We have opened calls for our Wellcome Trust funded SMALL GRANT and BROADENING OUR HORIZONS schemes.

The Small Grant Scheme aims to provide seedcorn funding to allow researchers to:

• test the feasibility of initial ideas and of potential future studies;
• produce preliminary data;
• raise the quality of outputs by supporting additional experimentation often required by the higher ranking journals.

The scheme is open to scientific and clinical projects and will specifically encourage inter-disciplinary research across institutes and faculties.  The scheme will be aimed at high-quality individuals who have limited funding, in particular applications from early year researchers are encouraged.

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/medicalsciences/research/wellcome/#smallgrantsscheme

THERE IS NEW PROCESS TO STREAMLINE COSTINGS AND ADMINISTRATION OF THESE AWARDS.   APPLICANTS ARE ASKED TO SUBMIT INDICATIVE COSTS AS PART OF THE APPLICATION (GUIDE: £5k -£10k MAX).  APPLICATIONS WILL BE FULLY COSTED BY RESEARCH SUPPORT OFFICERS (AND TRUST EQUIVALENTS WHERE NHS COSTS ARE INVOLVED) AFTER AN INITIAL ASSESSMENT BY THE PANEL OF THE QUALITY OF THE PROPOSAL AND PRIOR TO APPROVAL BEING GRANTED.

The BROADENING OUR HORIZONS SCHEME crosses all career stages and pathways (researchers, core facilities’ staff and technicians).

The scheme will provide funding to cover travel, accommodation costs and meeting expenses (where no external funding schemes exist for this purpose) to allow for:

• attendance at specialist training courses or conferences;
• short placements in other labs and scientific facilities develop collaborations, strengthen existing skills or to develop skills and expertise in a new technique or discipline;
• organisation of small meetings and sandpit events in order to bring researchers from different research disciplines together;

and for Early Career Researchers

• to allow them to receive mentorship from a research leader in their field outside Newcastle in order to develop their own career and professional network and to increase links between external leaders and Newcastle.

THIS IS A REACTIVE SCHEME, SO APPLICATIONS CAN BE MADE AT ANY TIME, AND FUNDS WILL BE DISTRIBUTED UNTIL THEY RUN OUT.

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/medicalsciences/research/wellcome/#broadeningourhorizons

We will also be launching calls for the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Charity (formerly the “Special Trustees awards”) and Confidence in Concept schemes in the next week or so and I will forward details of these when they have been confirmed.