Bulletin no.13. August 2018

RDM Funding Bulletin – August 2018

Internal Funding Opportunities Deadline*

John Fell Fund (JFF) RDM internal deadline 24 September 2018

(noon)

Medical Sciences Internal Fund (MSIF) RDM internal deadline 1 October 2018 (noon)

Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support

Fund (WT ISSF) RDM internal deadline 1 October 2018 (noon)

Novo Nordisk – Oxford Pump Priming Awards Call open from 12 September 2018

Cancer Research UK Oxford Centre

Development Fund Call open from September 2018

Returning Carers’ Fund RDM internal deadline 12 November 2018 (end

of day)

Human Immune Discovery Initiative (HIDI)

Internal Fund RDM internal deadline 12 December 2018 (end

of day)

Human Iron Research at Oxford (HIRO) Fund 15 October 2018

MRC Proximity to Discovery (P2D): Industry

Engagement Fund Rolling applications - activities must be

completed by 31 August 2019.

Oxford BHF CRE Awards 17 September 2018 (noon)

Research England Internal GCRF Internal call 5 September 2018 (1pm)

Other Funding Opportunities Deadline*

Lister Institute 2019 Research Prize 12 October 2018

Diabetes UK Early Career Small Grant 1 December 2018

BHF Daphne Jackson Fellowship 24 September 2018

The Sir Jules Thorn Award for Biomedical Research

Internal co-ordinated deadline 12 September

2018 (noon)

BHF Translational Award 15 October 2018

Royal Society Research Professorship 26 September 2018 (3pm)

External Fellowship Funding Opportunities

Please see the RDM Funding Database, which lists fellowship opportunities and deadlines.

Bulletin no.13. August 2018

Internal Funding Opportunities

John Fell Fund (JFF)

Aim: To foster creativity and a proactive approach to research

opportunities in all subject areas, in particular interdisciplinary

fields.

Funding to support: (a) pump priming; (b) early career researchers; (c) other academic activities

likely to lead to new research initiatives; (d) Research Facilitators; (e) support related to bids for

external funding; (f) strategic investment in research assets.

Amount: Small award scheme (< £7.5k) or main award scheme (> £7.5k with no upper limit).

Eligibility: Current employee of the University holding an academic post, or a research fellowship

awarded competitively and intended to enable you to establish an independent research career.

Senior postdoc researchers who are genuinely on an independent career track (planning to submit

external fellowship applications) are now eligible to be the PI on JFF applications.

Further information on the JFF Please contact Ruth McCaffrey if you have any questions about

categories to apply for and appropriate levels of funding to request.

RDM internal deadline: 24 September 2018 (noon). If you would like to apply, please inform your

local administrator and Ruth McCaffrey or Kathleen Dolan in advance. Ruth and Kathleen are happy

to comment on draft applications before the RDM internal deadline. This earlier deadline will be

strictly applied as a panel of PIs from across RDM will be convened to review applications. When you

have completed your application via IRAMS, click the submit button, which sends your application to

Ruth and Kathleen.

Future deadline: TBC (expected to be in January 2019)

*Please remember that your local admin team and Research Services deadlines (where applicable) will be well in advance of the above deadlines.

Please contact Dr Ruth McCaffrey or Dr Kathleen Dolan (maternity cover for Dr Serena Briant)

With any queries related to funding opportunities

For advice on potential sources of funding tailored to your career stage

For guidance and support with fellowship applications

For letters of support from the Head of Department, Professor Hugh Watkins, or other

heads of divisions.

John Fell OUP Research Fund

Bulletin no.13. August 2018

Medical Sciences Internal Fund (MSIF)

Aim: To support researchers from who are employees of departments within the Medical Sciences

Division through different funding streams.

Funding to support:

1) Pump priming - enables investigators to obtain pilot data to support larger scale applications

for external research funding in the future (<£10k). Postdocs are eligible to apply as the PI -

an ideal opportunity to secure some funding in your own name.

2) Clinical pre-fellowship - provides short-term (up to three months) funding to cover the salary

of clinicians who will shortly begin an externally funded research training fellowship at Oxford.

