In a climate where universities are cutting corners and research funding becomes ever more competitive, academic staff come under increased pressure to do more with less. The Digital Economy and Society Research Cluster at Edinburgh Futures Institute recently convened to discuss innovate pathways to diversifying the way we fund, conduct, and envision research.
“It’s much more about the opportunity, than the strategy,” said Luis Soares, a social scientist who works in Design Informatics and as a science communicator with the Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy (SCPHRP) at the School of Health in Social Science. Speaking remotely at one of EFI’s fourth floor hybrid teaching rooms, overlooking the nearby Meadows park, Soares told the story of how he and his colleagues grew an initiative from a small seed fund towards a sustained impactful project that works with schools to teach children about sustainable computing.
Taking up small opportunities can often be crucial to lead the way for larger outcomes, but in most cases, one would not be able to strategize this. More than often, one thing links into another – involving skills, but also luck.
“Dealing with uncertainty in the environment in which we are, getting a grant does not happen as often as you want. This makes your future uncertain. (…) It’s a dense fog. Not knowing clearly the direction, you just need to be brave,” he added.
Diversifying the approach: patchwork funding?
This uncertainty and increased competition over shrinking resources requires a more resilient approach to research, not relying on one or two standard funding sources, but diversifying the way we do and promote research.
Andreas Hackl, Co-Director of the DES Research Cluster at EFI, referred to this as a “patchwork” approach to research funding. Under this vision, collaborations in applying to larger research grants such as ESRC’s or ERC’s can be complemented by several smaller grants, partnerships, and contract research or consultancy. Although this offers potential to diversify research funding, it also exposes researchers to increased workload and over-commitment at a time when the cost-saving measures of universities are undermining the integrity and relevance of world-leading research.
Towards new foundations
One of the funding resources that are often overlooked in the academic research community are Foundations. Yet, they are essential supporters of leading research in the UK: a new Migrant Futures Institute at Goldsmiths, London, was made possible with support by the Oak Foundation; and the Oxford Internet Institute has long been supported by the Shirley Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Open Society Foundation, among others.
Understanding how philanthropy and different charitable foundations work poses challenges. How the system works can be opaque. Many foundations to not accept unsolicited inquiries. Some say proposals are “invite only” (how does one get invited?). Many foundations would expect to input into applicant’s proposals and work and are often much more closely involved than a traditional research funder.
Universities, which are focused on research council funding that pays for their restaff members’ salaries and all overheads, are often not interested or equipped to support scholars in pursuing Foundation funding. Many foundations, on the other hand, do not fund academic research as such.
In navigating this complex environment, the workshop participants benefitted from the input of Anna Votsi, a research strategist and proposal manager at EFI, who presented findings from initial scoping research in the foundations landscape. Although she highlighted underlying challenges, the key message was that there is a lot of potential to realize research endeavours and impact through partnerships with and funding by foundations.
“I think on the one hand, it needs a shift in thinking from applying for the usual research funding,” she said, adding that this necessarily involves work with direct impact on communities and people and requires time investments to understand foundations’ very detailed mission statement and priorities. At the same time, “there is an opportunity for partnerships with community organisations, and perhaps more meaningful partnerships with foundations if the work is very aligned to their priorities.”
Research as entrepreneurship: the do-it-yourself approach?
An inspiring story about how creativity, persistence, and a willingness to look beyond conventional ways of doing and funding research can generate hugely impactful outcomes was offered by Glaire Anderson, Senior Lecturer in Islamic Art and Founding Director and Principal Consultant of the Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture & Collections.
It all started when she approached Ubisoft, a video game publisher and creator of Assassin’s Creed, offering her expertise as a historian of Islamic art, in hopes of introducing wider publics to more accurate and culturally authentic information about the art and history of medieval Islamic civilisation. To her surprise, they answered and this led to a conversation and eventually to Anderson’s consultancy and collaboration on Assassin’s Creed Mirage (2023).
“We created a package that started with a consultancy,” she said. From there, with support from Edinburgh Innovations the partnership shifted from consultancy to collaboration. They managed to secure additional funding to support their collaboration. Funding came from ESRC’s Impact Acceleration grant and CRoSS Aspect Innovation Fellowship, combined with a grant from The Barakat Trust, a private UK foundation. Anderson added: “We put together a package of small grants and we did a lot with those grants.”
Assassin’s Creed Mirage has so far reached 10 million players. All of it started with an unsolicited inquiry with a major video games company. Today, the Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture & Collections (DLIVCC) is a purpose-driven startup that works across education, video games, XR, and cultural heritage sectors. The whole initiative has transformed itself into a business in order to become self-sustaining. Achieving its aims and mission of public education and positive social impact independent from grant funding “removes the need to always have a granting institution to validate what we are trying to do.”
Dr Andreas Hackl
Digital Economy and Society Cluster Co-Lead
