Research Committee RIIF Seed Fund
Overarching purposes of departmental/centre/DRU RIIF Funds
1.
The School policy on RIIF Funds1 establish that departmental, centre and departmental
research unit Research Infrastructure and Investment (RIIF) funds will be used:
1.1. To support the indirect costs of research associated with the administration of
grants (including the employment of support staff where appropriate)
1.2. To develop new research projects and proposals (a seed fund), including buy-out
for those developing large and complex grant applications
1.3. To provide match funding for grant applications where required
1.4. To support unbudgeted research-related expenditure (including but not limited to
the development of research staff careers, such as the unfunded promotion of
soft-funded staff, career-break costs, and bridging funds)
1.5. For any other research-related investments or costs
Overarching purposes of the Research Committee RIIF Fund
2.
The School policy establishes that the Research Committee RIIF Fund will be used:
2.1. For any of the purposes of the departmental RIIF fund, where departmental RIIF
or other funding is otherwise not available (adjudged by the Research Division),
including to develop large and complex research projects and proposals.
2.2. At the discretion of the Chair of the Research Committee, taking executive action,
for any of the purposes of the Pro Director’s RIIF fund, where the Pro-Director’s
RIIF fund is not otherwise available.
2.3. For any other research-related investments or costs.
They also provide for the Research Committee to determine its own priorities and
distribution process.
3.
Research Committee has provided for three funding initiatives – a general fund and two
specific schemes:
3.1. The Research Committee RIIF Open Fund
3.2. The Research Committee RIIF Seed Fund (this paper)
3.3. The Research Committee RIIF Bridging Fund
1
Available at http://www.lse.ac.uk/intranet/LSEServices/policies/pdfs/school/resInfAndInvFun.pdf
4.
Research Committee had delegated to the Research Development Panel responsibility
for distributing and managing its RIIF Fund.
For each Fund, the Research
Development Panel will give priority to the following (in order):
4.1. The quality of the research supported by the proposal, based on value for money
(a judgement of the likelihood of the application leading either to high quality
research outputs of the sort that might be expected to contribute to a REF
submission or to peer-reviewed external funding, and the magnitude of those
potential benefits);
4.2. The quality of the proposal;
4.3. Match funding for external research funding;
4.4. Applications supporting research of a novel or transformative nature which may
be deemed too risky by traditional external funders;
4.5. Applications designed to support initiatives emanating from the annual reports of
each of the major constituency groups on Academic Board (I-V) on major funding
opportunities and/or intellectual developments;
4.6. Applications supporting the School’s strategic priorities.
5.
In determining its awards, the Research Development Panel will refer to the track
record of the individual or department in question with respect to the use of previous
awards.
6.
The RIIF fund will not be used to displace external funding, nor for applications covered
by STICERD grants (Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and
Related Disciplines) or other funding sources available within the School. Any
proposals which are deemed to support activity for which external funding (open calls)
is available will be rejected.
7.
The Research Development Panel will not make awards where the department or
centres concerned might be expected to support the initiative, whether from their RIIF
funds or other available funding, unless there are good grounds.
Purposes of the RIIF Seed Funding
8.
The principal purpose of the RIIF Seed Fund is to assist individuals and groups to
secure large scale funding bids.
9.
Pilot studies are eligible for support provided larger-scale funded follow-up research is
likely. Seminars, conferences and workshops will only be funded (or part-funded)
where a convincing case is made that they make an essential contribution to the
proposal.
10.
Bids may be submitted by LSE faculty working with faculty in LSE’s partner
institutions2, but these bids will not be funded unless the partner institution also agrees
to fund at the same level as the LSE
Applying for RIIF Seed Funding
2
Columbia University, New York; Sciences Po, Paris; Peking University, Beijing; National University of
Singapore; Cape Town University.
2
11.
The RIIF Seed Fund operates on the basis of an open call for proposals with
permanent members of faculty free to submit proposals in any field or interdisciplinary
initiative. The RIIF fund is not available to staff who are not members of the
permanent academic faculty.The Research Development Panel, supported by the
Research Division (particularly the Research Development Managers and the Grant
Application Managers) may initiate applications and will in all cases steward the awards
to support external grant applications.
12.
Applications should be made using the form below (Annex A).
13.
The Seed Fund operates with an indicative upper ceiling per award of £30,000. Larger
awards may be made only in deserving cases. There is no lower limit.
14.
Funding will be provided to successful applicants through a specific research account
set up by Research Division for which the applicant will be the designated grant holder.
All payments for expenses will be submitted to Research Division as per the procedure
for the administration of externally funded grants.
15.
At the end of the award recipients must provide a brief report on the use of funds. This
report must include details of external grant applications that have been submitted or
are in preparation and estimated dates for decisions by those bodies. The report must
be submitted within 2 months of completion of the award.
16.
Understanding the impact of the Seed Fund scheme is important to the School, and the
Research Division will work with grant-holders following the final report to ensure that
details of external funding bids are recorded and made available to Research
Committee and other School bodies as part of the ongoing work of assessing this
scheme.
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Annex A: RIIF Seed Fund application form
Section A: Applicant information
Name of lead applicant
Academic title
Name of lead
department/centre/institute
Details of co-applicants (if
applicable)
Name of Research Division
staff member with whom
proposal has been
discussed
Section B: RIIF Seed Fund project information
Project title
Amount applied for
Project start and end dates
Reason why department or
centre RIIF or other funds
cannot be used to support
this application
Section C: RIIF Seed Fund proposal details
Please ensure that your response to this section does not cover more than one or two
pages. Do not change the format of this form
The principal purpose of the RIIF Seed Fund is to assist individuals and groups to
secure large scale funding bids. Funding will be provided for seminars, conferences
and workshops only exceptionally, where these are demonstrably necessary.
1. Please describe your proposed research project, including information on project design
and research methods, objectives and the research context surrounding it.
2. Why do you require seed funding at this stage?
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3. Have you applied elsewhere for financial support in relation to this proposal? If yes,
please give brief details.
4. Are there any ethical implications arising from the proposed research? If you have
answered yes, please contact research-ethics@lse.ac.uk in the first instance for further
advice
Section D: Project budget
1. Please provide an outline of your proposed budget. If you require any assistance with the
preparation of a budget then please contact Daniel Fisher or your Grant Application
Manager in the first instance.
2. Please provide a brief justification for your budget.
Section E: Details of external grant applications supported by this project
Please ensure that your response this section does not cover more than one or two
pages. Do not change the format of this form.
1. Please describe the substantive project and its objectives, including information on
project design and research methods, objectives and the research context surrounding it.
2. Please identify the sponsors and/or funding schemes that you intend to apply to following
this grant. Please detail the amount of funding sought.
3. Please specify the relevant deadlines for the schemes identified in 2 above.
4. In what ways could the research identified in Section E (2) above be considered original
and innovative?
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5. Are there any ethical implications arising from the proposed research? If you have
answered yes then please contact research-ethics@lse.ac.uk in the first instance for
further advice.
Section F: Statement of support
1. Please provide a brief statement of support from your Head of Department/ Centre/
Institute. If necessary, please attach any letters of support to this application form.
2. Please confirm that there will be adequate office space and resources to support this
project if successful.
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