Postdoctoral funding Research fellowships

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Postdoctoral fundingResearch fellowships

• Louise Phillips

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Types of funding available

• Grants
• To fund specific set of experiments
• May not have specific deadlines
• Applicant and/or employed researcher
• Likely to be in collaboration with academic staff
• Fellowships
• Funding for an individual
• Very specific eligibility criteria
• Usually annual deadline

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Funding bodies (FBs) for UK projects

• UK research councils
• MRC, ESRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, CSO.
• Major charities/scientific foundations
• Leverhulme Trust, Nuffield Foundation, Wellcome
  Trust.
• Learned societies
• British Academy, Royal Society
• Specific charities
• Research into Ageing, Alzheimers Research Trust
• Government Departments?
• Industry?

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Possible schemes of interest

• Learned societies e.g.
• British Academy postdoc fellowships
• Royal Society fellowships
• Scientific foundations
• Caledonian Research Foundation
• Leverhulme Trust career development fellowships
• Nuffield Foundation new career fellowships
• Specific subject charities
• Research into Aging
• Alzheimers Research Trust
• Research councils
• EPSRC/BBSRC/ESRC fellowships

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FBs (international work)

• European Union Schemes?
• Marie Curie awards
• Human Frontier Science Programme
• Contact Kerry Hay at RI
• Charity/trust administered schemes
• Royal Society
• British Academy
• Leverhulme Trust
• Check similar FBs in country interested in
• E.g. ESRC fellowships could go to citizens of
  other countries if they were based at UK
  university.

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Advantages of getting a fellowship

• Guaranteed income for 1-5 years
• Very highly valued by departments and on CV for
  future jobs
• Can carry out research that you want to
• No boss or supervisor in most cases
• Forms sometimes very quick to fill in
• If eligibility criteria strict competition might
  not be too great

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Disadvantages of applying for a fellowship

• Some of the forms hugely complex and
  time-consuming
• Chances of success in big schemes very low
• Need to work independently
• May have very specific requirements
• E.g. age or experience criteria

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Applying for fellowships

• The art of creative bullshitting

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Before beginning application

• Speak to your supervisor
• Identify funding sources
• Read eligibility criteria really carefully
• Find out about FB
• Whos on the board?
• What research have they funded before?
• What are the strategic priorities, mission
  statement, aims of organisation etc?
• Contact them to ask any questions
• But check for e.g. FAQs first.

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Application process

• Decide where wish to carry out work
• Sponsorship
• If not in Aberdeen will probably need to find
  someone at institution to sponsor you
• May stand better chance if they know your work
  already, or you have had some correspondence with
  them
• Discuss the application with experts (e.g.
  academic staff, research finance).

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General tips for applications

• Look at a previous successful funding application
  to your chosen FB if possible.
• Make an effort to sell your research as (a)
  brilliant and (b) related to the aims of the FB
• Dont even consider being modest (but dont tell
  complete lies).
• Check out every bit of info on FB you can find
• Website, media etc
• Referee forms etc

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CVs

• Emphasise research experience
• Skills e.g. statistics, programming
• Papers published, under review, in press, in prep
• Internal and external presentations
• Involvement in organization of research activity
• Dont go into detail of non-academic jobs
• Trying to make it sound like want to follow
  career in academia
• Do mention transferable skills, teaching
• E.g. computer skills, stats skills, speaking
  skills
• Any grants or funding for e.g. conferences

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What will increase your chance of getting funding?

• Publications, conference presentations, other
  research activities
• Fantastic references
• from important or well-known people?
• Project fits well with mission of the FB
• Carefully read all guidelines to see what they
  are looking for
• Get advice on your application from someone
  successful with that FB in the past.
• Put in multiple applications to different FBs

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How are proposals evaluated?

• Fit with remit/aims of FB
• Adhere to all guidelines
• Well argued scientific case
• Clear plan of research
• Not too complicated
• Comprehensible to non-experts but convincing to
  experts
• Address interesting-sounding research questions

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Chances of getting funding?

• Vary hugely from one scheme to another
• More restricted the criteria or obscure the FB
  the better the chance
• No matter how good, your application less than
  50 chance of funding
• For many schemes chance may be nearer to 10
• Excellent practice for putting in grant
  applications and the harsh rejections of academic
  life
• University and department will look favourably on
  your attempts to get funding

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Example of fellowship application process

• Economic and Social Research Council
• Postdoctoral fellowships scheme
• http//www.esrc.ac.uk/esrccontent/postgradfunding/
  posdoctorial_fellowship_scheme2.asp

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ESRC fellowships

• Postdoc fellowship scheme can only apply
  immediately on finishing PhD
• Closing date ?? January 2005
• Date may be chosen to minimise applications?
• You will need to be prepared well in advance
• Applicants must have completed their doctorate
  no more than two years prior to the beginning of
  the award or expect to do so by 1 October 2005.
• Warning some of website info seems out of date

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Postdoctoral fellowships

• fund new researchers for one year immediately
  after submission of doctorate
• Completed after 1 October 2002 or plans to submit
  by 1 October 2004.
• nominated mentor
• hoped to support 70 new fellows in 2004??
• spine point 6 on the RAIA scale
• 21640 NI pension ?? research costs
  (1000??)

