Writing a Grant Proposal: How to Get Funding Prof Douglas J Paul James Watt Nanofabrication Centre Executive EPSRC Quantum Technology Fellow DSTL Visiting Fellow Douglas.Paul@glasgow.ac.uk
Why bother listening to me? I have sat on funding panels for EPSRC, EC, ERC, Home Office, NATO, MOD, DSTL, TSB, ESRC and a few more! I sit \ have sat on Home Office, MOD EPSRC & Government Office of Science Advisory Committees / Boards I have personally > 20M of grants as PI running at present inside 92M of collaborative grants The grants I have written / co-written have generated 134M
The Basics to Getting a Proposal Funded Have a good idea that might get funding Understand the funding landscape, call and criteria Generate a vision Does your idea and vision fit the call (if not it will not be funded) Network and lobbying with the vision (get it known to the Project Officers) > get feedback [ Pull a consortium together ] Write a proposal and submit it
EC Examples: Get a Good Acronym! SiQUIC: Si/SiGe RTDs & strained-si MOS GREEN Silicon: thermoelectrics SHINE: THz quantum cascade lasers Zeropower Network
Vision A vision is a simple statement of what you will do that is new and why it is important (i.e. the potential impact) Children and politicians must be able to understand the vision statement A vision has 2 parts: A single sentence sound bite catchy & absolutely no detail An additional paragraph with a bit more detail showing what is original and unique in your approach This is the key sales pitch that will determine whether a panel will fund your proposal
Collaboration: Pull a Consortium Together You can only build a consortium if people know you Call information days are very useful events (RCUK, EC) You need to find complementary interests (not identical you need to collaborate!) You need a unique selling point to get across You need to know the use of a technology talk to companies Always carry business cards and dress to impress
Three Ways for People to Know You Network Network Network
Networking Events EC and RCUK Call Information Days (Loads of people wanting funding!) Conferences, workshops, seminars, etc... EPSRC, TSB, KTN, SE events (many in Glasgow or Edinburgh with loads of hints of how to get funding!!!!!!) Glasgow airport, London City and Heathrow airport departure lounges At lunch, or in bars and restaurants around the University!
Unique Selling Point You need to be able to convince people what is unique about your capability i.e. why should you be funded and not someone else This needs to be backed up by evidence track record Getting this correct is essential to getting proposals funding & collaborating with people You need a concise sales pitch for networking People won t work with you unless they know what you can do!
RCUK Proposals (EC Similar) Proposal: Track record for investigators Objectives and aims Summary Vision The research itself Case for Support Workplan Beneficiaries academic impact Project partners industrial or government Justification of resources Pathways to Impact
Year 3 Start with the final deliverable Generator Working Out the Work Plan Year 2 Work forwards for the steps to deliver Module superlattices Day 1 nanowires What must you deliver to be funded Always start at the final day and work forward The work plan is how to get to the final deliverable quantum dots
What is Impact? What benefits will come from your research and how will those benefits be applied
Impact Timeline Research today may only have impacts in many years time lith develop 10 nm nanowire lab-on-a-pill test commercial development! sensor demo Clinical trials Time 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 manufacture scale up etch develop 4 nm wide sensor test lab-on-a-pill Si demo Product launch on market
What is Impact? RCUK Definition The RCUK / EPSRC definition of impact: The Research Councils describe impact as the demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to society & the economy. Impact embraces all the extremely diverse ways in which research-related knowledge & skills benefit individuals, organisations & nations by: Fostering global economic performance, & specifically the economic competitiveness of the United Kingdom. Increasing the effectiveness of public services & policy. Enhancing quality of life, health & creative output. This accords with the Royal Charters of the Councils & with HM Treasury guidance on the appraisal of economic impact. https://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/howtoapply/fundingguide/
What is Impact? EC ICT Definition Transformational impact on science, technology and/or society Which of the EC society agendas are you impacting? Energy, ageing population, health, quality of life, employment, etc... Expected impacts listed in the work programme Read the work programme and state which areas you will impact Explain how you will impact those areas Dissemination and exploitation of project results Consortium agreement, IPR and how to exploit Links to industry or (government) agencies
Impact Thinking You need to justify to referees why you should get tax payers money to fund your research
Impact (According to RCUK) Quality of life Health Society Policy International development Knowledge Scientific IP advances Publications Techniques Know how Wealth creation New companies Economy Inward investment Products & procedures Your research Skills MSc / UG People People pipeline PhD / PDRA Outreach
Society Impact Quality of life: employment & prosperity > easier lifestyle security > better security industrial applications > employment pollution sensors > better environment > better health reduced energy consumption > reduced climate change > better health & reduced costs from extreme weather Health: will your research improve health / healthcare or reduce healthcare costs? International development: how will you reduce poverty, disease or improve e.g. food production, etc... Policy: does your research align with government or EC policy?
