Development Opportunities (DO) Fund

Subject to available funding, the ERS intends to run the DO Fund on an annual basis. The DO Fund is intended to benefit the professional development of a researcher, as such the types of funding which can be applied for are varied, some ideas include:

  • Attending a workshop or training session to learn a new technique or skill to help you progress or break into a new area of research.

  • Visiting academic contacts to build on links, collaborate or learn a new process.

  • Tagging on a short visit, after an international conference, to make international contacts in academia.

  • Attending a conference not directly related to your research to increase your network of potential collaborators.

  • Purchasing software to aid in your personal research and development needs.

  • Funding for a proof of concept experiment to enable a further funding application (etc.).

To qualify for funding the applicant must be a member of research staff (i.e. contract researcher / post-doc / research fellow) within the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Sheffield (sorry we can’t accept applications from post-grad research students). Application for the 2020 DO Fund closed 09:00 Friday 13th March.

Please contact the committee if you wish to be advised on eligibility or suitability of your idea at eng-res-soc@sheffield.ac.uk.

Applications for up to £250 are invited. There is a finite total budget and applications may be part or fully funded at the discretion of the review committee.

Exceptions:

We do not intend to provide funding to benefit groups (the researcher led activities funding may be appropriate, current round closes 28th February, seem email from Eunice (4th Feb), or contact e.lawton@sheffield.ac.uk).

We do not intend to provide funding where alternative funding is available, examples are:

Books: The library has funding available to purchase books, either via https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/library/registeredusers/bookrec, or contact the library liaison team at http://www.shef.ac.uk/library/liaison/eng.

Conferences to present work from research projects should be funded through the grant and/or funding can be sought from the Learned Societies Fund (LSF), see http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.95845%21/file/Engineering_Learned_Societies_guidance_form.pdf for general details and contact your departmental administrator for details of how the LSF is administered in your department.

Visits to industry can be funded through the The Enterprising Researcher scheme - see https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfEJyHdTWvedfsxmXRPe1NqllospfNbAegGIE0iBRLTgIyr-w/viewform.

Note: If an application could appear that it should be funded by your research grant, please give justification why it is different to the grant. The DO Fund is for personal development, not presenting results from grant funded research or otherwise be providing funding which should be part of a grant.

Any funding granted must be spent by the end of June 2020, we will contact you before this date to confirm the expediture is on track, otherwise it may be re-allocated - we have to spend the budget before the end of the financial year otherwise it is lost, expenses claims may need to be submitted before the end of June to be processed by the end of July, contact your departmental finance office for advice.

The ERS advises (but does not insist on) applicants discussing their application with their PI / Line Manager before submission, especially if it will affect their funded research.

After the closing date, all applications will be reviewed and ranked. Successful applicants were notified by 24th March.

Applications must be submitted using this Google Form.

As well as your name, etc, the form asks 3 questions:

1. What are you intending to use the funding for. Brief description of the course/training/visit/conference. For academic conferences please attach evidence of an accepted abstract. [Max 250 words]

2. Why should we fund you. How would the funding benefit your professional development / career prospects? [Max 250 words]

3. Funding requested. Itemise costs and give dates for when the money would be spent.