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Priority areas

• applications are welcome from all disciplines,
  but half of the awards made should fall into one
  of the following priority areas
• Area Studies
• Economics
• International Collaborative work
• Quantitative work including social statistics and
  demography
• Interdisciplinary work including work with the
  natural and physical sciences

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4 key objectives of scheme

• Allow fellows to
• Produce publications to improve chances for long
  term employment
• Disseminate findings to academic and non-academic
  audiences
• Improve research skills
• Carry out small amount of research related to PhD
  and develop proposals for future funding

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Institutional support

• The mentor must be a senior colleague within the
  institution, with research experience in the same
  field as the applicant but should not, wherever
  possible, be the PhD supervisor.
• But this shouldnt rule out 2nd supervisors.
• The host institution will be expected to show
  they have a commitment to the support and
  promotion of young researchers and lecturers
• ESRC will not normally permit awards to be
  transferred from one institution to another.

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Submission of PhD thesis

• Applicants should anticipate that they would have
  completed their doctorate by 1 October 2005 at
  the time of application.
• The expectation of submission by 1 October 2005
  must be verified by the supervisor on the
  application form.
• Any offer of an award will be conditional until
  ESRC has received documentary evidence of the
  successful completion of the doctorate from the
  applicant's institution.

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Application form costings

• Need to provide careful costing for requests for
  funding for
• Travel (e.g. conferences)
• Consumables (e.g. software)
• Exceptional items (e.g. postal costs)
• Equipment
• Must fully justify all requested funds
• Look at a successful ESRC application

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Application form mentor section

• Needs to provide sections on institutional
  support, access to research resources, proposed
  mentoring arrangements, short CV.
• Quite long sections
• Need to allow sufficient time
• Will need to discuss your proposed research in
  detail

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Application form signatures

• Needs to be signed by HoD, mentor, PhD
  supervisor, Research Finance Services accountant.
• Need substantial forward planning
• And everyone disappears end of Dec

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Application form CV

• Details of education, awards, employment, papers
  and conferences.
• Dont go into huge details irrelevant jobs
• Other sections requiring
• Most important research skills
• List of papers written to date
• Put in papers in preparation too
• Teaching experience

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Application form other sections

• Require summary of doctoral thesis.
• claims to originality excellence
• methodology and significant findings
• Impacts of your research
• Impacts include the impact of completed
  research, the diffusion of its results
• Impact on researchers, users and policy makers
• Communication plans
• Publications, conferences, debates, media.
• Communication to non-academic users
• Identify plans for at least 2 publications

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Application form 4 pages on proposed work

• Big clue address 4 key objectives of scheme
• Contribution to career development
• May be beneficial to include plans to do some
  teaching or organise research activities
• Publication plans
• Be specific and ambitious about journals
• Dissemination/networking
• Conferences and meetings
• Skill development
• Might include visits to other labs?
• New research skills that would benefit career?

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4 pages on proposed work

• Development of research proposals
• Research plans, also plans to attract research
  funding. Be as specific as possible.
• Research activities
• Not expected to undertake new research but
  limited work related to PhD can be undertaken. Be
  careful not to make this focus of proposal.
• Other
• ????
• Timetable

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Assessment of proposals

• Assessed by ESRC postdoctoral fellowship
  assessment panel
• Are these people listed on website?
• Assessment based on
• PhD supervisors report
• 2 independent referees chosen by ESRC
• Assessment panel
• Reference form on the web
• Notified of decision by end of May

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Referee assessment form

• Based on application how do you rate potential
  intellectual ability of applicant?
• Would a fellowship have significant impact on
  applicants future career?
• Priority for funding
• Ability, quality of programme, potential impact
  of publication plans, strength of institutional
  commitment, probable impact of award

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General useful information

• Powerpoint slides available _at_
• Psychology Dept gt Staff gt Louise Phillips gt
  Personal homepage gt postdoc fellowships.

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Useful websites

• UK research councils http//www.rcuk.ac.uk/
• Leverhulme Trust http//www.leverhulme.org.uk/inde
  x.htm
• Nuffield Foundation. http//www.nuffield.org/home/
  
• Wellcome Trust http//www.wellcome.ac.uk/
• The Royal Society http//www.royalsoc.ac.uk/
• The British Adademy http//www.britac.ac.uk/index.
  asp
• Higher Education Research opportunities
  http//www.hero.ac.uk/index.cfm
• EC RD information service http//www.cordis.lu/en
  /home.html.
• REFUND research funding info generally
  http//www.refund.ac.uk