Last week I attended an information and study day held by EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Science Research Council) for research administrators. It was a good opportunity to hear from EPSRC staff on the future direction of the Council, as well as share stories and network with research office staff from other UK institutions. We also got some advance news of changes to the EPSRC proposal requirements on Je-S.

The key points I took away from the day were:

• Impact is considered by reviewers in their assessment as one of the secondary criteria at the panel.
• The criteria for the recently introduced 12-month “cooling off” period (some would say “blacklist”) for unsuccessful applicants are three or more proposals ranked in the bottom half and an overall personal success rate of less than 25% within a two year period.
• The Justification of Resources will be increased from 1 side of A4 to 2 sides from January 2010.
• If a cost is in Je-S, but not the Justification of Resources, then the proposal is returned to the submitter with a request that corrections be made. If a cost is in the Justification of Resources, but not Je-S, then it won’t be funded – make sure to check that the Justification of Resources and Je-S match! The easiest way to do this is to structure the JoR to match the Je-S document.
• Don’t just list costs on the JoR – you need to justify what you’re requesting.
• A good letter of support will show a measurable contribution to the project (either in cash or in kind). Research Councils and peer reviewers do not appreciate generic letters of support without a specific commitment to the project.
• Be clear about the management structure of the project. It’s not enough to simply say you’ll have a steering committee once per year. Consider the composition of the group.

We also considered in groups what a research office can do to support academic staff in bidding:

• Communicate opportunities and processes to researchers in a clear and targeted way
• Build relationships with sponsors
• Use Knowledge Transfer staff to assist in writing impact plans
• Coordinate internal peer review processes
• Engage recently retired successful academics to support and mentor new researchers
• Deliver training on using Je-S
• Coordinate major/collaborative bids

…and what the barriers are that may prevent us offering this support:

• Time constraints
• A lack of successful bids, particularly in smaller or newer institutions
• Staff shortages
• Inconsistencies between research councils

It was encouraging (in a way) that virtually all institutions faced similar issues in delivering research support, no matter what the size or volume of submissions. In response to this, we’re planning on developing a Je-S training session in the research office to be delivered in the new year. If you have any other questions or suggestions about how we can improve our service, please let us know.