An introduction to gaining funding

1. An introduction to gaining funding

2. Routes to funding • Studentships and scholarships • Fees and maintenance payments • Travel and fieldwork/primary research costs • Loans

3. Studentships and Scholarships • Research Councils • Larger charities e.g. Leverhulme, Wellcome Trust • Apply in partnership with host institution • Very competitive • Academic research context important

4. Fees and Maintenance Payments • Charities, Trusts and Foundations • Need to read criteria very carefully – funding tends to be geared towards specific groups/needs • Funding tends to be smaller • Success depends on you making an individual case • Do your homework carefully and make sure you are eligible – your personal statement or letter should answer any questions they ask, however obscure

5. Writing a Personal Statement • Have you clearly set out what you need funding for and how it will be used? • have you applied for other awards, or are you doing part-time work: is your application part of an overarching master plan? • are your reasons for funding sound? Can the funding body be confident that their money will not be wasted? • What is your research about? • have you clearly described your research in everyday language? • how relevant and useful is your research to modern society? • Will your research have an impact beyond academia?

6. Travel and other costs • Subject societies • Charities and trusts • Institutional funding • Conference or festival bursaries/discounts • Targeted at particular events or one-off needs e.g. Bibliographical Society

7. Career Development Loans • A Professional and Career Development Loan is a bank loan. You make an agreement with a participating bank to borrow an amount between £300 and £10,000. Then once you’ve stopped studying, you pay it back in the normal way. • The difference with a Professional and Career Development Loan is that the Skills Funding Agency pays the interest on the loan while you’re studying – and for one month afterwards. • After this, you’ll pay interest at the rate fixed when you took out the loan. Interest rates on the loans are set so they’re competitive with other ‘unsecured’ personal loans that are commercially available. • Currently, banks offer Professional and Career Development Loans at a reduced customer rate of 9.9% per annum, equivalent to a typical APR of 5-6% over the lifetime of the loan. However, interest rates may vary from bank to bank. For further information, consult the participating banks. • http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/EducationAndLearning/AdultLearning/FinancialHelpForAdultLearners/CareerDevelopmentLoans/DG_10033237

8. Funding Databases • Scholarship Search • postgraduatestudentships.co.uk • studentcashpoint.co.uk • unigrants.co.uk • Research and Development Funding database

9. University Funding database • Register through a networked computer using your bathspa.ac.uk e-mail address • Once registered, you can access the site through the internet anywhere • https://pivot.cos.com/session/login • Once you are logged in, set up an individual search

10. Training • Comprehensive on-line training tools through live or recorded web based training events: • webinars for researchers and faculty may be seen on the COS Pivot Webinar Page. • A School specific webinar can be set up if this would be useful, and enables you to interact with the trainer through the web interface

11. Any Further Questions? s.priston@bathspa.ac.uk