THIS FUND IS NOW OPEN

Submission deadlines: 15th of every month

APPLY HERE

Purpose

One of the challenges digital Research Technical Professionals face (often early in their careers) is the lack of funding to attend external opportunities such as conferences, training courses, and other community and knowledge exchange events. The goal of this fund is to provide financial support for dRTPs who would not be able to take advantage of those opportunities otherwise. The examples of supported activities include but are not limited to:

  • Conference or event attendance;
  • Fees for training courses or certificates;
  • Visits to other institutions for knowledge exchange.

To maximise the effectiveness of this opportunity, the fund will be administered on a rolling basis, with the review process taking place towards the end of each month.

The total value of this fund is £150k to be administered throughout the duration of the CHARTED project, with the maximum award per individual being £5k. The eligibility criteria and the review process are described below.

The fund is designed to support specific professional development activities by reimbursing costs such as access to training courses or travel costs and registration fees for attending conferences or events that would support an individual’s professional development. Requests for funding to cover staff time are not eligible. Applicants should therefore gain approval from their home institution to cover the time spent on the activities for which they seek support.

Who can apply The fund is primarily for early career professionals and people transitioning into dRTP roles, regardless of their current role, technical or scientific background. The applicants need to clearly demonstrate how they will benefit from this activity and how they will engage with their local community afterwards to increase the impact of this award.
What we're looking for This fund is primarily for UK-based early career professionals and people transitioning into dRTP roles who need additional financial support to engage with the wider dRTP community or gain new skills. Applicants are expected to explore other sources of funding before applying for this opportunity, clearly demonstrate how this activity will help them at their career stage and how they will contribute to their local communities afterwards. Applicants are expected to include the following in their applications:
  • Description of the event or activity for which the support is being requested, including the scope of their participation.
  • Motivation for your attendance and involvement, including suitability and benefits for their current career stage.
  • Well-formed plans on how you will connect with your local community to champion or disseminate what they have gained from the proposed activity
  • Details of other funding sources explored.
  • Detailed breakdown for the expected costs and justification for the requested funds.
By default this award will be administered following the reimbursement model, applicants will therefore be expected to keep comprehensive records of all expenses. Final reimbursement requests should be within 10% of the requested costs. If this model does not work for you, please indicate that clearly in your application. You must apply and be successful in your application before incurring any costs in relation to the activity you are seeking support for.

The successful applicants commit to:
  • Booking travel with accordance to the University of Edinburgh Sustainable Travel policy - https://sustainability.ed.ac.uk/operations/travel/sustainable-travel-policy.
  • Being featured as growing dRTPs on the HUB, including reporting back after the funded activity.
  • Engaging with your local community and disseminating the outcomes on the dRTP skills HUB (e.g. writing blog posts, organising webinars, etc.)
  • Keeping receipts and other records of the relevant expenses.
Dissemination and reporting As part of CHARTED’s overall goal to make the dRTP landscape easier to navigate for all stakeholders, all funded projects will be expected to contribute to the CHARTED HUB through one or more of the following:
  • Providing a description of the project;
  • Contributing blog posts featuring the work being done (each project will be required to provide at least one post);
  • Sharing the final outputs - either directly on the HUB or linked (as appropriate);
  • Participating and contributing to occasional community events.

CHARTED is subject to the UKRI reporting requirements and, as a result, all projects funded from the CHARTED’s flexible fund are expected to report their progress regularly. All funded projects will be required to provide an end-of-project report and may be asked to demonstrate good financial management. Additionally, longer projects may be required to provide a mid-point report.

We are also hoping to organise a series of community calls to facilitate knowledge sharing between the funded projects.

The template for the reporting document will be made available SOON!
How to apply Applications are being managed through Good Grants and you will need to register on the platform in order to complete a form. (Note that although the website page logo is 'SSI Research Software Maintenance Fund', this is still the correct place to apply for CHARTED).

You will need to register on the platform and sign in to access and complete the online form to submit an application to Fund 4: Apply via Good Grants

Click here to download a sample application form.

Please note that you cannot use this sample form to make an application - all applications must be completed online within the Good Grants platform.
Review process Applications will be assessed using a light-touch review process to ensure timeliness of the awards. The review committee will consist of two external reviewers, and two representatives from the projects.

Applications will be ranked according to the benefits to the individuals and their local community. Please see the previous section for details on what should be included in the applications.

The number of applications funded in each round will depend on the quality of the applications and the amount of funds requested.

If you have any questions about the application or review process please get in touch with us at: charted@drtp-skills.ac.uk