Conference will be opened by Professor Shân Wareing, Deputy Vice Chancellor and keynote speaker this year is Hugh Kearns, recognised internationally as a public speaker, educator and researcher.

All sessions will be available via Collaborate and you’ll find further details along with session links in the  full Conference Brochure here

For enquiries about the conference, please contact linda.cooper@northampton.ac.uk

What is Funding Institutional?

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Funding Institutional (FI) is a searchable database containing data on funding opportunities, funders, and awarded grants, drawn from a wide range of government and private sources. You can now use your Scopus author ID to automatically create tailored funding opportunities based on your previous funding and research outputs.  You can share funding opportunities with colleagues through Pure, and set up alerts for new funding opportunities in areas that interest you.

Log in to www.fundinginstitutional.com through your institution – using your university log in details.  The interface is user-friendly, if you click on your circled initials once logged in you can access a full manual with tips and instructions on how to use FI.  You can see a brief overview here

Staff can use FI to:

  • Search for funding opportunities
  • Find new sources of external grant income
  • Set up alerts to be notified automatically of new funding opportunities
  • Share funding opportunities with other staff
  • Find out the most active funders in your research discipline
  • Analyse the awards trend over the years for your search query

Virtual 1-hour training sessions will be announced soon!

UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships Round Five Now Open

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The next round of the Future Leaders Fellowship Scheme is now open for applications. This successful scheme is open to researchers and innovators from across universities, business and other organisations with funding available of up to £1.5 million over 4 years.

This grant will support each fellow to tackle ambitious and challenging research and innovation, develop their own careers and build collaborations. Business hosts will have the ability to attract an individual, or develop an existing employee, who will help create innovative solutions for their business.

Applicants from around the world are eligible to apply and the Scheme has been developed with levels of flexibility to support applicants from a wide range of experiences, disciplines and sectors. New for this year is the Reduced Hours Fellowship which offers additional flexibility.

Future Leaders Fellowships will grow the strong supply of talented individuals needed to ensure a vibrant environment for research and innovation in the UK.

To find out what is involved and how to apply, visit here or get in touch with us.

For tips on writing your application take a look at the new Future Leaders Fellowships blog

Message from the team

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Due to the University of Northampton guidelines regarding COVID-19, please note the Research and Innovation Funding Support team are currently remote working. You can email or call as usual and all the team will be using Jabber so can be contacted either by the chat functionality or by phoning. 

Not sure who to contact in the team? Our RIFS email address is monitored daily and you can contact us here

Things to Know

Pure Award Management is web-based and you’ll still be able to access this from any location with an internet connection.

Log in via: https://pure.northampton.ac.uk with your normal University login details.

Funding Institutional is also a web-based tool.

Log in with your normal University details through: https://www.fundinginstitutional.com

Our RIFS site is an invaluable resource tool and covers all the services we offer. Take a look around here

We are keeping up to date with funding updates and these will be shared as and when they come in or via our Weekly News Update and Weekly Tender List.

If you require up to date information about the University’s approach to COVID-19, please read the University’s Situation Updates

 

2020 Diamond Research Awards

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Message from Dawn Hibbert, Head of Research Support (Library and Learning Services)

Tuesday, 18th February was our second annual Diamond Research Awards night where we celebrated the research and researchers at our University.  We were all inspired by the 5-minute showcasing of research undertaken in each of the faculties and some of our institutes.  I decided that I’d like to either be Claire or Kimberley’s research assistant, but apparently I am not allowed to give up my day job… Something about the REF and Pure… The evening was compered by John Rose from Radio Northampton, who ensured that the evening ran smoothly, despite the crackling lights! 

We were presented with the premier viewing of Anthony Stepniak’s Chancellor Award Funded fourth video, about ‘The Benefits of Doing A Research Degree’… I thought momentarily about undertaking one, but felt it may be too “challenging” at present!  The short video will be released in the near future, and is a great tool for encouraging future students to take up the challenge of undertaking doctorate studies.