3) Bridging and family leave - Bridging funding supports salary costs (typically three months)

pending the application of an externally submitted grant. To be eligible to apply researchers

must: a) be externally funded and bridging to another external grant; b) not be bridging from

startup packages regardless of funding source; c) not be bridging to non-medical research (e.g.

BBSRC or Leverhulme funding).

While the guidelines on the divisional website say there is no deadline for bridging funding

applications, and IRAMS states that the deadline is rolling, RDM sets an internal deadline (see

below). This is because we can only submit 15 applications by the whole department per year.

However, urgent applications for bridging funding will be considered on a case by case basis, as

the need arises.

Funding can also be requested to support maternity/shared parental/adoption leave bridging

costs for researchers whilst employed on an externally funded research grant. Applications to

support this type of bridging are not included in the cap of 15 applications per department.

Further information on the MSIF.

RDM Internal Deadline: 1 October 2018 (noon). If you would like to apply, please inform Ruth

McCaffrey or Kathleen Dolan in advance. Ruth and Kathleen are happy to comment on draft

applications before the RDM internal deadline. This earlier internal deadline will be strictly applied as

a panel of PIs from across RDM will be convened to review applications. Submit your application

online via IRAMS, which sends your application to Ruth and Kathleen.

There is no deadline for maternity/shared parental/adoption leave bridging funds and applications

can be submitted at any time online via IRAMS. As with all applications, we are happy to comment

on drafts.

Future deadline: Spring 2019

Bulletin no.13. August 2018

Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund (WT ISSF)

1) Individual Career Support

Aim: Pump priming funding is available to support researchers, who currently hold little or no WT

funding, to make a subsequent competitive application to the WT or other external funder.

Funding to support:

a) Early Career Researchers – for researchers who have held a post for less than eight years,

which involved developing their own research agenda. Funding is intended to accelerate

applications for WT Fellowships, Investigator or Seed awards.

b) Early Career Clinical Academics – funding is intended to support clinical lecturers in career

development (e.g. through attending a conference, training, secondment, RA or admin

support etc.).

c) Career Transformation Scheme – for researchers who hold an independent post who have a

reduced research portfolio (e.g. due to sickness or caring reasons or due to increased

teaching load). Funding is intended to reinvigorate research careers so applications for

further funding can be made (e.g. WT Seed awards).

d) Discipline Hopping – funding is available to independent researchers who currently work

outside of the WT remit so that they can apply their expertise to the WT goals.

Eligibility: Must fit into one of the categories above. DPhil students, postdocs and clinical research

fellows are not eligible to apply. Senior postdoc researchers who are genuinely on an independent

career track (planning to submit external fellowship applications) are now eligible to be the PI on

ISSF applications. Only projects in the WT research areas can be supported.

Amount: Small (<£10k) and main (<£100k) funding requests can be made. Only direct costs will be

covered.

Important: Applications for awards that are >£10k and <£100k must have a minimum 20% match

component at the point of application. This match funding can be cash or in-kind (e.g. equipment).

Match funding can come from external sources (excluding any existing or new WT grants), or

departmental funds. The only exception to this rule is the Early Career Clinical Academics scheme.

Further information on Individual Career Support.

2) Interdepartmental Strategic Initiatives:

Aim: To support strategic initiatives across departments. Only projects in the WT research areas can

be supported.

Funding to support:

a) Equipment, research assets or staff within shared facilities where there is evidence of

strategic need.

b) Establishment of cross cutting themes through activities such as research facilitation,

symposia or conferences in order to encourage collaboration in new areas.

Bulletin no.13. August 2018

Projects that are limited to only one department/faculty will not be supported.

Amount: Applications for both small (<£10k) and main (>£10k) awards will be accepted. If applying

for a main award, you will need a minimum of a 20% match component at the point of application.

The total project cost is not expected to exceed £200k.

Eligibility: Must be employed by the University. DPhil students, postdocs and clinical research

fellows are not eligible to apply.

Further Information on Interdepartmental Strategic Initiatives

RDM Internal Deadline: 1 October 2018 (noon). Submit applications online via IRAMS, which sends

your application to Ruth McCaffrey and Kathleen Dolan. Ruth and Kathleen are happy to comment

on draft applications before the RDM internal deadline. This earlier internal deadline will be strictly

applied as a panel of PIs from across RDM will be convened to review applications.

