Thanks Professor Richard Bolden, for sharing this info! Looks good…
ESRC Future Leaders Scheme
This is a great scheme for eligible ECRs to pursue.
Future Research Leaders: call for proposals
· This is the 4th call for the scheme.
· It enables outstanding early-career social scientists, in partnership with their host organisation, to acquire the skills set to become the future world leaders in their field.
· The call is open to high-quality candidates from anywhere in the world who have a maximum of four years and four months’ postdoctoral experience and the support of an eligible UK research organisation.
Application process
· Max. three years with an overall limit of £350,000 (at 100 per cent full Economic Cost) although the actual amount you can apply for will vary depending on when you submitted your PhD
· ESRC aim to fund up to 40 awards
· Closing date is 16.00 on 20 January 2015.
· This year’s call particularly encourages research proposals in the following areas:
1) Big data (i.e. social media data, business data and new forms of data)
2) Secondary analysis of longitudinal datasets
3) Biosocial research
However, proposals are welcome in any topic which falls within ESRC’s remit
· ESRC expect to see only a limited number of proposals from a single research organisation; only bids from outstanding individuals, with the potential in REF terms to become the 4* researchers of the future, should be submitted through this call
· The proposal requires a letter by the Pro-Vice Chancellor of Research or equivalent to detail this support
Restrictions
· Applicants cannot be current or former PIs on ESRC or other Research Council grants, except ESRC Postdoc Fellowships and RCUK Fellows
· Unsuccessful applicants to previous rounds of this scheme are not eligible to reapply to this call unless they are proposing a new project with a significant change of focus, with fresh or significantly modified objectives and/or an entirely revised methodological/analytical approach to a research question
The call is open to applicants with or without a permanent academic post, subject to the above restrictions
ESRC emphasise that the call is intended to support researchers who are at any point in the eligibility period, but they’d like to particularly encourage applicants who are currently completing or who are immediately post PhD. To meet their objective of providing support for researchers across the eligibility period, a proportion of the budget will be ring-fenced to support proposals from those at the earlier stage in their career, dependent on the quality of the proposals received.
The application has to include a mentor and the time spent mentoring should be included for between one and three hours p/w. The costs of providing the mentor’s time should be covered by the institution, reflecting the fact that these grants will be funded by ESRC in partnership with the host organisation, and therefore mentoring time cannot be claimed as part of the proposal to ESRC.
Key dates:
• Call opening date – September 2014
• Closing date for proposals – 20 January 2015
• Final funding decisions – September 2015
• Grants to start – 1 January 2016
The call spec can be accessed here: http://www.esrc.ac.uk/_images/frl-call-specification-2014-15_tcm8-31958.pdf