All our nominees were worthy of awards, but apparently the budget doesn’t stretch that far, so those that walked away with awards on the night were:

  • Excellence in Doctoral Supervision – Dr Amin Hosseinian-Far, Senior Lecturer in Business Systems & Operations and Professor Chris Roe, Professor of Psychology
  • Excellence in Research Mentorship – Dr Kathleen Mortimer, Senior Lecturer in Business
  • Research Impact – Dr Paul Jackson, Senior Lecturer in History
  • Public Industry/Engagement – Dr Callum Cooper, Lecturer in Psychology
  • Early Career Researcher – Dr Declan Ryan, Lecturer in Exercise Physiology
  • Pure Engagement – Institute for Social Innovation & Impact

Congratulations to all our awardees and to those who were nominated.  The research being done at the University of Northampton continues to be developed and makes an impact on Northampton and beyond.  Our staff continue to mentor and supervise others, bringing out the very best in our researchers.

The research support team continues to work behind the scenes to increase the visibility of our research outputs.  In 2019 research outputs from the University were downloaded from 209 countries, including Senegal, Bahrain and Turkmenistan!  Including downloads from keen academics, research support staff checking copyright and students eager to read their supervisors research, 80931 research outputs were downloaded in 2019!

Many thanks must also go to our Dean of Research, Impact and Innovation, Dr Cathy Smith who continues to work to enhance and drive forward the research of the University.

 

UKRI Remove Pathways to Impact

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UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has announced changes to requirements on ‘Pathways to Impact’.  As a result of this change, you will no longer be required to provide a ‘Pathways to Impact’ plan or complete an ‘Impact Summary’ within your grant application. These requirements will be removed for all UKRI opportunities by 1st March 2020.  Impact is a crucial component of the assessment criteria for this Call, and applicants still need to take Impact into consideration throughout their application.

UKRI are in the process of re-publishing the guidance documents following this announcement. It is important to note that the system change may not come into effect for a couple of weeks. If the system asks you to complete the Impact Summary section or attach a Pathways to Impact statement you should enter ‘N/A’.  Activities to realise impact do not have to be cost-incurring, but relevant costs can be included and must be fully justified within the Justification of Resources statement. The Case for Support page limit will not be increased as a result of this change. 

The full update from UKRI can be found here

UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships Round One Reflections

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Have you previously applied or interested in applying for the next round of UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships funding? The Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) have published their reflections on round one of the scheme.

The ESRC want to enable potential applicants to understand the characteristics of a good social science application. Helpful points to consider include:

  • Quality/excellence is vital but must be evident across all of the assessment criteria.
  • Applications that don’t address all aspects will not be competitive.
  • Applicants need to be clearer on why they will gain from a long-term, flexible, fellowship as opposed to other mechanisms.
  • Strong applicants consider leadership and career development not only for themselves, but also for the staff they plan to employ on the ward. Host commitment is crucial.
  • Candidates need to be able to articulate their research and the intended impact of such an award on their career to an interview panel from range of different backgrounds.
  • The scheme is for Early Career Researchers, not established academics.

You can read the full published article  here

The scheme aims to attract, develop and sustain research and innovation talent in the UK with two future rounds of funding taking place in May 2020 and October 2021.

Please visit the UKRI website or speak to a member from the RIFS team if you are interested in applying for the next round of funding.

Exciting News on GRANTfinder “The Knowledge Exchange”

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We have some exciting news to share from GRANTfinder with the introduction of their new service, The Knowledge Exchange. Launched over 40 years ago, this service has been supporting clients including universities, private sector consultancies, think tanks and charities for many years.

This premium research and policy service has replaced POLICYfinder allowing you to search over 200,000 policy-related resources, including extensive coverage of reviews, research and white papers. It offers a range of policy insight tools and intelligence to aid you in your research. You can also set yourself up to receive regular member-only briefings and alerts on topical policy issues.

The Knowledge Exchange will help you to understand the wider policy context which is influencing the funding environment, and how projects relate to local, regional and national policy. Read more here

This new “bigger and better” service is available to all existing GRANTfinder users. Register here to use this service and a take a look at this handy short video if you need more guidance. Once registered, the RIFS team will approve your request to gain access to the site. We have plenty of User Guide videos to help you become familiar with the site and help create powerful searches, drop us an email for more information.