Letters of support for some funding streams will be provided following the RDM internal deadline

and review panel meeting.

Future deadline: Spring 2019

Novo Nordisk – Oxford Pump Priming Awards

Research area: Type 2 diabetes and its co-morbidities.

Aim: To facilitate collaborations between University of Oxford and Novo

Nordisk Research Centre Oxford researchers. Awards aim to increase the

likelihood of applications for larger research funding.

Funding to support: Consumables, expenses, analysis costs, animal costs, other services, travel and

personnel costs at the University, but not of a new hire.

Amount: Up to £25k per award.

Eligibility: Lead applicant must have a funded position at the University for the duration of their

proposed project.

Further information on Novo Nordisk-Oxford Pump Priming Awards It is essential that all applicants

align with a Novo Nordisk Head of Department and researchers prior to application. Please contact

Dr Siobhan Dennis if you have any queries or wish to reach out to Novo Nordisk members to align

and discuss project proposals.

Deadline: Call open 12 September 2018

Bulletin no.13. August 2018

Cancer Research UK Oxford Centre Development Fund

Aim: The aim of this fund is to provide short-term, pump-priming

funds to support innovative, proof-of-concept cancer research that

will lead to applicants applying for further response-mode funding.

Amount: Usually <£15k.

Eligibility: All scientists and health professionals currently engaged in cancer research in the

University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. This includes senior

postdocs, junior group leaders and PIs.

Further information on the CRUK Oxford Centre Development Fund. Contact

cancercentre@oncology.ox.ac.uk for an application form and further details regarding eligibility

criteria and the award process.

Deadline: Open from September 2018. Please notify Ruth or Kathleen if you intend to apply.

Returning Carers’ Fund

Aim: Funding to support the development of research careers following a break to care for a child or

close relative.

Funding to support:

1) Teaching buy-out to enable you to concentrate on research;

2) Training or professional development;

3) Short-term secondments to enable you to ‘get up to speed’ with recent research;

4) Conference attendance to enable you to re-establish your profile;

5) Short-term research or admin assistance;

6) Small scale lab equipment purchase;

7) Funding visits to Oxford by your recent collaborator.

This list is not exhaustive and any reasonable applications will be considered providing the link to

career development in scientific research can be demonstrated.

Eligibility: All those who a) are currently on leave for a minimum of six months; b) have returned

from a break of at least six months within the last two years; or c) have returned from two breaks

each of at least six months within the last five years. A break may comprise of two or more

discontinuous periods of leave totalling at least six months, provided that they relate to a single life

event (e.g. as part of a shared parental leave arrangement).

Further Information on the Returning Carers’ Fund.

RDM internal deadline: 12 November 2018 (end of day). If you are planning on applying, please

contact Ruth McCaffrey or Kathleen Dolan in advance.

Bulletin no.13. August 2018

Human Immune Discovery Initiative (HIDI) Internal Fund

Aim: To improve accessibility to immunological assays and expertise for all researchers across the

University through four Discovery Platforms: Deep immune phenotyping; Immune pathology and

imaging; Genomics and metagenomics; and Proteomics.

Funding to support:

1) Excellent, novel immunological research;

2) Cross-technology, Cross-Platform research;

3) Research for patient benefit.

Amount: Small awards (<£10k) and main awards (<£40k).

Duration of funding: No longer than 12 months.

Eligibility: Current University employees and those with limited access to immunological expertise

are particularly welcome.

Further information on the HIDI Internal Fund.

RDM internal deadline: 12 December 2018 (end of day). If you are planning on applying, please

contact Ruth McCaffrey or Kathleen Dolan in advance.

Human Iron Research at Oxford (HIRO) Fund

Aim: Human Iron Research at Oxford (HIRO) is a new initiative led by Dr John Ryan (NDM) and

Professor Hal Drakesmith (WIMM). It is looking to link clinicians and scientists with an interest in iron

research across Oxford.

Funding to support: TBC

Amount: Up to £15,000 for 5 projects has been provided by Vifor Pharma.

Eligibility: TBC

Further information on the HIRO Fund. Interested applicants can present their ideas at the HIRO

launch event on 12 September 2018 (more details).

Deadline: The call will open on 1 August, with a deadline of Monday 15 October. The HIRO

application form can be found here.

