External research funding

The School of Education and Social Work has a vibrant and thriving research culture working on projects across our Research Centres. Building on past success, securing research grants will safeguard the quality of our research well into the future.

The information on this page is designed to act as a workflow, illustrating the processes that need to be followed step-by-step to develop research bids and secure external funding for the different types of research and consultancy projects undertaken.

Follow the links and steps indicated to find the information - and process - most suitable for your own research project. It may be advisable for you to talk first to your mentor and/or senior colleagues who have knowledge of your research area to identify suitable funders known to them.

How to find funding

There is a range of sources of information on funding for research and related activities on the Research and Innovation Services (RIS) web pages. On behalf of the University, RIS subscribes to details of several research funding opportunities and services, including Research Professional, and the University identifies certain opportunities that it wishes to prioritise.

See also the external funding deadlines calendar which highlights upcoming funding deadlines for the major funders/most popular funding schemes.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) also offers funding opportunities. Launched in April 2018, it is a non-departmental public body that unites the seven disciplinary research councils, Research England - responsible for supporting research and knowledge exchange at higher education institutions in England - and the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK.

You may also find it helpful to sign up to the Research Funding Opportunities Teams Channel.

A fortnightly ESW Research Assistance session takes place with Hazel Crawford, ESW Assistant Research Manager and Clare Neil, Research Development Manager, for any Faculty who are thinking of applying for funding to discuss their plans and ask any questions. These sessions take place every other Tuesday 9.30-11am and you can secure a slot (usually 30 mins) by contacting Hazel Crawford. Check the Events calendar on the ESW internal staff webpages for the next scheduled session.

Applying for funding

Once you have identified a funding opportunity and/or have been approached to do some research, you need to send the ESW Research Development Manager (RDM) a proforma at least 6 weeks before the funder’s closing deadline (or 8-12 if involving multiple collaborators and/or international partners). Copy in the ESW Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange (DRaKE) and ESW Assistant Research Manager, Hazel Crawford to ensure there is sufficient notice to meet the School’s requirements for internal review and approval.

Worktribe is the new Research Management System currently being implemented across the University. It is designed to support the whole project life cycle from proposal development through to post award management, including approvals in a seamless way.

You must do Worktribe training before you can use it for planning and budgeting your proposal. Training is being made available as the system is rolled out. Visit the Worktribe webpages for more information on how to access training and the peer review, risk assessment, costings and approvals process.

The proforma system will be phased out once the new Worktribe Research Management System is fully implemented in autumn 2024. If you are using Worktribe, please ensure that you start the project and then email the link to your RDM to alert them that you have started your application. (6 week/8-12 week timelines still apply)

This is the first step in expressing an interest in applying for an externally funded research bid. You don’t need all the details, or even be 100% committed to going ahead with a grant application. It is simply the means by which the Research Development Office can support you with gathering important details should the application proceed, such as:

Eligibility checks
Budget
Workload planning
Required documents
Due diligence checks
Ensuring an application meets funder requirements

The internal peer review process

It is essential that the research engaged in by the School of Education and Social Work is of the highest quality and represents a good use of public money. Therefore all proposals in the school are involved in a rigorous and fair peer review process which enables the School to make well-informed decisions about what research bids to support, and how.

Equally important is that staff members with research in their contracts feel they receive equitable opportunities to engage in research and can learn with every new bid and study.

Peer review aims to be both supportive and developmental, providing encouragement and constructive criticism through well-justified comments which enable learning at every stage. Internal peer review can be conducted by a range of colleagues offering broad and diverse expertise in a variety of roles: research mentors; the departmental Research Lead; a research centre Director; other senior colleagues as appropriate to the focus or methodology of the proposal.

You must do Worktribe training before you can use it for planning and budgeting your proposal. Training is being made available as the system is rolled out. Visit the Worktribe web pages for more information on how to access training and the peer review, risk assessment, costings and approvals process.

If you are not yet using Worktribe, the completion of the proforma, sent to your Research Development Manager and copied in to the Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange (DRaKE) and ESW Assistant Research Manager, will lead to a discussion of the project proposal with you to agree the best person to conduct your peer review - considering the research area, methodology, and funding body.

Do I need ethics approval for my research?