Fit to Government Policy How useful will your research be to Government departments? Presented to Parliament by the Prime Minister by Command of Her Majesty October 2010 UK Parliament Published White Papers: http://www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/white-paper/
BIS Power Electronics Strategy POWER ELECTRONICS: A STRATEGY FOR SUCCESS Keeping the UK competitive OCTOBER 2011 http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/business-sectors/docs/p/11-1073-power-electronics-strategy-for-success. "Power Electronics is critical to achieving the UK's ambitions for a lowcarbon economy. Government targets are for a 34% cut in 1990 CO2 emission levels by 2020, and a greater than 80% cut by 2050." "Industrial electric motors account for more than 60% of all electrical energy consumption. The application of Power Electronics in their control results in typically a 30-40% reduction in energy used, and could be applied in about 50% of applications. In consequence, applying current Power Electronics technology in just this area would directly result in a 9% reduction in all electrical energy consumption a significant contribution achieved at modest cost as payback on applications tends to be within months rather than several years."
Knowledge Impact Which academic journals and conferences will you publish in? Networking: conferences, joint industry / academic events, RCUK, professional bodies How will you protect and exploit IP? Patents, copyright, licenses, etc... What companies / government agencies will you transfer knowledge to?
People Impact How many PhDs and PDRAs will you be training? What transferable skills will the people learn? Will you disseminate your results to the public? How? Web pages, Twitter, public takes, media, radio, TV, etc... Outreach: how will you encourage the next generation of scientists, engineers, Greek scholars, etc... Will you present results to schools?
Economic Impact Probably not so important for many arts subjects But books & outputs still keep people in employment! Will the results be exploited by UK or international companies? Would success result in a spin out company or protected IPR? If you protect IPR, how will you exploit the IPR? Will the knowledge and know how attract new companies to the UK? Economic impact is the major criteria for funding from Treasury
Writing Pathways to Impact You need to state HOW your research will benefit X, Y or Z Don't over hype what you are doing!! Examples: Our THz systems have the potential to provide fast & cheap skin cancer screening at GPs surgeries leading to fast diagnosis, improved healthcare & reduced healthcare costs from early diagnosis Our historical review of the 7/7 bombing has the potential to identify mistakes in security procedures and point to ways that will help reduce the risk from suicide bombers in the future
Applications to Impact Powering autonomous sensors: ECG, blood pressure, etc. Thermoelectrics as proposed in this programme would allow monolithic integration of an energy harvesting power source, thereby providing a mm-sized complete wireless autonomous system. Such autonomous systems can be used to improve remote healthcare and e-health thereby improving the quality of life of European citizens.
EC Thermoelectrics Impact Examples Reinforce European leadership and industrial competitiveness, and new opportunities for practical applications opening in new domains. As outlined above in the description of the management structure, we will actively pursue the dissemination of information. We aim to publish our finding in leading high impact journals and seek to present material at international conferences. The scientific progress of the project will also be used to generate interest from industry and end-users. The public face of the project will be maintained though a project website. This can be used to publicise information at different levels of complexity targeting different audiences, from interested commercial companies, scientific researchers, students, and the public at large. In terms of the wider general public, the website is an excellent method for justifying the use of publicly levied EU funds for research which has the potential to benefit EU citizens.
EC Thermoelecrtics Example II The development of energy harvesting solutions such as the present thermoelectric systems provides a response to the global technological challenge of finding low carbon emitting power generating solutions. As such we believe thermoelectric technology is addressing a major global societal challenge and our programme will improve scientific and technological co-operation across 4 European countries for mutual benefit. Our programme will train 3 post doctoral and 3 PhD students with high technology skills, essential to the future economy of European nations. Also the collaboration across 3 EU and 1 EU partner countries will improve communication, knowledge and know-how exchange and sharing of common scientific techniques across the EU.
Summary Impact is the demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to society & the economy. Impact is normally divided into knowledge, people, society and the economy Policy documents normally have excellent impact sections that are excellent to cite! Bigger impact by aligning with policy Always state the obvious impacts! (If it's not in your proposal, you're unlikely to be funded!!!!)
Si Photonics Semiconductor Device Group Si thermal photovoltaics Miniature cold atom systems MEMS gravimeters GeSn Ge Si Mo HfO2 Si Ge MIR Plasmonics SiO2 Si SETs & Electrometers Ge SPADs & Si Quantum Photonics SiGe Thermoelectrics Douglas.Paul@glasgow.ac.uk http://userweb.eng.gla.ac.uk/douglas.paul/index.html Tel:- +44 141 330 5219