MRC Proximity to Discovery (P2D): Industry Engagement Fund

Aim: To support activities that build relationships between the University and industry partners, and

promote a culture of innovation. It may lead to future MRC Confidence in Concept applications.

Funding to support: Staff exchanges (including travel, subsistence and accommodation);

development and dissemination of technology platforms; and training workshops involving industry.

Amount: £237k for the entire fund.

Bulletin no.13. August 2018

Eligibility: Must be employed by the University.

Further information on the MRC P2D: Industry Engagement Fund.

Deadline: Rolling applications, but all grant activities must be completed by 31 August 2019. Submit

applications online via IRAMS, which sends your application to Ruth McCaffrey and Kathleen Dolan.

Oxford BHF CRE Awards

Aim: To support cardiovascular researchers through different funding streams.

Funding is available to support:

1) Pump priming – to enable researchers to generate preliminary data and strengthen future

external funding proposals. Smaller grants (£10k - £25k) are most likely to be awarded, with

an upper limit of £50k.

2) Overseas travel awards for building international collaboration – to support travel from the

UK to start or develop international collaborations; visit recognised research centres to study

new techniques; assist collaborators to spend time with an Oxford BHF CRE group.

3) Core infrastructure – to help establish or further develop specialist multi-user facilities.

Priority will be given to building and developing research facilities that benefit more than

one BHF CRE group.

4) Skills training – to support the development of innovative skills-training programmes for

cardiovascular research.

5) Conference travel (graduate students/postdocs) – awards are limited to a maximum of

£500.

6) Theme meetings (relevant to the BHF CRE research themes)

Duration of funding: Awards must be spent by 31 March 2019.

Further information on Oxford BHF CRE Awards. Please contact Philippa Major for the funding

application guidelines and to discuss your application.

Deadline: 17 September 2018 (noon).

Research England Internal GCRF Internal call

Background: Each year the University receives quality related research funding (QR) from HEFCE for

Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) related activity. Funds should be used to support high

quality research, impact and/or capacity building activity that addresses the challenge of economic

development and well-being faced by developing countries on the Organisation for Economic Co-

operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) list.

Bulletin no.13. August 2018

Funding is available to support:

1) Capacity and capability building;

2) Interdisciplinary and collaborative research activity;

3) Generating impact from research both within and beyond the sector;

4) Pump priming activities to underpin GCRF and Newton bids to other funders;

5) Rapid response to emergencies where there is an urgent research need.

Amount:

Small (<£15k) and large awards (>£15k)

Early career researcher fellowships (up to £30k)

Established researcher fellowships (up to £30k)

Duration of funding: Small awards must be spent before 31st July 2019. Large awards can be funded

beyond 31st July 2019, however PIs must provide a breakdown of costs projected to be spent in each

financial year.

Eligibility: A current employee of the University holding an academic post, or on a research contract

awarded competitively and intended to enable the holder to establish an independent research

career. The applicant’s employment must outlast the duration of this project.

Further information on the Research England Internal GCRF Internal call.

Deadline: 5 September 2018 (1pm). If you are planning on applying, please contact Ruth McCaffrey

or Kathleen Dolan in advance. All applications are to be submitted through IRAMS.

Bulletin no.13. August 2018

Other Funding Opportunities

Lister Institute 2019 Research Prize

Background: The Lister Prize gives young scientists the

opportunity to develop their potential through flexible funding over a five-year period. The awards

are aimed at researchers in the early years of running their own groups, for whom receipt of the

prize would make a significant difference to their research work.

Research area: Any biological, medical or clinical discipline, including related areas such as

chemistry. The only scientific restriction is that the research should lead to greater understanding in

or have implications for the field of preventive medicine.

Funding to support: Equipment, travel, consumables or the salaries of postdocs/technicians/DPhil

students. It cannot be used for personal salary provision or augmentation.

Amount: £250k per prize recipient. Up to 6 prizes will be awarded in 2019.

Duration of funding: Five years.

Eligibility: Three- to ten- years postdoc experience from the start of the prize (allowances will be

made for career breaks). Applicants must have guaranteed employment for the first three years of

the award and can already hold awards (e.g. fellowships, programme or project grants) from other

organisations.

Further information on the Lister Institute 2019 Research Prize.