Before starting, you should check whether your research requires ethics approval and consider ethics from the outset, including as part of the internal peer review process. For externally funded research proposals, applications for ethical approval will normally be made once external funding has been approved, rather than at the point of application - though you may wish to check the timelines set by the funder.

See the ESW web page on Ethics for more detailed information.

Planning impact activities

Supporting and developing a healthy impact culture is an important part of our School, reflecting the University strategy.

The School of Education and Social Work encourages its researchers to carefully consider developing the impact of their research; going through the process can help researchers realise the wider importance of their research.

Some of the key questions you might ask yourself when considering developing the impact of your research are:

Is my research worth investing in?
Who benefits from my research - and how?
What (social, economic, environmental) change might my research generate?

Of course, there may not be an obvious beneficial impact or beneficiaries. But your research may nevertheless be impactful in terms of what it seeks to prevent, ie. an unwanted or harmful change from occurring. Similarly, the impact of your research may not be felt immediately or even in the short term. This should not dissuade you. Impact can - and should - still be developed even when it is recognised that benefit will be felt only after - or over - a longer time period, after which it might transform an individual’s life or benefit several people.

Research funders expect you to demonstrate research impact. Research England requires us to provide evidence of this through Researchfish and the Research Excellence Framework (REF). Going through the exercise can help you to look at your research more creatively - and generate curiosity.

Visit the ESW web page on Knowledge Exchange and Impact for more detailed information and places to go for support.

Application submission and approval process

If you have any queries about the approvals process outside of Worktribe please contact your Research Development Manager.

Once all approvals are in place, the application is submitted - either by the PI directly, or by Research Development Office on behalf of the PI and the School.

Application outcome

Once you hear the outcome of your application (successful or not), please inform the Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange (DRaKE), the School's Research Development Manager, Clare Neil, and the School's Assistant Research Manager, Hazel Crawford. Irrespective of the outcome, it is useful for them if you can share any feedback you received from the funder/reviewers of your research bid.

Successful bid and award acceptance process

If successful, you will need to provide the Research Development Office (RDO) with your Award Letter, Contract or Collaboration agreement - or you will need to put the RDO in contact with the lead institution. The RDO will then circulate an 'award acceptance' email to which will be attached the internal award acceptance form (AAF) and a spreadsheet outlining the project budget. It will also highlight any significant clauses in the contract for you and the School to be aware of. You will need to complete a YES/NO section on whether you will have a student working on the project. If YES, they will need to complete a 'student undertaking' form.

You must read and sign the AAF, before passing it on to the Head of School for the School's official acceptance of the award. If the Head of School is unavailable/out of the office for any reason, the Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange will give School approval. Ideally, you should sign the AAF electronically, returning the completed and signed form to Clare Neil from your Sussex email account.

Once all the above detailed award acceptance steps have been completed, your award will be handed over to Research Finance Officer, Paul Grant. Please allow 10 working days for the grant to be set up on the finance system.

If contracts, terms and conditions, or collaboration agreements need to be generated or reviewed, the RDO will send you a 'contracts instruction form' which you will need to complete.

This process will be streamlined once Worktribe is implemented.

If your application is unsuccessful ...

Know that this outcome is disappointing but not uncommon.

Not getting funded does not necessarily mean that your research isn’t considered to be of high quality. Please use any feedback from the funder or DRaKEs to discuss the next steps with your research mentor. For example, the application could be suitable for an alternative funder, or could be re-framed and further developed for a future funding round.

External consultancy and engagement

Our academic staff frequently engage with consultancy and contracted research projects to address or resolve client needs by offering specialist advice, carrying out various forms of data analysis or advising on research theories and methodologies.

We ensure that the work is time-bound and task-based and that the University is represented by individuals, not individuals that engage in consultancy. We have engaged in various consultancy projects with a wide range of clients and welcome new research engagement. Some of our consultancy has allowed us to generate long term research collaborations.

The University’s Innovation and Business Partnerships team can support you to work with non-academic partners, to protect and commercialise your knowledge and expertise and to develop your knowledge-based enterprise activity. They also outline the differences between consultancy and research.

Sussex Social Change Hub is a collective of academic experts from the School of Education and Social Work dedicated to strengthening relationships with organisations, governments, schools and charities through consultancy, training and tailored services. You can contact socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk for advice on what is the appropriate route for your consultancy work.

Horizon Europe webinar presentation

Submission and Evaluation: EU Horizon 2020