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• Research Update
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• European Research Update
• Promising Researcher Awards
• The Challenge Fund

Promising Researcher Awards 2010/11

The Promising Researcher Awards 2010/11 round has now closed and awards have been made. Standards were once again extremely high and the judging panel were very impressed with all the entries. Congratulations to the six successful applicants - for more details, click here.

The remainder of the information below refers to the now closed 2010/11 round. Details of the 2011/2012 competition will be published here, probably in spring 2011.

Background

The Promising Researcher Scheme was originally developed following the 2003 HEFCE consultation on the research funding method. Originally a separate scheme, the funding was subsequently rolled into our mainstream HEFCE allocation.

In 2010/11 the University is again making available a total of £100K for this initiative.

Please click here for more information about previous years' Promising Researcher Awards.

Proposal

There will be a “mixed approach” to the awards. A maximum of two “large” awards will be made, and as many “small” awards as the remaining funds allow. A “large” award is defined as being between £15,000 and £30,000; a “small” award is defined as being between £5,000 and under £15,000.

These funds are to be used to support proposals made by “promising researchers” which is defined in this instance as:

• someone employed on an academic contract specifying their primary function as teaching and/or research
• where that contract is with UEL itself and is the first such contract they have held, at any HEI
•  where that employment was taken up on or after 1 August 2007

This definition does not include teaching assistant- or research assistant-type roles, so colleagues who have formerly held such roles at UEL or elsewhere prior to 1 August 2007 are therefore not excluded from applying for Promising Researcher Award funding.

Up to £5,000 of the award (whether “large” or “small”) can be used to ‘buy out’ the teaching time of one or more of the applicants but is not otherwise intended to cover salary costs of the applicant. Where the applicant holds a fixed term contract due to expire before the end of the period of the award, definite arrangements must be made with their Dean of School/Director of Institute/Service to ensure that the employment can continue until at least the end of the period of the award. This funding is not to be used to provide an extension to an existing fixed-term contract. Similarly where the applicant is serving their initial probationary period, they may apply but their Dean/Director should be aware that by agreeing to support the application they are agreeing to continue to employ the applicant until at least the end of the period of the award regardless of the outcome of the probationary period.

The award may be used to cover research and equipment costs, additional technical and research assistant support, purchase of specimens, consumables and resources, for travel, subsistence, and conference costs, and any other justifiable expenses.  

To comply with UEL accounting procedures all expenditure must be completed no later than 31 July 2011. During the lifetime of the award it is possible to “vire” funds between different foreseen costs (e.g., a saving made on the purchase of specimens may be used to purchase additional research assistant support where the specimens and the research assistant appeared in the original budget) without further permission. Unspent funds may be used for a reasonable purpose in connection with the project not foreseen in the original budget only with the permission of the Director of the Graduate School. Unspent funds will be recouped by the University at the end of the award period.

The award period may begin at any time after 1 August 2010, but normally not later than 1 October 2010.

Deferral of the award is not possible. 

Application procedure

1) Colleagues must supply a detailed bid that:

• Gives a full and justified account of how the funding will be used
• Contains specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and trackable research outcomes
• Shows how the investigation made possible by the award will help the university develop research capability
• Relates the research project to the relevant School, Institute or Service development strategy

N.B. It is a requirement of accepting the award that at least one application is made for ‘follow-on’ funding from an external agency during the 2010/11 academic year.

2) Further Particulars

• The main proposal must be presented in Arial font of not less than 10pt size and must not exceed 5 sides of A4.
• The CVs of the principal and any co-investigators must be included as an appendix.
• A realistic, full and detailed costing must be included as an appendix. A costing template has been developed by Finance for this purpose which you can download by clicking here. If you need assistance or advice from Finance on preparing a budget please contact them at least three weeks prior to the submission deadline. Salary costs other than as teaching buy-out, and estates and indirect costs, are not required to be included in the budget.
• Large awards are between £15,000 and £30,000. Small awards are between £5,000 and under £15,000.
• Details of any additional resources being made available by the School or Service must be included
• Evidence that the relevant Dean of School or Director of Institute/Service is supportive of the application and has agreed any additional resources must be supplied.

N.B. Any proposal missing the documentation requested, or ignoring the guidance given under ‘2’ may be rejected.

Award process

1) School or Service stage

Each School, Institute or Service may put forward a maximum of one application for a large award, or three applications for a small award.  Schools, Institutes and Services should put in place open and auditable procedures to produce this outcome.  Cross School/Institute/Service applications can only be considered by one such procedure. 

2) Institutional stage

Applications will be judged against the criteria laid out above by an awards panel consisting of Professor David Rose (acting Pro-Vice Chancellor Research and Knowledge Exchange), Dr Alan White (Director of the Graduate School) and an external colleague.

Deadline

The deadline for receipt of applications is 4.00pm Friday 28th May 2010. Bids should be submitted as email attachments to Dr Tim Brooks in the Graduate School (t.brooks@uel.ac.uk).

The current intention is to announce the outcome no later than the end of June 2010.

Reports and Sanctions

Award holders will be required to produce an initial report on the research outcomes from the funding period by Friday, 9th September 2011. This should explain what was intended in the initial proposal, and what was achieved, particularly reporting on the specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and trackable research outcomes given in the application for the award. This should include details of the external research funding that was applied for.

Award holders will be required to produce a second report on the research outcomes from the funding period by Friday, 7th September 2012. This should report in particular on the research outcomes proposed in the original application that had not been completed at the time of the initial report, and any further developments that have been generated as a result of the work carried out under the PRF award.

These reports will be considered by the Research & Knowledge Exchange Committee and, if it is deemed after the second report that the promised outcomes have not been fully or partially met, the host School, Service or Institute may be excluded from participating in the Promising Researcher Award scheme when it is next held.

Alan White

14 April 2010

UEL HOMESEARCH