Deadline: 12 October 2018. If you are thinking of applying, please contact Ruth McCaffrey in

advance of the deadline.

Diabetes UK Early Career Small Grant

Aim: Funding to support early career researchers to

undertake small research projects or pilot studies

that will lead to additional larger funding from other organisations.

Research area: Diabetes-related.

Funding to support: Consumables; small pieces of equipment; animal purchase and maintenance;

and collaborative travel.

Amount: Maximum £15k.

Duration of funding: Up to one year (longer periods may be requested if fully justified).

Bulletin no.13. August 2018

Eligibility: Within 4 years of appointment to your first academic position (allowances made for

career breaks). Applicants should be in receipt of a salary for the duration of the grant, or can

already hold an early career fellowship that provides salary.

Further information on the Diabetes UK Early Career Small Grant.

Deadline: 1 December 2018. If you are thinking of applying, please contact Ruth McCaffrey in

advance of the deadline.

BHF Daphne Jackson Fellowship

Aim: To provide an opportunity for basic

scientists to return to cardiovascular research at

an established research institution in the UK

after a career break of two years or more.

Research area: Cardiovascular research.

Funding to support: Infrastructure and dedicated staff to retrain or update Fellows’ skills in a

previously familiar field or initiation into a new field.

Duration of fellowship: Part-time for three years. Two fellowships are available.

Eligibility: Applicants should have a PhD and preferably postdoctoral experience, and have taken a

career break of two or more years.

Please note that financial support for salaries, bench fees, consumables and other costs are not

covered by this fellowship and must be provided by external sponsors (e.g. the host university, a

research council, charity or relevant learned society).

Further information on the Daphne Jackson Fellowship.

Deadline: 24 September 2018. If you are thinking of applying, please contact Ruth McCaffrey in

advance of the deadline.

The Sir Jules Thorn Award for Biomedical Research

Aim: The University has been invited to submit one application to the Sir Jules Thorn Award for

Biomedical Research. This funding is highly competitive, and the applicant is expected to be an

outstanding quality researcher in the early years of an established research and academic career.

The award will support a programme of translation biomedical research for up to 5 years.

Research area: Projects must involve patients and have a clear strategy defining how the research

will translate into patient benefit. There must be a clear specification of the hypothesis based on

Bulletin no.13. August 2018

pre-clinical experimental data supporting the rationale of the clinical study, arising from the

applicant’s own work.

Funding to support: The award may not be used to meet the salary costs of the applicant(s) who

should be in institutionally funded posts for the duration of the grant.

Amount: Up to £1.7m.

Duration of funding: Maximum five years.

Further information on the Sir Jules Thorn Award for Biomedical Research. Also see the University’s

co-ordinated bids page.

Deadline: Please contact Ruth McCaffrey in advance of the below deadline as RDM can only put one

application forward and to organise a letter of support from the Head of Department, which must

accompany the application. The deadline to submit an expression of interest to

research@medsci.ox.ac.uk is 12 September 2018 (noon).

BHF Translational Award

Aim: To support the pre-clinical development of new cardiovascular medicines

and technologies so that they are attractive for follow-on funding. The award

will help to bridge the funding gap between promising innovations and the

clinic with the aim of accelerating advances in cardiovascular science for patient

benefit. The development can be for therapeutics (novel/repurposed), devices, imaging

technologies, diagnostics, computer models and algorithms.

Funding to support: The award can be used flexibly e.g. for staff salaries, consumables, equipment,

IP consultancy fees.

Amount: Up to £250K.

Eligibility: The PI will be a senior researcher working in an established research institution in the UK.

Further information on BHF Translational Award.

Deadline: 15 October 2018 (preliminary application)

Future deadline: April 2019

Royal Society Research Professorship

Aim: The Society’s premier research awards to provide

long-term support for world-class researchers of outstanding achievement by releasing them from

teaching and administration to focus on research.

Bulletin no.13. August 2018

Funding to support: Contribution to the award holder’s salary; research assistance; research

expenses (including equipment under £10k); contribution to a 4-year PhD studentship

Duration of funding: Up to 10 years (5 years in the first instance with opportunity to renew).

