EFI Research Awards 2019/2020

EFI Research Awards 2019/2020

***Applications are now closed ***

Funding of up to £5,000 per project will be made to staff from across the University to support research which identifies new interdisciplinary questions that can be taken forward as part of the Institute’s vision.  All related activities must be completed by end of July 2020.

The Edinburgh Futures Institute will pioneer new interdisciplinary research with the potential for transforming people’s lives, weaving data science through the arts, humanities and social sciences to address major challenges in the economy, education and society. The EFI research awards aim to support projects with a focus on the production and application (through innovation) of multi-disciplinary research for the public good. We embrace the principle of co-design with external partners, including government, industry and the wider community.

Our key research programmes (Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence, Critical Infrastructure, CreativeTech, FinTech and financial services, Data Civics and the future of public services) aim to contribute to knowledge and capacity building in Data Driven Innovation across the City of Edinburgh and beyond.

The deadline for research awards applications is Monday 27^thJanuary 2020.

We expect to fund five awards through this call. The grants could be used for the following types of support:

• Research assistance, via Research Assistants, or PhD Student Interns
• Development of data-led research pilots including programmer time
• Digitisation of primary historical sources
• Working in conjunction with the Library and Centre for Research Collections
• Course fees to develop new skills
• Travel and subsistence
• Partnership meetings/events
• Networking costs (e.g. meetings)
• Consumables and small items of equipment (i.e. up to £1K)

The feasibility of proposed costs, particularly staff costs, should be checked by respective research offices in schools.  The funding cannot be used to meet costs such as departmental overheads, attendance at conferences, or membership fees for scholarly societies. EFI may provide additional funds to cover the costs of caring for dependants, to support successful applicants conducting research away from home.

EFI require that applications follow the internal authorisation processes of schools and therefore all submitted applications must include a supporting statement from the Research Director in order to be considered eligible for evaluation.

Applications are open to all University of Edinburgh salaried staff at any career stage whose contracts include research. In the application form applicants are advised to:

1. Describe your research questions, aims and objectives, highlighting how they relate to the EFI ethos.
2. Explain how your project tackles real-world problems through interdisciplinary data-led research
3. Elaborate on your plans for engaging with external partners/stakeholders to answer your research questions and what the expected outputs and outcome are.

Entries will be judged by an interdisciplinary panel chaired by the EFI Research Director, Prof Melissa Terras.

The panel is looking for interdisciplinary research questions that are risky, challenge existing theoretical and methodological paradigms, and have the potential to contribute to social transformations. Applications should bear in mind ethical approaches to research, abiding by University regulations and procedures. Projects will be judged on:

• Clearly identified aims and objectives
• Novelty of the research questions and relevance of the project and relation to the EFI’s key research programmes
• Clearly defined users of research/stakeholders and a plan for following up with them after the project
• Potential for the project to be further developed into a grant application to be externally funded
• Innovation in target group, activities, and/or methods.

Award conditions

• The judging panel will make the final funding decisions by mid-February.
• Funding has to be spent by the end of the financial year 2019/2020 [31 July].
• All expenditure must comply with University policy and procedures.
• Recipients have to agree to provide a final report, suitable for appearing on the EFI website, by 15^th September 2020

To apply please fill in the application form found here. Please send the form to efi@ed.ac.uk by 5pm on Monday 27th January 2020.
For any queries, please contact directly the EFI Research Manager, Valentina Guerrieri: valentina.guerrieri@ed.ac.uk

Please find the previous winners here.