Commissioning

1
Commissioning

• An ESRC Research Centre
• Ten Commissioning Stages
• Scoping
• Specification
• Details on ESRC Society Today
• http//www.esrc.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/opportunities
  /current_funding_opportunities/Third_Sector_Centre
  .aspx

2
Proposal Development

• Stage 3
• Closes 4.00pm Thursday 27th March 2008

3
Receipt and acceptance

• Stage 4
• Research Councils Joint Electronic Submission
  System (Je-S)
• Je-S registration is a necessity
• Acceptance
• in scope
• eligible
• CASE Studentships
• approved outlets

4
Peer Review

• Stage 5
• Nominate Referees
• Comments and Grades
• Quality review

5
Right to reply

• Stage 6
• Anonymised comments
• Substantive Points
• One week

6
Assessment

• Stage 7
• Commissioning Panel
• Allocation
• Overview further grading

7
Panel Meeting

• Stage 8
• Mid-May 08
• Evidence from referees, responses and assessors'
  comments
• Capacity Building Clusters
• Centre proposals shortlisted for interview
• Conditions

8
Interviews

• Stage 9
• Discussion
• Clarification
• Conditions

9
Decisions

• Stage 10
• Ratification
• Announcement to applicants
• feedback
• Public announcement

10
Next Steps

• Grant Issue
• Contracts
• Start Date 1st September 2008
• Governance
• Steering Committee

11
Capacity Building Clusters (CBCs)

• The Research Centre will be supported by three
  Capacity Building Cluster (1million each)
• Key purpose of the CBCs
• To build long term capacity to meet the current
  and future research needs of the Third Sector.
• Flexible Portfolio
• Each cluster will be a five year award utilising
  a flexible portfolio of training and knowledge
  exchange activities
• Three year CASE studentships
• Two year Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP)
  awards
• Third Sector placements lasting from between 1 to
  12 months
• A Third Sector Vouchers Scheme

12
Capacity Building Clusters (CBCs)

• CASE Studentships support a collaborative
  doctoral programme of research. To ensure the
  quality of training, any student must be based in
  an ESRC outlet.
• Knowledge Transfer Partnerships a KTP is a
  relationship between a company/organisation and a
  knowledge base institution, where the academic
  contributors apply their expertise to a project
  that is central to the development of their
  collaborative partner. These are two year awards
  carried out by an appointed 'Associate' who is
  normally a graduate or postgraduate student.
• Third Sector Placement Fellows enable TSOs to
  access the research knowledge, expertise and
  resources of social science researchers. A
  researcher is appointed to spend time in a TSO to
  undertake practice-relevant research and work on
  specific projects. The scheme is flexible in
  relation to the duration, time commitment and
  location of the placements.
• Third Sector Voucher Scheme This will enable
  TSOs to apply for a 3K voucher that they can use
  within an agreed number of different HEIs. The
  aim of the Voucher is to enable TSOs to fund
  short term academic consultancy to access
  research relevant to their organisation, or to
  frame questions that might be addressed through
  the commissioning of new research.

13
Capacity Building Clusters (CBCs)

• Eligibility and Commissioning
• The CBCs will work in close collaboration with
  the Centre, under the overall management of the
  Director
• Applicants can apply for more than one cluster.
  However, two of the clusters must be outside of
  the Centre
• The focus of the CBCs is not fixed - can address
  a wide range of Third Sector orientated research.
  However, one cluster will take Social Enterprise
  as its key focus
• Organisation of CBCs is not fixed - single
  research organisations (HEIs) or a consortia of
  research organisations
• The Principal Applicant must have CASE
  recognition
• The CBCs must demonstrate a critical mass of
  expertise through multidisciplinary collaboration
  and co-production of knowledge
• The Capacity Clusters will be commissioned
  alongside the Centre in a parallel application.

14
Thank You

• Centre
• ian.farnden_at_esrc.ac.uk
• 01793 413017
• CASE
• tracy.davies_at_esrc.ac.uk
• 01793 413063
• KTPs, Placements, Vouchers
• amanda.williams_at_esrc.ac.uk
• 01793 413126