Eligibility: Open to both UK-based and international researchers who are leaders in their field and

wish to hold the appointment in a UK university or research institute. This can be used as part of a

recruitment package when bringing a researcher to the UK. The award holder must commence by 31

March 2019.

Further information on the Royal Society Research Professorship.

Deadline: 26 September 2018 (3pm). Please contact Ruth McCaffrey if you know of someone we

should encourage to apply.

Bulletin no.13. August 2018

External Fellowship Funding Opportunities

Please see the RDM Funding Database, which lists fellowship opportunities and deadlines.

Other relevant information

Oxford BHF CRE Annual Research Symposium 2018

The Oxford BHF CRE are inviting cardiovascular research groups from across Oxford to attend their

annual symposium. Registration is free here, but essential as spaces are limited.

Date: Thursday 22 November (9am to 6pm, followed by a drinks reception)

Location: St Hugh’s College, St Margaret’s Road, Oxford, OX2 6LE

Poster abstract deadline: Monday 15 October (noon).

Please send poster abstracts to BHFCREabstracts@rdm.ox.ac.uk. Up to 50 posters can be displayed

and large research groups are asked to submit a maximum of 2 abstracts. For queries, please contact

Philippa Major or Watkins PA.

Human Iron Research at Oxford (HIRO) launch event

Human Iron Research at Oxford (HIRO) is a new initiative looking to link clinicians and scientists with

an interest in iron research across Oxford. HIRO is led by Dr John Ryan (NDM) and Professor Hal

Drakesmith (WIMM), and generous funding has been provided by Vifor Pharma.

The launch event is an opportunity for anyone involved in iron research at Oxford to present their

current work, meet other iron researchers and also for those who wish to apply for HIRO pump

priming funding to come and present their ideas (more details). Presentations are limited to a

maximum of 5 slides/10 minutes each. Register for the event here.

Date: 12 September (2pm to 5pm)

Location: Examination Schools, 75-81 High Street, Oxford, OX1 4BG

Find out more about HIRO and the HIRO internal fund here.

MRC Researcher Co-investigators: new grant application status to recognise

staff contributions

To support the development of researchers across different career stages, the MRC will introduce a

new status to recognise the contributions of research staff as researcher co-investigators on grant

applications from July 2018. Currently receiving recognition for contributing to a grant is difficult for

those who are unable to be a principle investigator or co-investigator. By providing this new status

Bulletin no.13. August 2018

of researcher co-investigator, the MRC are hoping that researchers get formal recognition for their

contribution to writing grant applications, designing & carrying out funded research, and supervising

students.

Further information on eligibility here.

FLIER: New Academy of Medical Sciences Leadership Programme

The Future Leaders in Innovation, Enterprise and Research (FLIER) is a unique new programme

aimed at developing leaders of the future who can create collaborations across academia, industry,

the NHS and government to drive innovation. The programme will support residential and one-day

meetings to expose participants to current national and international leaders across the wider

scientific and health ecosystem; face-to-face and virtual workshops; coaching sessions; and a cross-

sector project to apply strategic and higher-level operational skills. Call opens mid-September 2018 -

please contact Ruth McCaffrey if you are interested in applying.

Further information on FLIER here.

BHF – changes to small meeting funds

The BHF’s small meeting fund provides support of up to £3,000 for UK-based meetings focused on

presenting state-of-the-art cardiovascular research. The remit of this fund has recently been

expanded to include meetings promoting translational research or interdisciplinary collaborations.

Find out more information and eligibility here.

New BHF guidance on costing clinical research imaging scans

To provide consistency across institutions, the BHF has worked with the research community to

develop guidance on costing clinical research imaging scans. Researchers should refer to this if

applying for a project involving clinical imaging.

Read the guidelines here.

Wellcome Trust to use Researchfish for end of grant reporting

From February 2019, the Wellcome Trust (WT) will start asking grant holders to report research

outcomes at the end of their grants using Researchfish. This will replace the current end-of-grant

report, with the exception of Public Engagement funds which will continue to use the current

format.

Bulletin no.13. August 2018

Grantholders whose awards finish at the end of 2018 and before September 2019 will be asked to

submit outcomes in Researchfish’s main submission window (early February to mid-March 2019). All

researchers who will need to submit will be contacted by the WT Grants team.

Please note that annual progress reporting for the WT will continue to run via the Wellcome Trust

Grant Tracker.

Find out more here.

Wellcome Trust Leap Fund

The Wellcome Trust announced a major new £250m initiative to back bold ideas and accelerate

discovery and innovation, with the aim of delivering breakthroughs over a five- to ten-year horizon.

Learn more here.

New call for Wellcome Trust Four-year PhD programmes in Science

A new call for four-year PhD programmes in Science will be announced by the Wellcome Trust (WT)

in October 2018. The scheme funds PhD programmes that offer graduates outstanding training in

scientific research.

More information here.

Wellcome Trust Senior Fellowships

The Wellcome Trust now offer one Senior Research Fellowship scheme for all researchers falling

within their science remit (previously there was a separate scheme for basic scientists and for

clinicians). The scheme offers up to seven years support, potentially renewable for five years, and is

for researchers leading their own independent research programme.

More information here.

Revised claim process for COAF open access fees – effective immediately

Oxford’s Block Grant from the Charity Open Access Fund (COAF) has now been fully spent for 2017-

2018. This requires a change of procedure for the payment of Article Processing Charges (APCs) for

the non-Wellcome COAF partners (Arthritis Research UK, Bloodwise, BHF, CRUK, Parkinson’s

UK). From now on, researchers funded by the above COAF partners should, until further notice, first

contact their funder for permission to take the paid route, then obtain and pay the invoice, and

then send the claim to the funder for reimbursement. If you have any questions, please contact the

Open Access Team.

Bulletin no.13. August 2018

Please note that there is no change to the Wellcome Trust block grant, so you should continue with

the usual procedure and pass payment requests to our APC team using this form.

Consultation on draft REF 2021 guidance and criteria

Research England have published the draft ‘Guidance on submissions’, ‘Panel criteria and working

methods’ and ‘Codes of practice guidance’ for REF 2021.

Several aspects are open for consultation, and the Research Services REF team will be preparing an

institutional submission by the deadline of 15 October. They will be in touch with relevant

stakeholders across the University shortly to seek their opinions about relevant sections, but they

also welcome any comments to refinfo@admin.ox.ac.uk.

Horizon 2020 funding guaranteed in case of ‘no-deal’ Brexit

The UK government has moved to quell fears that a ‘no-deal’ Brexit would immediately cut off

researchers from Horizon 2020 and other funding. In a statement released on 24 July, the Treasury

announced that any funding secured through the EU by businesses, universities and local

organisations before the end of 2020, including Horizon 2020 money, “will be guaranteed by the UK

government even in a ‘no-deal’ scenario”. This means it is ‘business as usual’ and you should

continue to apply for EU funding.

Read more here.

Reminders

If your application requires a letter of support from the Head of Department, Professor

Hugh Watkins, you must contact Dr Ruth McCaffrey at least two weeks in advance of the

deadline to request the letter.

The RDM Funding Database holds information on internal and external funding

opportunities, including fellowships, travel, seed funding, translational grants, equipment

and studentships. The ‘Fellowships’ tab is particularly useful because you can filter for

career stage and whether you are a basic or clinical researcher, which provides a quick

summary of potential fellowship opportunities.

RDM has a process to coordinate and support all fellowship applications being submitted

(with the exception of clinical research training fellowships). Anyone wishing to apply for a

fellowship must notify Ruth McCaffrey as early as possible.

Bulletin no.13. August 2018

the Internal Research Award Management System (IRAMS) for internal grant applications. This is

the same online system that we have been using for the John Fell Fund. Most internal University

funds and co-ordinated bids are now managed using IRAMS.

When you submit your application, it will be sent to Dr Ruth McCaffrey and Dr Kathleen Dolan.

All applications made via IRAMS will have an earlier RDM deadline to allow Ruth and Kathleen

time to submit your application to MSD, or where indicated in this bulletin, go through an RDM

internal review process to add value to your application. You will be able to track your application

on IRAMS.

When completing your application in IRAMS, in the field called ‘Form editors’ please add the

name and details of your local divisional administrator. You will need their SSO ID (you can find

this in Outlook (it is listed under ‘Alias’, when you look up the Outlook properties of the contact).

Using the online system for internal grant

applications (IRAMS)

The University and Medical Sciences Division (MSD) is now using